A misconception about Hyenas is that they are primarily scavengers. They are not -- they are hunters, and pretty aggressive at that. I read more than once that the traditional relationship between lions and hyenas as popular culture has it is actually backwards: hyenas mostly hunt, and lions mostly steal their kills.

Also, a single lion (or two) facing a pack of hyenas is in dire peril. Hyenas are clever, strong and dangerous. There are YouTube videos about this.

that’s not what they say it happened. The human remains accumulated there over time.

From the article:

> Experts believe the individuals lived in different time periods. Some bones could be as old as 50,000 to 68,000 years, whereas the most ancient remains are believed to be 100,000 years old.

They could have been ill or mostly elderly - in fact that seems quite probable. And we don’t know much about Neanderthal behavior but they may have been less able to outwit/intimidate hyenas than modern humans.

That said, if “pack” means 50 hyenas, 10 humans with primitive spears could quickly run into trouble. In the wild hyena packs can be as large as 100.

It took thousands of years to make them nine. The bones are from different periods.

Hyenas are notorious for being assholes

But any carnivorous pack animal is just an Alpha's decision to attack away from being a problem. The scarcer food gets, the more riskier sources they'll pursue.

If you read the article, you will see that the individuals were dragged into the cave over a span of tens of thousands of years. They were not hunted en-masse.