The cause of the cave hyena's extinction is not fully understood, though it could have been due to a combination of factors, including human activity, diminished quantities of prey animals, and climate change.

In comparison to living spotted hyenas, some of the bones of the limbs are more robust (proportionally thicker and shorter), with the ulna being more curved.

[10] The diet of the cave hyena is thought to have primarily consisted of large ungulates like wild horse, aurochs, steppe bison, Irish elk/giant deer, wild boar, red deer and reindeer, with larger herbivores like the woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth probably being scavenged after death (or alternatively generally only targeted when weak[13]), with their young perhaps sometimes being targeted for active hunting.

[17] At San Teodoro cave in northern Sicily which is a well known hyena den, remains of herbivores likely accumulated in the cave by hyenas include those of aurochs, steppe bison (with aurochs seeming to predominate over bison), European wild ass, wild boar, red deer, and the endemic dwarf elephant Palaeoloxodon mnaidriensis.

[18] At Kirkdale Cave in Yorkshire, northern England which dates to the Last Interglacial when Europe had a temperate climate similar to modern times, the assemblage includes juvenile straight-tusked elephant, Irish elk, red deer, European fallow deer, bison, and the narrow-nosed rhinoceros.

In 1822 a skull from this cave was used to describe the species Hyena spelaea by German paleontologist Georg August Goldfuss.

Boyd Dawkins, writing in 1865, was the first to definitely cast doubt over the separation of the spotted and cave hyena, stating that the aforementioned tooth characteristics were consistent with mere individual variation.

However, an analysis of full nuclear genomes of both European and East Asian cave hyenas published in 2020 suggests that African and Eurasian Crocuta populations were largely separate, having estimated to have diverged from each other around 2.5 million years ago, closely corresponding to the age of the earliest Crocuta specimens in Eurasia, which are around 2 million years old from China.

A painting from the Chauvet Cave depicts a hyena outlined and represented in profile, with two legs, with its head and front part with well distinguishable spotted coloration pattern.

Because of the specimen's steeped profile, it is thought that the painting was originally meant to represent a cave bear, but was modified as a hyena.

In Lascaux, a red and black rock painting of a hyena is present in the part of the cave known as the Diverticule axial, and is depicted in profile, with four limbs, showing an animal with a steep back.

An image in the Le Gabillou Cave in Dordogne shows a deeply engraved zoomorphic figure with a head in frontal view and an elongated neck with part of the forelimb in profile.

Though originally thought to represent a composite or zoomorphic hybrid, it is probable it is a spotted hyena based on its broad muzzle and long neck.

[36] Subsequent studies have suggested that cave hyenas may have persisted later in the Iberian Peninsula based on the radiocarbon dating of coprolites attributed to them,[37][38] possibly as late as 7,000 years ago in the southern Iberian Peninsula, but it is suggested that the dates should be considered with caution due to potential issues with contamination.

[14] Evidence suggests that climate change alone cannot account for the cave hyena's extinction in Europe and that other factors, such as human activity and decreasing prey abundance, are necessary to explain it.