The female spotted hyena has an enlarged clitoris around seventeen centimetres long, externally almost indistinguishable from the male's penis, and a fused false scrotum. She has no external vaginal opening. Urination, copulation and birth all happen through the phallus.
It makes mating physically impossible without her cooperation — the male cannot achieve anything by force — and it makes first births dangerous: the canal tears, and a substantial share of firstborn cubs do not survive. Spotted hyena clans are female-dominated, and the anatomy is thought to be a side effect of the androgen levels that come with it.
