Brown and striped hyenas spend more time searching for widely scattered food, and are better able to exploit harsh environments than the spotted species. But they are less equipped to deal with larger prey. Where their ranges overlap with the spotted hyena, brown and striped species' populations are lower, due to competition for food. Breeding occurs at any time of the year. Both brown and striped species produce 2 to 4 blind,helpless cubs after a gestation period of 90-92 days.
Cubs have similar coloration as adults.
Female striped hyenas have six teats, brown hyena have four. Adults and sub-adults carry food back to the dens for the infants, and brown hyenas are known to nurse unrelated infants. However, spotted hyena do not carry food back to infant dens,nursing young outside their dens. Striped hyena are now extremely rare due to hunting and habitat destruction. Populations in North Africa and Arabia are in danger of extinction.