Alpha. The top dog. The big cheese. Each of these terms coin from an idea in relation to canine social structures. After all, everyone knows that each wolf pack has an Alpha to rule over the group, right? In actuality the idea of an alpha wolf comes from biased observations, leading to major misunderstandings regarding wolf packs. I bet now you wonder how a wolf pack can operate with the lack of an authoritative figure, well lucky for you this article will answer that question. To begin with, I will be addressing the route of the misinformation and provide you all with the truth.
In the early 1940’s a German scientist named Rudolf Schenkel spent a few months studying wolf behavior in Switzerland. His findings were later published in the form of an informational paper, which concluded wolf packs form with the control of an alpha pair. Thus birthing the theory of the Alpha wolf. It also brought parallels to grey wolves and domesticated dogs, leading to the training technique of a human needing to present themselves an an “Alpha”. This theory, however, didn’t become popularized until 30 years later with the publication of The Wolf: The Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species, by biologist David Merch. This book reinforced the idea of the alpha dog, which has popularized the belief wolves are driven by competition based hierarchies.
In more recent years biologist, including Merch have discovered flaws in the past ideas regarding wolves. Going back to Schenkel’s paper, scientist discovered one major flaw, his studies were conducted entirely on wolves in captivity. A captive wolf pack is man-made, and is nothing like a natural forming wolf pack. A natural wolf pack is simply family unit, and this is why most wolf packs range in size of 2 to 8 members. What occurs is a mating pair have offspring. After the pups reach maturity some of them may leave to start their own packs. Most often the males depart to create their own packs while females are courted away by lone males. Since a litter of pups can range anywhere from 4 to 6 wolves on average, this explains the varying number of wolves in a pack. There is no “alpha” but rather parents and their offspring. This is why the parents are now scientifically referred to as the “breeding pair”. Now, in a captive wolf pack, you take adult wolves and toss them into a small enclosure forcing them to live together. This simple factor completely destroys the natural social behaviors of a wolf pack. T In simplistic terms there is no longer a family unit, but strangers who cannot escape from one another. This causes the animals to compete for resources which is what brings out the behavioral differences of a natural forming wolf pack.
As you can see there is no such thing as an Alpha wolf. Wolves do not use dominance to act as dictators in a pack. For young therians, or newly awakened nonhuamans if you find yourself in a group with an “Alpha” who attempts to utilize dominance to control members it is in your best interest to leave. For any group you might be in there should always be a feeling of equality and safety among all members. -Maekrix Arya
