Are the pridelanders bigots?

[Alexterri1]

So, we all know that, in The Lion King, Mufasa clearly does not trust hyenas.

We also know that Scar letting the hyenas stay in the pridelands was what caused it to go barren.

But one thing I have to wonder is: are the Pridelanders completely justified in treating the hyenas the way he did? I mean, yeah, they did try to kill their prince, and teamed up with Scar and caused the whole land to become barren, but I mean before that.

If you notice, Mufasa says that all animals are equal In the Circle of Life. Yet, the lions of the pride clearly dislike hyenas. I have to wonder: is this because the hyenas did something very bad to the lions, or are are they just bigots?

What do you think?

[it means no worries]

The lions don't like the hyenas because in this film the lions have the "good guy" roles and the hyenas have the "bad guy" roles, so they are naturally opposed. There doesn't have to be a reason for it prior to the film, there are opposing "good guys" and "bad guys" in almost every film in existence.

[TheLionPrince]

I asked a similar question some years back about Mufasa's supposed hypocrisy concerning the hyenas. In reality, lions and hyenas are natural enemies and the filmmakers kept that aspect in the film. For the film, it's not really explained what are the causes of the hyena-lion conflict (unless you go with the natural enemy explanation), but Mufasa probably had a hint that the hyenas would not respect the natural balance of the Circle of Life. So, if he allowed a few of them to enter within the borders, it justifies that more hyenas can enter into the Pride Lands. So, Mufasa and the Pridelanders couldn't and wouldn't run that risk.

[Simba_Lion]

If you think of the wildlife of Africa, you can notice that hyenas and lions are natural competitors (for example they usually fight against each other for the prey) and this is why they don't like each other in the world of TLK either.

[Squeely]

TLG addresses this somewhat by showing that there are hyenas that overhunt and disrespect the circle of life. I'd imagine there was a conflict that happened in the Pridelands some generations back that forced such an unfortunate situation to happen.

[Amur_Tiger]

From a natural perspective, it's all about territory and protecting it from competing predators that will not only eat from the same prey base but are also a threat to cubs. Cub mortality among big cats is quite high, and hyenas are a threat that lions don't have to live with, so they're liable to be pretty hostile towards them. I'm not sure how exclusive these territories will be or if it's more that lions just chase hyenas away when they're in any sort of proximity but I do know that tigers displace wolves from the ecosystem up in Siberia. Obviously there's some pretty big ecosystem differences so differences in behavior shouldn't be surprising as well.

I think that these sorts of relationships are important to keep in mind when you consider if the pridelanders are bigoted or not, are you bigoted when you kill a bug? Probably not. These are different species and inevitably your behavior is going to carry some of the tone of the general relationship between those species. Likewise while the herbivores don't get talked down as much in TLK they certainly will get killed in the process of the lions getting dinner, this isn't bigotry but listening to a biological imperative, and hostility towards other predators isn't far from being a biological imperative in it's own right.

[Elton John]

Mufasa says to respect all creatures, perhaps the hyenas did something so terrible that banishing them to the elephant graveyard instead of killing them is showing them some respect? Just because you show respect towards everything doesn't mean that if you break a rule you won't be punished.

The hyenas did something horrific, but instead of killing them mufasa showed them mercy and banished them from the pridelands.

[thechangingmyname]

Hey! I didn't know lions and hyenas were natural enemies. That was pretty confusing to me why Lion King implied it's ok to eat other animals and it doesn't make you a bad guy, yet hyenas were outcast and left to go hungry for seemingly no good reason. Thanks for the info! That explains alot.
And that also reminds me of the African folktale I read as a sixth grader of a lion named Simba, who, if I remember correctly, made friends with a rabbit who did him a favor, and a hyena kept trying to find ways to trick Simba into letting him eat the rabbit.