Competitive interactions between spotted hyenas and lions in Etosha

Trinkel and Kastberger quantified the contest over carcasses between lions and spotted hyenas in Namibia's Etosha National Park, where prey is comparatively scarce. They recorded how the outcome of confrontations depended on the ratio of competitor numbers and the presence of male lions, with hyenas able to displace lionesses when sufficiently numerous but rarely when adult males were present. The study showed that kleptoparasitism flows in both directions and that local prey availability and group sizes govern the balance of dominance. It is a key empirical reference for the dynamic, density-dependent nature of lion-hyena competition and for understanding how interference over kills structures these two dominant African predators' coexistence.