The Striped Hyena: An ode to the fading stripes of Lebanon
In Lebanon, the Striped Hyena’s resilience is now being tested like never before. From Vietnam to Lebanon, the story remains the same: wars destroy lives, landscapes, and legacies
The words "stripes" and "carnivore" immediately evoke the image of a tiger. And if our imagination is pressed further, the pictures of gold-coated leopards or buff-coated fishing cats might pop up in our heads, though these carnivores are not "striped" but "spotted".
The only other large carnivore with black stripes and a yellow base is the Striped Hyena. With a stocky build, long legs, a pointy face, and even pointier ears, striped hyenas offer a completely different sight than what we generally watch for or fear about hyenas, thanks to common beliefs and popular TV shows.
On a green meadow, a black-and-yellow, fluffy Striped Hyena prowling with its dorsal guard hairs raised can be quite a sight to behold, contending the appeal of any carnivore encounter. No wonder it is the national animal of Lebanon.
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Yet, my reflections on hyenas are not sparked by their beauty alone. Instead, it was L'Orient Today and The Guardian detailing the deadly ramifications of the ongoing conflict in the Levant that piqued my interest.
Photos of burnt farmlands in South Lebanon, destroyed suburbs in Mount Lebanon, and charred pastures in the Bekaa Valley raise a grim question. The delicate Mediterranean ecosystem, interspersed with agro-farms, olive groves and orchards, represents an ancient synergy now in existential crisis. The habitat is also home to Striped Hyenas. Where are these animals seeking refuge amid the incessant Israeli airstrikes?
The Striped Hyena has a remarkable history of resilience. It still hangs in the places where other large predators have been extinct for centuries. From arid India in the east to the Mediterranean Coast in the west, the Caucasus in the north, the Arabian Peninsula and the Sahel in the south, Striped Hyenas occupy a vast range. Tigers and leopards have all been wiped out from many of these places.
Despite the turmoil, the Striped Hyena has a remarkable history of resilience. It still hangs in the places where other large predators have been extinct for centuries. From arid India in the east to the Mediterranean Coast in the west, the Caucasus in the north, and the Arabian Peninsula and the Sahel in the south, Striped Hyenas occupy a vast range. Tigers and leopards have all been wiped out from many of these places.
Combined with a nocturnal lifestyle and a palate for scavenging, hyenas keep themselves out of harm's way and are somewhat more adept at coexisting with humans. So much so that, according to a 2013 study published in the journal Mammalia, Striped Hyenas were widespread in Lebanon, ''living in both urban and rural areas, and across protected and non-protected areas alike''.
However, the Striped Hyenas' luck seems to be running out in the Age of Man. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Assessment classifies the species as "vulnerable" in the Middle East, citing habitat loss, retaliatory killings, and declining number of available carcasses to feed on as primary threats.
This 2015 assessment says that about 5,000 to 10,000 mature Striped Hyenas are out in the wild. The tiny population is scattered. Unlike its spotted cousins, Striped Hyenas are solitary. They require large open areas to roam, making them difficult to track. Open greenery is a rare commodity for wildlife in the present world. Thus, Striped Hyenas also suffer from very low-density populations.
Several population pockets are now disjointed; localised extinctions have already occurred in many places. For example, Bangladesh lost its hyenas in the British Era when the species used to roam in the Barind Tract of Rangpur and Rajshahi Divisions.
According to educated guesses made in the 1998 Hyena Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan of the IUCN Hyena Specialist Group, Lebanon has around 50 Striped Hyenas. In neighbouring Israel, there are about 100–170 Striped Hyenas, estimated in a paper in the journal Scientific Reports published last year. This means hyenas in the Levant are trapped between a rock and a hard place.
History offers valuable insights into the collateral damage of warfare on wildlife. The case of Vietnam, Cambodia and Lao PDR can be a tragic example. Between 1945 and 1990, Vietnam was ridden with the First and the Second Indochina War. Later, border conflicts spilled into Cambodia and Lao PDR. Warring for generations has dearly cost the region's incredible biodiversity. The war exacerbated the need for rapid agricultural expansion at the expense of clearing forested areas. The areas cleared were more massive than would normally be needed because existing farms had been lost due to air raids and bombing.
To limit the Vietcong's fighting abilities, the world experienced appalling acts, such as aerial spraying of crops and bombing of dikes and irrigation channels. It is estimated that more than 91 million litres of Agent Orange, a type of chemical herbicide and defoliant, was sprayed by the US military, destroying about 3.1 million hectares of megadiverse tropical forests and mangroves. More than 4 million people have suffered and died from various types of cancers and congenital disabilities due to this.
This prolonged armed conflict catalysed large migration of refugees, leading to further clearing of wild habitats for farming and housing. Many automatic guns in the hands of local villagers resulted in rampant hunting. As a result, although Indochina still has some formidable virgin forests, there is not a single tiger or rhinoceros; all other large mammals are on their last legs. Empty Forest Syndrome — years of bloodshed in Indochina has presented the world with a new term.
Hyenas in Lebanon are facing the same plight. They are not animals in deep forests, so they have nowhere to hide. The UN 2024 report 'The multidimensional impact of Israeli attacks on Lebanon' highlights the multi-faceted hazard of Israel's use of incendiary white phosphorous bombs. Farmlands and open forests in South Lebanon have been reduced to charred remnants. The fertile Bekaa Valley, a key habitat for many species, is scarred by bomb craters and burned-out fields. Suburban areas in Mount Lebanon, where Striped Hyenas have been known to forage, are now rife with destruction. How many of the 50 are even alive now?
These changes are catastrophic for an animal like the Striped Hyena, which relies on a mix of scavenging and foraging across a mosaic of natural and human-modified habitats. Burnt pasture means almost nothing to scavenge on. Charred forests offer little cover or natural prey items, pushing hyenas closer to human settlements. As communities reel from the destruction of their livelihoods and expand to new wild habitats, tolerance for wildlife often wanes, leading to increased conflict.
In Lebanon, the Striped Hyena's resilience is now being tested like never before. From Vietnam to Lebanon, the story remains the same: wars destroy lives, landscapes, and legacies.
