>>77074035Part of that can be blamed on the drought that coincided with his usurpation of power, but he certainly made it worse than it could have been by letting the hyenas freely overhunt as "thanks" for helping him take power. By the time Simba came back, the local prey was so meager that even the hyenas weren't too happy about things, and Scar wouldn't let them move on to better hunting grounds.
Again, part of that could be blamed on the hyenas for overhunting without thinking of the future, but that's the sort of thing a king is supposed to do something about. If Scar had set restrictions on predation and the hyenas went behind his back, that would be one thing, but he seemingly just let it happen because he didn't care how badly things were going as long as he got to be the King.