Wolves, like other species, have the occasionally cantankerous grumpy old men... mature "rogue" males with a bad attitude... and the occasional "gang" in isolated and poorly acculturated packs of mischievous or errant teens. Wolves have the good sense to isolate them from polite society... rather than aggregate them and give them power ? Problems are far more likely when the basic systems are out of balance... just as in human culture. But the relevant point about dogs is more about the opposite end of the spectrum in genetic and behavioral variation...
An old Yellowstone pack had a terribly ill-humored aggressive female, Wolf 40, who was known to kill her sisters’ pups. She controlled the pack through terror. One day, her sisters had enough of her. They killed her.
One of her sisters, Wolf 42, became the alpha female and mated with the alpha male, Wolf 21. The pack, through their benign leadership, became the largest most successful pack in known wolf history. It has since declined, but the story shows how even wolves will overthrow bad leadership. They know that cooperation is the more successful life strategy, not bullying nor terror.
hcn.org
It’s a fascinating story. To me, anyway. Lol!
pbs.org
For reasons too complex to get into here, it is a mistake to use the term ‘alpha’ when describing wolves, but it will be a long time before the term is discarded. |
