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Hyenas do not simply trail lions for scavenging opportunities. A 2026 study of four years of GPS data from Namibia and Botswana found that spotted hyenas consistently moved away from nearby lions. The lion response was less clear: male lions tended to move toward hyenas, but the sample was too small to establish that as a general rule for lions.
What the GPS study found
The study tracked 17 lions and 14 spotted hyenas in Etosha National Park, Namibia, and the Chobe–Linyanti system in Botswana. Researchers compared concurrent movements in 10 lion–hyena pairs, or dyads, using real simultaneous GPS fixes rather than model-imputed positions. The dataset covered four years, but not every animal had complete records for every day or throughout the full period. The dyadic comparisons relied on the smaller set of fixes available at the same times.
At concurrent time steps, the researchers classified an animal’s direction relative to its paired animal as toward, away, or orthogonal. The publisher describes five-minute GPS fixes during peak activity periods and thousands of analyzed interactions. The study’s central finding was an asymmetric pattern: hyenas showed a consistent movement bias away from lions, while the analysis did not support a uniform population-level bias for lions to approach hyenas. Read the 2026 study in Frontiers in Ethology.
Do hyenas follow lions?
Not as a general rule established by this study. The common image of hyenas shadowing lions to find scavenging opportunities does not describe the movement pattern observed in these paired encounters: hyenas consistently moved away from lions. That does not mean hyenas never follow lions, or that scavenging does not occur. The study measured relative movement in sampled encounters, not every kind of interaction between the species.
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The retreat finding was supported by all three inferential approaches used in the paper, across distances up to the cumulative 10-kilometer threshold examined. This makes it a repeatable result within the study’s data, not a universal claim about every hyena, encounter, or landscape.
Do lions follow hyenas?
The evidence suggests a possible approach pattern among the sampled male lions, but it does not establish that lions generally follow hyenas. All three male-lion dyads showed directional movement toward hyenas; however, those dyads involved only two unique collared male lions. The study’s three population-level inferential approaches did not support uniform lion approach.
Female lions in the sample showed more variable responses, and the model did not establish a significant sex effect. Frontiers’ report describes female responses as more ambivalent and says they could depend on other pride members. The male pattern is therefore suggestive, not proof of a general difference between male and female lions. Frontiers’ report and interview with lead author Nancy Barker also stresses that more male-lion observations are needed.
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How to interpret the findings
Movement is not the whole relationship
Lions and spotted hyenas overlap in diet, habitat, activity periods, and ecological role, and they compete. Earlier research discussed in the paper describes lions displacing hyenas at carcasses, lion-caused hyena mortality, and spatial or temporal separation. Those broader interactions help explain why approach and avoidance matter; the 2026 study’s specific contribution is measuring the direction of movement in concurrent paired fixes.
Immediate retreat does not establish long-term effects
The study did not show that an animal’s immediate movement response determines its survival or reproduction. Whether repeated avoidance affects long-term space use or population dynamics remains an open question, according to the authors.
Within-species spacing was different in the observed pairs
Some Etosha lion pairs showed close-range coordination associated with mating or pride relationships. Among the four sampled hyena–hyena dyads, no simultaneous five-minute GPS fixes occurred below one kilometer. That result describes those collared pairs; it is not a species-wide minimum-distance rule. Collar-data limitations and the composition of the sampled pairs also meant the Chobe–Linyanti data could not resolve the same close-range within-pride coordination patterns as Etosha.
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What the sample can—and cannot—show
The interspecific analysis included only three unique hyenas and eight unique lions, with some individuals appearing in more than one dyad. Just two unique collared male lions contributed the three male-lion dyads. These limits matter most when interpreting the male approach pattern and any proposed sex difference. The hyena retreat signal was consistent across the study’s statistical approaches, but the sample still represents tracked animals in two southern African ecosystems, not every lion–hyena population.
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A related 2023 study examined space use, activity, and potential interactions between lions and hyenas over four years in two ecosystems. It provides context for the broader research program, but it is not the source of the 2026 dyadic approach-and-retreat result. Read the 2023 PLOS ONE study, “Coursing hyenas and stalking lions”.
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