Due to there being a large amount of media attention recently about how the Rhodesian Ridgeback was originally bred to help fight lions, we have seen a huge spike in the number of questions that we see people asking about other dog breeds going up against large animals from Africa.
Various native tribes all over the African continent have used dogs as a way to help protect their life stock for thousands of years with there being a number of unique dog breeds that have been developed specifically for this.
The Qalandar and Thori tribes even have their own bloodsport where they capture hyenas and then pit dogs against them in fights.
There is also evidence that a female Dogue de Bordeaux was used to fight hyenas in 1895 often winning the fights so domesticated dogs have been able to fight and beat hyenas at times although the odds are drastically stacked against most dog breeds.
With the pitbull having a face reputation as well as the breed often being used for security work and having a tough reputation, we have noticed more and more people reaching out and asking for a hyena vs pitbull comparison.
Please note, that everything in our article is theoretical and that there is no documented evidence of a hyena fighting a pitbull as the Qalandar and Thori tribes tend to use their own breeds of dog for their sports rather than western dog breeds.
For our article, we will also be focusing on the spotted hyena too as it is the most well known type of hyena and although there are a number of other types of hyena, the spotted hyena tends to be the largest.
Who Would Win In A Fight Between A Hyena And A Pitbull?
It is unlikely that a pitbull would be able to beat a hyena in a fight due to the hyena having too many advantages when it comes to its sight, strength, weight, and bite force PSI.
A single bite from the spotted hyena’s jaws is able to exert a force of around 1100PSI simply crushing the bones of the pitbull instantly and stacking the odds even further in its favour.
As the hyena lands more and more successful bits of the pitbulls limbs it simply crushes the limb to disable it and wears the pitbull down.
Additionally, the size advantage of the hyena drastically works in its favor too against a pitbull with most tribes who do use dogs to protect cattle from hyenas usually using breed of mastiff that are huge compared to a pitbull and then then, the odds are still in the hyenas favour.
There have also been documented encounters of hyenas with other large animals in Africa including lions where the hyena took a surprising amount of damage with muscles sometimes being ripped from its body and then simply walked or crawled off or even continued to fight the lion.
Although we were unable to find any data on the pain tolerance of a hyene, we would imagine that it is extremely high and their skin tends to be extremely thick offering it another advantage too.
Who Has The Size Advantage Between A Hyena And A Pitbull?
The average male spotted hyena is around 92cm where as the average male pitbull tends to top out at around 53cm offering the hyena a clear advantage.
The shape of the hyena with its back hulking over also allows it to better defend against any low attacks from the pitbull than the pitbull can defend against high attacks from the hyena too.
There is a reason that the majority of military forces prefer to have the high ground in a battle as it offers you more points to attack on your enemy in a number of different ways.
As we mentioned, the hyenas height can be used to take advantage of areas of the pitbull that it will struggle to defend against while still being able to defend against any low attacks from the pitbull with relative ease.
Although the smaller size of the pitbull may offer an advantage of being nimble when compared to the hyena, it is unlikely that the pitbull will implement such a strategy and even if it does, hyenas have been documented to rapidly 180 their body when surrounded by packs of wild dogs.
This should allow the hyena to easily keep pace with the pitbull and keep its head forward to defend itself as best as possible.
Who Has The Weight Advantage Between A Hyena And A Pitbull?
Most adult male hyenas tend to top out at around 64kg where as most adult pitbulls top out at around 30kg.
There are of course some exceptions with some Serengeti hyenas having been documented to weigh as much as 75kg with “hulk”, the largest pitbull in the world coming in at just shy of 80kg.
Although the heaviest pitbull in the world does come in heavier than the largest documented hyena, it is very rare for a pitbull to grow to that size with hulk being the only documented case.
In addition to that, much of the pitbulls weight is in areas not optimized to offer the dog any real advantage and its bite force is still drastically inferior to the hyenas.
The huge hyenas tend to have their additional weight as muscle allowing them to use it to their advantage and put it to use when scavaging or hunting for food.
With regular hyenas and pitbulls, the wight advantage is obviously with the hyena with them coming in at more than double the weight of the pitbull.
This can offer a number of advantages when trying to push the pitbull away and control the confrontation as best it can.
Who Has The Bite Strength Between A Hyena And A Pitbull?
Male spotted hyenas have an average bite strength of 1100PSI with some being documented to be able to bite with a force of 1343PSI.
Male pitbulls have an average bite strength of 235PSI coming in far short of the 742PSI required to quickly crush an averaged size bone.
This offers the hyena the obvious advantage of simply being able to catch a limb from the pitbull and bite down for a second to crush the bone with ease.
Due to the considerably lower bite strength of the pitbull, this is not even possible for them as they still fall short of the required strength required to quickly crush bone in a single bite.
Even if the height and weight of the hyena and pitbull were the same, the bite force advantage alone should be enough for most hyenas to push for the victory against a pitbull.
Even a huge mastiff only has a bite strength of 552PSI and although this is the highest of any domesticated dog as well as way higher than a human, it is still not enough to offer a clean break on the hyenas limb bones.
Who Has The Pain Tollerence Advantage Between A Hyena And A Pitbull?
Although we are unable to find any data or information on the pain tolerance of hyenas and pitbulls, we would guess that both animals do have a high pain tolerance.
Due to the various videos of hyenas walking away from fights with lions and other huge animals, we would swing it more towards the hyena having a higher pain tolerance than the pitbull though.
Due to the hyena having such a wild and savage life on the planes of the Serengeti, we would guess it has had to evolve over the hears to be able to tolerate huge amounts of pain.
This may remove the possibility for the pitbull to wear the hyena down with a large number of small bites to overwhelm its pain tolerance.
As we have covered earlier in the article, the hyena has the bite strength to quickly and easily crush any of the pitbulls bones in less than a second.
This removes the need for a gradual pain overload in the pitbull for the hyena as it has other strategies and win conditions available to it that it is able to use to its advantage.
Conclusion
That brings our hyena vs pitbull comparison to an end. In our opinion, a hyena will easily be able to beat a pitbull to a level where any potential fight would be over within a very short period of time. Even the dogs that the Qalandar and Thori tribes use to fight hyenas and the dogs of the various tribes who use dogs to protect their cattle from hyenas usually lose with it being very rare for a healthy dog to beat a healthy hyena.
