Having established a thread of sympathy for these beasts, let me explain what is really strange about them. Among hyenas, females are socially dominant, which is fairly rare among mammals. They are more muscular and more aggressive, and have more of a male sex hormone (a close relative of testosterone called androstenedione) in their bloodstreams than males. It’s also almost impossible to tell the sex of a hyena by looking at its external genitals.
