It's the birth of a spottedhyena, however, that is particularly bizarre.
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The female spottedhyena urinates, copulates and gives birth through her clitoris.
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Least of all the biggest and baddest of them all-thespottedhyena.
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The lion is more than 90 percent human, and so is the spottedhyena.
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But the spottedhyena is a fearsome predator.
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One huge spottedhyena was more than persistent.
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A research group, looking into female-led spottedhyena societies, captured their unique group behaviour in these photographs.
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So unique, in fact, that for centuries people assumed the spottedhyena had to be a hermaphrodite.
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There are also packs of black-backed jackals, spottedhyena and a variety of antelope species, including the nyala.
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I'm a spottedhyena, a girl.
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The looker wasted no second glance on the rude trousers of spottedhyena skin or the big lean body of the castaway.
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The smallest spottedhyena clans are about the same size as a big lion pride or big wild dog or wolf pack.
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On the outside, male and female genitalia look so similar that for many years the spottedhyena was thought to be a hermaphrodite.
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In a short time we caught sight of a gigantic tiger-wolf, or spottedhyena, sitting under a bush, and growling fiercely at us.
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If you saw a spottedhyena loping back to its den with clearly distended mammary glands, you would probably guess it was a female.
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The mechanics of spottedhyena sex are so tricky that females are able to resist unwanted advances: copulation requires full cooperation; rape is impossible.