The concept of an “alpha wolf” which fights for dominance in its pack to become its leader rose to popularity in the 1950s and has since been used as a metaphor to refer to individuals who are aggressive and domineering.
But do alpha wolves exist in the wild?
Verdict:
FALSE
The rise of the term's popularity is largely credited to the work of a researcher named Rudolf Schenkel who studied ten wolves at the Basel Zoo, Switzerland in 1947.
However, in recent years, wildlife biologists have mostly stopped using the term “alpha”, following decades of new studies on wolf pack hierarchy and behaviour, especially in the wild.
While a dominance hierarchy may form among a captive wolf pack, wild wolves do not behave this way.
Instead, wild wolf packs usually consist of a breeding male, a breeding female, and their young offspring.
A 1999 published study revealed that all members of a pack defer to the breeding male and female and that in fighting for dominance is almost unheard of.
References:
1. https://www.
3. https://phys.org/news/2021-04-
