Hyenas

Hyenas (family Hyaenidae) are a group of four species of mostly carnivorous mammal, which are related to cats despite their close resemblance to dogs. All species occur in Africa, with the striped hyena also found in parts of Asia. The hyenas have two surviving groups – one, containing three species, are larger animals with powerful jaws for eating bones, while the other, containing only the aardwolf, feeds on insects. Hyenas have among the worst reputations of any mammal, being seen as dirty, scavenging and unintelligent. In fact, they are among the smartest of the carnivores and the spotted hyena hunts far more than it scavenges.

## Appearances in Dorling Kindersley Vision media

The hyenas are one of the few mammalian families in which every living species has been depicted in a Dorling Kindersley Vision episode. In all, thirteen episodes throughout Dorling Kindersley Vision contain a hyena.

### Eyewitness

Only three episodes in Eyewitness contain a species of hyena. These include a single episode in season one and two in the third season.

* **SEASON ONE**: Dog
* **SEASON THREE**: Survival, Monster

Monster is the only episode in which the striped hyena appears, but it has an important role in the episode as it serves as the last of the heroes. It chases the preceding hero, a bearded dragon, through a hole in a wall. It is later apparently shot by a hunter, but survives and can be seen at the end of the episode in the Eyewitness Museum. Monster is the episode that includes most information on hyenas, with the other two episodes having incidental appearances. Monster is also one of only two episodes among Dorling Kindersley Vision shows to include more than one species of hyena – while the striped is filmed in the studio, the spotted hyena appears through stock footage.

### Amazing Animals

A total of eight episodes of Amazing Animals contains a species of hyena. Season two has four episodes and season one has three episodes. No hyenas appear in season three, but there is a single appearance in season four.

* **SEASON ONE**: Nighttime Animals, Animal Appetites, Animal Weapons
* **SEASON TWO**: Scary Animals, Animal Colors, Animal Mothers, Animal Families
* **SEASON FOUR**: Underground Animals

Both the aardwolf and the brown hyena appear only in Amazing Animals. Scary Animals is the second Dorling Kindersley Vision episode, besides Eyewitness Monster, to contain two species of hyena – the brown and the spotted. The aardwolf only appears in season one, while the brown hyena only appears in seasons two and three; the spotted hyena appears across all three seasons.

### Creatures Fantastic

Two of the recovered episodes of Creatures Fantastic contain spotted hyenas. The Apocalypse features them in a stereotyped role, with stock footage of feeding hyenas used to represent the evil army that follows Satan from the story of the book of Revelation.

Stock footage of hyenas also appears in The Underworld, representing the belief in some East African tribes that hyenas stored the souls of the corpses they fed upon.

## Total species

* Aardwolf, *Proteles cristata*
* Striped hyena, *Hyaena hyaena*
* Brown hyena, *Parahyaena brunnea*
* Spotted hyena, *Crocuta crocuta*