Male jaguars usually range from 123–212 pounds, with some weighing 348 pounds, but those are abnormal giants of the species, the same way some humans are unnaturally large.

Spotted hyenas are different from cats and many other well known predatory mammals with the females being bigger than the males. Not relevant I thought I would just mention that this a female hyena facing the jaguar, not a male.

So how big is a spotted hyena? The 98–141 pounds, with a larger breed reaching 153. Some very large specimens have weighed 180 and 199.

The hyena as you can see much smaller than the jaguar. Being rather small is why individual hyenas are often killed by lions, even though a hyena has a stronger bite, the lion’s greater size and power renders that moot.

A one to one fight between a hyena and a jaguar would be unlikely even if they shared habitats since hyenas live in packs. The jaguar is bigger but there is a strength in numbers, under most circumstances it would run away in the face of a pack.

If it is just one hyena, then the jaguar wins. Jaguars are smaller than lions, but they are still bigger and stronger than hyenas. In fact a jaguar actually has a stronger bite than a lion or a hyena, so much so that it can crush the shells of turtles or kill caiman. The jaguar would not be as able to overpower the hyena as easily a male lion could, but it would be able to avoid the difficulty in going for the throat and crush the hyena’s skull instead.

In fact while it is rare, there have been a few case of leopards preying on hyenas, though also one known case of a leopard dying thanks to a wound a hyena left on it. Leopards are smaller than the jaguars, less muscular and have a much weaker bite. Spotted hyenas are better hunters than people give them for, but like the wild dogs that they are not related to, they need the backing of their pack. Thanks for reading, please feel free to share your thoughts about this article and drop your comments below in the comments section.