What is Lebanon’s National Animal? Meet the Striped Hyena
Today we bring you a little known fact about Lebanon: the fact that is has a national animal.
The striped hyena is native to India, Central Asia, the Middle East, and North and East Africa. It is also native to many parts of Lebanon.
The average weight of the striped hyena is between 22-54 kilograms, and their average length is between 83-129 centimeters. They are nocturnal animals and live in dens, caves, or burrows among woodlands. They are carnivores and feed on the carcasses of animals, with jaws strong enough to break through bones. They often live in pairs and or alone.
It is said that they have been mentioned in the Torah, but left out of some subsequent translations. The hyena is also a persistent part of Arab and regional literature, although often negatively portrayed.
The main group working on conservation of the animal in Lebanon is the Animal Encounter. They run a reserve in Aley that saves the animal and releases them back to the wild. Most research on the striped hyena in Lebanon is also conducted by them.
Popular perceptions of the striped hyena paint them as dangerous predators that pose a danger to humans and livestock, but that is less prevalent than perceived and hyenas are more of a scavenger animal. They are listed as near threatened animals, with around 10,000 left in the wild, a few hundred of those in Lebanon.
