Let’s look at some differences between hyenas and leopards:
In size, leopards are slightly bigger than hyenas. For hyenas, their primary weapon of defense and attack is their mouth. So when fighting, they try reaching the enemy with their mouth. But leopards have retractable sharp claws that are able to cut and tear, in addition to their sharp teeth. In a fight, leopards start with their hands and sharp claws before their sharp teeth.
In a one-on-one fight, a leopard having two primary weapons, claws and teeth, is more likely to win against a hyena which has only one weapon, teeth.
Hyenas, on the other hand, have a very powerful bite force of 1100 PSI. Much higher than the bite force of a leopard which is between 300 and 310 PSI. Meaning that if a hyena and a leopard bite each other, the leopard will sustain a worse injury than the hyena. Both animals can run fast.
The greatest advantage a hyena has over a leopard is that hyenas operate in groups – they may attack or defend in groups. Teamwork is the hyena’s biggest and smartest survival strategy in the wild. If you offend one, you offend all. If a leopard kills one hyena, he literally signs his own death warrant because the rest of the hyena family will come after him for revenge – leopards know that very well.
In addition to teamwork, hyenas outnumber leopards by far. No doubt hyenas are bold and sometimes boss over leopards – they know the family is watching their back.
