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Key points
- Alpha animals aren't imaginary beings and "alpha" is an applicable descriptive term that has to be used correctly.
- There are domineering personalities in wolves and other animals.
- If people interested in humans use what researchers observe about the social organization of nonhumans, they need to get it right.
- There are no substitutes for long-term studies of identified individuals.
A recent New Yorker essay called "The Myth of the Alpha Wolf" by Rivka Galchen caught my attention and that of numerous people who emailed me about it. My purpose here is to clarify a number of points including:
- There are alpha wolves. alpha dogs. and alpha animals in different species (simply defined, alpha refers to someone or something that is first).
- Field biologists do use the phrase "alpha wolves," contrary to what Galchen writes.
- "Alpha wolves" and "alpha ____" are useful descriptive phrases.
- Alpha animals are not necessarily the most aggressive, violent, or domineering individuals in their group.
- Aggression-based models of dominance have been misunderstood by people who study both nonhumans and humans. They also have been warped by some dog trainers who think that humans should be the alpha members of their pack of companion canines and control them by dominating them. Studies show that alpha-inspired dominance training doesn't work.
It's a Myth That Alpha Wolves and Alpha Dogs Are Myths
The best places to go concerning what we know about wild wolves are four books by one of the world's wolf experts, Rick McIntyre. Frankly, I was surprised not to see him mentioned by Galchen because he has spent more hours watching the Yellowstone wolves than anyone else, and the number of hours he has spent studying them likely is more than the sum total of the time spent by many researchers.1,2
The title of Rick's latest book is The Alpha Female Wolf: The Fierce Legacy of Yellowstone's 06. Here, Rick highlights the important and influential role that females play in leading packs of wolves, a topic that has been overlooked as many wolf (and other) researchers have narrowly focused on the importance of males.
Alpha and domineering do not equate with being highly aggressive. Rick has noted in many places that alpha wolves are not necessarily the most aggressive.3 We also observed this in a long-term study of wild coyotes living in the Grand Teton National Park.
There are a number of different ways in which a high-ranking individual can control the behavior of other group members. In an email to me about whether or not there are alpha wolves, perhaps especially in the large Yellowstone packs, Rick wrote: "I personally think the alpha term applies because there is still a dominant female calling the shots in the pack." Others agree.4
He also told me: " A ten-year-old female just took over the alpha position from a younger rival. This will be her third term as alpha. She actually lost a fight with that rival last summer but regained the leadership position due to getting the vast majority of the pack to side with her. That former alpha is now a very low-ranking adult."
Concerning the wolves in Yellowstone, Rick notes: "I think what we see here in Yellowstone with large packs is what had been normal with wolves for the vast majority of their time as a species. Human hunting and trapping tend to reduce packs to smaller sizes than the large complex we tend to have here."
Are There Domineering Personalities?
Rick and I agree that a good working definition of the word "alpha" simply refers to the highest-ranking male or female in a wolf pack. It doesn't necessarily mean domineering, but in some cases—like the case of wolf 40—it can include that.
Wolf 40 was so aggressive toward other females that they formed an alliance and killed her. Her more cooperative sister 42 then took over the leadership position. The previous alpha female in Junction tended to be domineering, but as in the case of 40, she lost the position to a more cooperative female who got other pack members to side with her.5,6
Given that alpha individuals are not always the most aggressive or domineering, Rick told me: "I hesitate to use the term 'dominant male' or 'dominant female' because we do not necessarily see that in our alpha wolves. By that I mean they do not always have a domineering personality. For example, 907 is not very domineering. She seems to do what works best for her and the rest of the pack just seems to follow her lead." Cooperation is key.5
I agree that there are domineering personalities who can rise to the top of their group and stay there without being highly aggressive. We observed similar patterns of behavior in wild coyotes and similar observations have been made for packs of free-ranging dogs for whom potentially injurious aggression is very rare.7
Another idea, namely that some alpha or high-ranking individuals gain and retain their social position because they control the attention of other individuals rather than because they are highly aggressive, called the attention structure model of dominance, was offered by primatologist Michael Chance. While it doesn't seem to apply to nonhuman primates, Randall Lockwood reported that it might be useful for understanding wolves and that there is an over-emphasis on the importance of aggressive behavior.
Alpha Animals Exist
Alpha animals aren't imaginary beings and "alpha" is an applicable descriptive term that has to be used correctly.
Social dominance in dogs and their wild relatives is real but has been widely misunderstood. Research shows there are alpha wolves, dogs, and other animals—but this doesn't mean they're highly aggressive or domineering.4,5,6
The important points to stress and to investigate further include:
- How does an individual become the highest-ranking member of their group?
- How do they remain in that position?
- How do they lose that position?
There are no substitutes for long-term studies of identified individuals.
Concerning dogs, it's important to understand that they also form dominance relationships and some form functional packs. However, you do not have to be the domineering alpha if you want your dog to do what you want them to do and also respect you. When we pay close attention to what we know about dogs, dog-dog relationships, and dog-human relationships, we can give our companions the best lives possible using positive, force-free training, and this will be a win-win for all, dogs and humans.8
If people choose to use what researchers observe in the social behavior and social organization of nonhuman animals, they need to get it right. The media muddle over alphas, aggression, and domineering has to be corrected. Most researchers have been very careful to write and talk about what they've learned and simply put, being alpha is not synonymous with being highly aggressive, violent, or domineering. We will learn a lot more about human social dynamics if we pay closer attention to what researchers are actually learning and telling us.
Facebook image: Iryna Kalamurza/Shutterstock
References
1) A retired National Park ranger, Rick McIntyre has spent more than forty years watching wolves in America’s national parks, twenty-five of those years in Yellowstone, where he has accumulated over 100,000 wolf sightings, worked on the Yellowstone Wolf Reintroduction Project, and educated the public about the park’s wolves.
2) For more information on Rick's classic research, see the following interviews: The Story of Yellowstone Wolf 8: From Underdog to Alpha Male, The Reign of Wolf 21, Yellowstone's Benevolent Alpha Male, and The Redemption of Yellowstone's Renegade Alpha Wolf 302; also see Yellowstone Wolves: Everything You Want to Know and More and Wolf Packs Suffer When Humans Kill Their Leaders.
3) For more discussion of the behavior of wild versus captive wolves see L. D. Mech, Alpha status, dominance, and division of labor in wolf packs.
4) Other wolf researchers agree with Rick that there can be alpha wolves under certain circumstances. In an essay called "Is the Alpha Wolf Idea a Myth?" by Stephanie Pappas in which she too mistakenly calls the idea of an alpha wolf a myth, David Ausband notes that in large packs such as those in Yellowstone, "there may be more than one breeding pair, and competition can erupt over breeding spots...In that case, I personally think the alpha term applies because there is still a dominant female calling the shots in that pack." (My emphasis.)
5) The importance of cooperation and friendliness was the topic of an important book by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods called Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity. For an interview with them see Friendliness and Cooperation Are Secrets of Humans' Success.
6) Rick also told me: "The Junction Butte pack has 25 members. That relates to how in many other places where wolves are studied packs tend to be much smaller than ours, often just the parents and several generations of their offspring. Our [Yellowstone] packs tend to be far more complex regarding the mixture of adult members and multiple breeding wolves. For example last spring four females in the Junction pack had litters. Sometimes unrelated adult wolves are accepted into Yellowstone packs." See note 4.
7) For more information on the likely existence of domineering personalities see: M. W. Fox. Socio-Ecological Implications of Individual Differences in Wolf Litters: A Developmental and Evolutionary Perspective. Behaviour, 1972; M. W. Fox and R. V. Andrews. Physiological and Biochemical Correlates of Individual Differences in Behavior of Wolf Cubs. Behaviour, 1973; and Michael W. Fox. Behaviour of Wolves, Dogs, and Related Canids. Harper and Row, 1971.
8) For discussion of the value of positive dog training click here.
Roberto Bonanni et al. Age-graded dominance hierarchies and social tolerance in packs of free-ranging dogs. Behavioral Ecology, 28 (4), pages 1004–1020, 2017.
Ian Lecklitner. DO I NEED TO BE THE ‘ALPHA’ IF I WANT MY DOG TO RESPECT ME?
Dominance in Dogs: Owners' Reports Are Scientifically Valid; Dominance, Individual Personality, and Leadership in Dogs; Dominance in Free-Ranging Dogs: Age and Social Tolerance; Dogs Display Dominance: Deniers Offer No Credible Debate; Dominance and Pseudoscience: Making Sense of Nonsense; Dogs, Dominance, and Cesar Millan Redux: Dominance is Real; Social Dominance Is Not a Myth; Dominant Alpha Humans Don't Garner Dogs' Respect and Trust; The Kindness of Dogs: New Book Explains Why Cesar's Gotta Go; Did Cesar Millan Have to Hang the Husky?
