Spotted hyenas live in complex matriarchal clans with sophisticated social relationships. Disruption of clan structure through human persecution creates lasting welfare harms for individual animals.
Spotted hyena welfare is deeply embedded in clan social structure, with individual wellbeing dependent on social rank, alliance formation, and the complex relationships maintained throughout a lifetime in a stable group. Targeted killing of individuals, whether livestock problem animals or dominant females, disrupts social networks that take years to establish and affects the welfare of surviving clan members who lose important social partners and knowledge holders. Cubs orphaned through maternal mortality face dramatically reduced survival and welfare prospects. Conservation approaches that use non-lethal conflict mitigation rather than lethal control preserve clan integrity while reducing livestock losses. Long-term coexistence programs that protect both livestock and hyena welfare represent the most sustainable resolution to human-hyena conflict.