Spotted hyenas face snare injuries, persecution as livestock predators, and trophy hunting across their range, with welfare implications for individual animals and the complex social structure of hyena clans.
Hyenas caught in snares experience severe pain from wire cutting into limbs, with injuries often resulting in limb loss or systemic infection. Removal of adult clan members disrupts social hierarchy, with surviving clan members showing prolonged behavioural abnormalities. Poisoned hyenas experience convulsions, organ failure, and prolonged death. Trophy-hunted individuals are often targeted at kill sites with bait, meaning death occurs in a context of extreme food-related motivation — combining anticipatory welfare costs with the killing itself.