Striped Hyena is distributed quite widely in North and East Africa, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent. In India, it is distributed in all the states except NE India and southern India. It inhabits dry areas such as deciduous forests, grasslands, scrub forests, rocky grasslands etc. It is usually a solitary that is primarily nocturnal. It mainly depends on scavenging for food but can often take to livestock. It is a solitary species that forms its own burrow/den.

Conservation Status:

This species is listed as Near Threatened in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (https://www.iucnredlist.org/).


According to IUCN Red List assessment, population of this species is decreasing all over its range. Global estimate of its population is between 5000 and 10,000 mature individuals. Threat to its survival mainly come from habitat fragmentation and loss. Commercial and residential activities, expansion of agriculture, mining, loss of prey, retaliatory killing and occasional trapping has caused serious damage to its population overall.