I collect hyenas. I'm something of a hyena geek because I draw a web cartoon with anthro hyenas as the main characters. I have almost every hyena figurine available. This one's cute, but it doesn't look like a spotted hyena--although the paint job is for a spotted hyena, the body shape more closely resembles a striped or a brown hyena. The ears and face are wrong for a spotted hyena. I'm considering contacting the manufacturer and pointing this out.
There's lots of spotted hyena figurines on the market, and not so many of striped hyenas, brown hyenas or aardwolves. It would be kind of a shame if the sculptor's otherwise nice work got an incorrect paint job.
My husband thinks it's supposed to be a young spotted hyena, but the ears still don't look right.