They resemble each other closely, though one, the striped, lives in the north, and the brown lives in the south of Africa. They eat mostly the fruits and vegetables in the dry season, mostly melons. Though they live in clans, they do not hunt in groups. They cache food, like foxes. They also carry extra food back to the den to feed the pups.
Territory is marked off by using a sticky yellow excretion from the anal glands, known as pasting.
There is no set mating season. Females mate with nomadic males, rarely with clan males. Gestation lasts for 90-95 days. They give birth to 1-4 cubs in a communal den. Communal sucking occurs, where the cubs can suckle from any lactating female, unlike any other species of hyena.