Ever Wondered Why Hyenas Eat Their Prey Alive? This Is The Reason Why

• Hyenas are brutal scavengers who eat up everything in a prey, leaving only the bones. Unlike other predators, hyenas eat up their prey while it is still alive.

Hyenas eating up this young deer while it is yet alive

• Lions and other big cats for instance, typically strangle their prey by going for the throat, crushing or severing its windpipe, or breaking the neck of the prey. This leaves the prey physically exhausted, reducing the amount of energy that should be expended and also the risk of being injured by struggling prey.

• However, this is not how hyenas deal with prey, they don’t have that much patience to see their prey physically exhausted first before scavenging. Hyenas will typically tear open it’s abdomen and instantly begin to pull out the intestine of the prey. Every vital organ, from the muscles to the legs are eaten up, and due to the loss of these vital organs and blood, the prey dies eventually.
• The series of images below show how a group of hyenas starts eating up a pregnant zebra from behind, while it is still alive

NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO CLINGE TIGHTLY TO PREY.

• Unlike the big cats, the jaws of hyenas are not strong enough to pin down a prey until it is totally subdued, but it is strong enough to tear vital organs apart. So once they approach prey, they grab the animal’s back legs, privates and belly.

This hyena bites off the scrotum of the cape buffa

• And this hyena bites off the behind of the lioness… Really painful right?
• Afterwards they begin shaking it until they tear it apart. At this point, the prey is already too weak to resist, then they eventually break the prey’s neck.