Female spotted hyenas are also more aggressive than males. These highly intelligent, social carnivores live in matrilineal clans of up to eighty individuals governed by an alpha female. Males tend to be the sex that disperses from the natal matriline and, as such, the lowest rung of hyena society: submissive outcasts begging for acceptance, food and sex. Females are considered dominant in most situations, engage in rough play and vigorous scent-marking as well as leading the territorial defence – all behaviours more commonly associated with the opposite sex.
