5 Things You Should know about cave hyena

Cave hyenas were probably like spotted hyenas. With an anger management problem.

We were trying to come up with a better hook, but really, you can't improve the bassarsedness of a cave hyena. 

FACT 1.
If you have ever heard of the Ice Age Spotted Hyena, this is who they are talking about. They lived all the way south of those big rocks that stick out of the coast of Spain to the not very cuddly areas of Siberia.

FACT 2.
The Cave Hyena was much larger than it's African spotted cousin. It's paws were shorter and thicker while it's legs, (humerus and femur), were longer.  Just like their African cousins, the females were larger than the males. A little thing known in certain circles as sexual dimorphism.

Sweet hyena marker tutorial

Cave Hyena walking about looking for sweet meats.

Cave Hyena displaying her well adjusted attack posture.

FACT 3. 
Cave Hyenas were not picky eaters. Bone stashes show ice age horses, bison, woolly rhinos, deer, pigs, and even other predators such as bears and wolves. (Although it is fairly rare for predators to prey on each other deliberately. The odds that they were scavenged are reasonably high.) 

FACT 4.
Cave Hyenas were not shy about stealing dinner from our ancestors. Neanderthals and cave hyenas would have fought over the same sweet cave real estate and dined on the same tasty meats roaming about the place. Never pass up a free lunch is the Cave Hyena motto.

FACT 5. 
We didn't miss our chance to see them by much. While the population of the Cave Hyena was certainly in decline for a while, they hung on and put up a good fight. Cave Hyenas held out pretty well in western Europe until only about 10,000 years ago. 

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