Tooth and claw: Spotted hyena
Adam Hart resurrects the spotted hyena’s reputation, from scavenger to ferocious hunter. If you know them as villains of the Lion King, prepare to have your stereotypes busted!
Cursed as a worthless scavenger and cast as villainous cowardly sidekicks in Disney’s The Lion King, the spotted hyena is one of the world’s most misunderstood of all predators. It may scavenge at night on a giant rubbish tip on the outskirts of Mekelle in Ethiopia, but it earns it’s top predator status when it takes down its prey in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve. Adam Hart and guests polish up the spotted hyena’s tarnished reputation.
Professor Kay Holekamp, a behavioural ecologist at Michigan State University, and Chinmay Sonawane, a biologist at Stanford University in California
Picture: Spotted Hyena puppies and adult male with each other in Masat Mara, Credit: Manoj Shah/Getty Images
Producer: Beth Eastwood
Presenter: Professor Adam Hart
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- Mon 21 Feb 202220:32GMTBBC World Service Online, Americas and the Caribbean, UK DAB/Freeview & Europe and the Middle East only
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