Hidden deep in the bush, ranging over huge territories at speeds humans can’t match and through terrain not even the most rugged vehicle can handle, hyenas and lions are hard to study. Now, new research using GPS collars to map the movements of individual animals has revealed crucial information about the relationship between these competing carnivore species. We’ve long assumed that hyenas simply shadow lions for scraps, but these findings show that when they encounter each other, it’s the lions, especially males, that approach hyenas, and the hyenas that give way.
