Spotted hyenas are highly intelligent, socially complex carnivores often misunderstood as scavengers. Their welfare is threatened by habitat loss, snaring, and persecution by livestock farmers, despite playing an irreplaceable ecological role.
Spotted hyena welfare is poorly served by their reputation. Mischaracterised as lowly scavengers and associated with death and cowardice across many cultures, hyenas attract little conservation sympathy despite their extraordinary ecological role as nutrient cyclers and disease controllers. Snares set for other species kill and maim hyenas as bycatch across their range. Poisoning campaigns targeting livestock predators are often indiscriminate, with hyenas suffering agonising deaths from strychnine and other substances. As cognitively sophisticated social animals, hyenas in captivity — particularly those held singly — suffer significantly. Conservation welfare efforts focus on coexistence tools for pastoralists, snare removal programmes, and education initiatives that rehabilitate the hyena's reputation among local communities as a prerequisite for tolerance.