Some portrayals of a human alpha male might pull on these primate attributes - a kind of natural leader whom others defer to and trust for leadership, and is probably pretty good on the dating scene.īut using the attributes of alpha males among our closest relatives to justify their existence among humans gets messy quickly. “It’s in his best interest to keep those males close and have good social relationships,” Jack says. To do so effectively, he needs backup from subordinate males, whom he should be on good terms with. The top male holds responsibility for protecting others in the cohort from predators or other males attempting to take control of the group. In primates where alpha males exist, where an individual ranks often determines their reproductive success, Jack says. Capuchin alpha males typically grow to be the biggest ones of the group, and once a male Mandrill becomes an alpha, for example, his testosterone levels rise and his testicles grow larger. In some species, dominance manifests with biological changes too. “It probably wouldn't take you very long to figure it out.” The male who eats first, whom others move out of the way for, who lies down for a grooming and is instantly approached by others to get the cleaning done - these might all be the marks of an alpha male. “I could take you into the forest in Costa Rica, show you a group of monkeys and say, okay, pick out the alpha male,” says Kathy Jack, a primate behavioral ecologist at Tulane University who studies alpha male behavior in Capuchin monkeys. Though Mech has debunked the idea amongst wolves, alpha males are very much a real concept amongst some primates. Since learning the reality of pack dynamics, Mech has been trying to get publishers to stop printing his book (they won’t). If anyone is dominant in that setting, then it’s because, well, they are the parents. In real life, a pack begins when a male and female have offspring.
Read more: From Animals To Human Society: What We Learn When Women Leadīut as Mech later realized, the “alpha wolf” behavior appeared only in captive wolves pushed into a group from a range of different backgrounds. Dave Mech, a wolf researcher with the United States Geological Survey, echoed the idea in a 1968 book. Scientists used to think this was the case: In a 1948 publication, a scientist named Rudolph Schenkel wrote that amongst wolves, an alpha pair would fight for dominance and win the exclusive mating rights among the group. Alpha males don’t exist in these wild canines. When it comes to wolves, at least, nothing about their hierarchies transfer to humans.
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