Spotted hyenas are highly social animals with complex matriarchal clan structures, and individual welfare depends on social status, clan stability, and habitat quality.
Individual hyenas at the bottom of strict social hierarchies experience chronic stress from repeated aggression and limited access to resources. Clan disruption from human killing changes social dynamics and may increase intra-clan conflict. Hyenas in snares experience entrapment stress and injury. Negative cultural perceptions lead to disproportionate persecution relative to their actual threat to humans. Better understanding of hyena social complexity should inform welfare-conscious conservation approaches.