#0331 · 🦊 mammals
Brown Hyaena
🇳🇱 Bruine Hyena ·Parahyaena brunnea
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The brown hyena ( Hyaena brunnea , formerly Parahyaena brunnea ), also called strandwolf , is a species of hyena found in Namibia, Botswana, western and southern Zimbabwe, southern Mozambique and South Africa. It is currently the rarest species of hyena. The largest remaining brown hyena population is located in the southern Kalahari Desert and coastal areas in Southwest Africa.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 5,183 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Carl Peter Thunberg in 1820 (206 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Brown Hyaena
- Nederlands
- Bruine Hyena
- scientific name
- Parahyaena brunnea
- class
- Mammalia
- order
- Carnivora
- family
- Hyaenidae
- IUCN Red List
- NT · near threatened
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 5,183
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1820 by Carl Peter Thunberg
IUCN in Dutch: gevoelig. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Hyaenidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 500648, Wikidata Q28157482, GBIF 2433500, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.