While sitting watching the Mashaba Female Leopard feeding on a young male impala that was hoisted in a tree, we noticed a hyena sitting at the base of the tree waiting for her to make just one wrong move and drop her meal. This is fairly common to see and sometimes the hyena gets lucky and the whole kill drops, but on this occasion, this hyena’s luck saw it only get the lower limb of the impala, as it dropped when the leopard moved the kill just ever so slightly to feed from a better angle.
The Mashaba Female and the remains of a young male impala.
Londolozi's oldest territorial female. Distinguished by her nose spot, this Sunsetbend matriarch's legacy lives on through her daughters.
Taking the opportunity, the hyena quickly grabbed the leg and before we knew it, in just a few bites the leg had disappeared. A few days later a similar situation happened with the Ximungwe Female, but this time I decided to time how quickly the hyena could gobble down the leg, it was an impressive 53 seconds! So this got me thinking, if a hyena can bite through the bone that easily and quickly, how strong could their bite possibly be?
A typical scene here at Londolozi of a leopard with its kill safely hoisted and a patient hyena bellow waiting for some scraps.
Having been viewed by vehicles from an early age, this leopard is supremely relaxed around Land Rovers.
The bite force of any animal is measured by the amount of pressure exerted per square inch of surface area, so for example the average human’s bite force is 162 pounds per square inch (PSI), essentially, that is the weight of 162 pounds being applied only to a square inch and I don’t know about you, but I most certainly cannot bite straight through bone. But as I saw with the hyenas on both of the above-mentioned occasions as well many other occasions, hyenas are more than capable of doing that. So that would mean that their bite force is significantly stronger than ours, in fact it is almost 7 times stronger, with a PSI of 1100.
I guess the jaw strength is one side of it, although the shape of the hyena’s teeth plays a huge role too. I am pretty sure that even if we were able to produce the bite force of a hyena, our teeth would not be able to handle it and would likely shatter. Hyena’s teeth are dual-purpose and are pyramidal in shape, with an unusually broad base and low profile. The sharp pointed edges allow them to slice through the flesh of a carcass while still having the strength and hardness to crush through bone.
To accommodate large jaw muscles, their attachment is on ridges right on the top of the skull, generating extra crushing power. Which in turn aids to them being such successful scavengers, making use of all the extra parts of a carcass that other animals won’t eat.
Hyenas are not the only animals that we see her at Londolozi that have a powerful bite, Lions have a slightly less powerful bite than the hyena at 650 PSI and the Hippopotamus has an impressive bite of 1800 PSI, although they don’t use this to crush bone it is more for fighting and defence than for anything else. But it is the crocodile that has the strongest bite of them all, a whopping 3700 PSI.
The powerful jaws of the Nile Crocodile.
Two interesting and well-written blogs, back to back. Thanks, Tayla.
Thank you Dave.
We have always marveled at the efficiency of a hyena as it dospatches a carcass so easily. Would not have gueseed that about the hippopotamus.
Very interesting! Hippos are princes of bite then and crocodile are kings! Impressive
Both you blogs have vital information on the subjects spoken about, thanks Tayla. I certainly would not like to be on the receiving end of any of these powerful jaws and teeth. Every animal you mentioned here is a beautiful animal in it’s own right, doing exactly what it was intended to do. Thinking of those bites of all them makes a person respect them even more.
I’ve heard the jaguar has one of the most powerful bites – how does it compare?
I knew about the crocodiles bite but not the hyenas , thanks for the information Tayla.
Hyenas are magnificent! Their eyes are so soulful looking! But don’t let that fool you! Love these creatures! Thanks for the info!
Such a fascinating article and well written as some of these details would be difficult to articulate clearly. Thank you!
After seeing hyenas on our safari, I have a new fondness of them! They are truly amazing and get a bad rap! And how great is that first photo?! I think subconsciously we chose our newest puppy addition because he has dark eyes and snout like the hyena 🙂
Wow what an amazing blog Tayla ! Wasn’t aware of the hippos psi. Interesting that even though the croc beats them all, one can still hold their mouth shut with a human hand..now why is that ?
An interesting article, thanks.
Amazing, the power of those jaws, especially of hippos and crocodiles.
Thank you Christa.
A really interesting blog Tayla. However, I would not wish to personally test the power of a hyaena’s jaw. They really are amazing animals. Thanks for sharing with us. Happy New Year.
Hi Leonie, yes I agree with you, I would not like to test it out for myself. Happy New Year to you too.
Wow, a second interesting blog Tayla, but this one addresses the question of how do hyenas chew through those
bones so quickly. The tooth photo was a good visual aid. The lions’ psi was impressive but even more so, the hippo. Looking forward to your next blog!
Thank you Denise.
Hi Tayla, I remember from long ago hearing of the grip strength of a Crowned eagle so just checked it via the internet which indicates 530 psi – not bad for something with hollow bones and weighing between 10 & 20 kg. I have also heard (not verified) that when its crushing power is focused through the end of a sharp talon it translates to a massive 4000 psi, but don’t quote me on that statistic! Nice blog. Thanks
Hi Ian, Wow! That is some interesting information, thank you so much for sharing.
Hello Tayla, Very interesting to read you blog about different bites. The crocodile is really increadibly strong!
Here comes two questions;
Do you know how strong a baboon bite is?
And is the leopards bite stronger than a lion?
Thank you for sharing!
I, most definitely, do not want to experience the bite force of any of these wild animals!
Tayla, Thanks for the educational post about the Hyena! Having seen a group of them in action, we are not surprised to hear what quick work they can do with a stolen kill! It’s had to believe that the Crocodile has so much more power!