GPS collars reveal secrets of the power struggle between lions and hyenas in the wild

Hidden deep in the bush, ranging over huge territories at speeds humans can’t match and through terrain not even the most rugged vehicle can handle, hyenas and lions are hard to study. Now, new research using GPS collars to map the movements of individual animals has revealed crucial information about the relationship between these competing carnivore species. We’ve long assumed that hyenas simply shadow lions for scraps, but these findings show that when they encounter each other, it’s the lions, especially males, that approach hyenas, and the hyenas that give way.

“During my master’s, I lived in the bush while studying brown hyenas,” said Dr. Nancy Barker of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, lead author of the article in Frontiers in Ethology. “I repeatedly observed lions actively tracking hyenas. When I shared my observations with other leading researchers, I was often told that I had the relationship backward: that hyenas are the ones tracking lions, primarily for scavenging opportunities, and that what I had seen was simply a series of chance encounters. I felt there was more to the story.

“Our GPS collar data show that African lions and spotted hyenas leave a clear, measurable signature in the way they move around one another. Spotted hyenas consistently move away from lions, while male lions tend to move toward hyenas. Because the hyenas’ retreat signal was consistent across three independent statistical tests, we can conclude that it reflects a repeatable behavioral pattern.”

Mapping movements

The balance of power we see in the wild is the result of thousands of individual decisions made by animals about risk and reward. To track those decisions as closely as possible, Barker went to Etosha National Park in Namibia and Chobe National Park and the adjoining Linyanti Conservancy in Botswana.

“I spent several months simply learning the lions and hyenas, identifying the various lion and spotted hyena groups, understanding pride and clan dynamics and the areas they frequented,” said Barker. “Over time, I determined which individuals ranked higher in the social hierarchy. They were least likely to disperse from their pride or clan’s territory, so I chose them for GPS collaring. We included collars from 17 lions and 14 spotted hyenas over four years for this study.

“Throughout, I maintained camera traps by day and conducted behavioral observations by night. People often imagine wildlife research as one exciting encounter after another, but the reality is very different.”

Barker used GPS fixes taken every five minutes during the animals’ peak activity hours to map each animal’s movements. From these data, Barker identified 23 pairs of simultaneously tracked animals, including 10 lion-hyena pairs. By classifying the direction of each individual’s movements in each dyad, she and her colleagues were able to identify and analyze thousands of interactions. Her observations provided context—for example, by confirming that two closely associated lions were a mating pair.

“For every moment when both a lion and a hyena had a GPS fix at the same time, we asked a simple question: Was each animal moving toward the other, away from it or off to the side?” said Barker. “When repeated across thousands of simultaneous locations and many pairs of animals, a clear pattern emerges: Hyenas are mostly moving away, whereas lions, especially the males, are mostly moving toward them.”

Battle royale

Interestingly, the data also suggest that while male lions react to hyenas’ presence by approaching them, females are more ambivalent. During her observations, Barker noticed that male lions would actively track hyenas, while females reacted differently depending on which other pride members were present. However, Barker cautions that more data are needed to strengthen this finding.

“Tracking this many large carnivores simultaneously is extraordinarily difficult, and we had a relatively small number of collared individuals,” explained Barker. “We also included only moments when both animals had a simultaneous GPS fix. This is the most rigorous approach, but it inevitably reduces the amount of data available for analysis. As a result, some of our finer-scale findings should be viewed as trends rather than firm conclusions.

“If I had unlimited resources, I would love to extend this approach to other members of the carnivore guild, to understand how the entire community negotiates space and risk. Ultimately, I want to connect these movement patterns to what matters most for the animals: their survival and reproduction. The dream is to move from ‘here is the behavior’ to ‘here is how this behavior shapes which animals thrive.'”

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Gaby Clark

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Robert Egan

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