Reproductive ecology of free-ranging striped hyena Hyaena hyaena in central Israel

Abstract

The striped hyena is one of the most secretive and enigmatic mammal species. Despite some success in describing their distribution and analyzing population trends, further understanding of the factors affecting reproductive success is needed. Therefore, we present the first analysis of the reproductive success of this species in the wild. We measured the reproductive success of female striped hyenas in at least one litter over 15 breeding seasons. We inspected 33 dens with 67 breeding events during this time and recorded 151 young hyenas. The dens were inhabited for an average of 2 years, with litter sizes ranging from 1 to 4 per reproductive female and most young born between January and June. We also found that litter size was positively associated with lowland areas and shrubs near the den. Despite methodological limitations that we could not overcome given the enigmatic nature of this species, our discovery is crucial because we have shown that reproductive success depends on the habitat in which dens are located, thus ensuring consistent reproductive success over the long-term cycle.