L. David Mech "Dave"

Wolf News and Info

The most current, accurate, and objective wolf news can be found on the website of the International Wolf Center (www.wolf.org)

Outmoded notion of the alpha wolf

The concept of the alpha wolf is well ingrained in the popular wolf
literature at least partly because of my book "The Wolf: Ecology and
Behavior of an Endangered Species," written in 1968, published in 1970,
republished in paperback in 1981, and currently still in print, despite my
numerous pleas to the publisher to stop publishing it. Although most of the
book's info is still accurate, much is outdated. We have learned more about
wolves in the last 40 years then in all of previous history.

One of the outdated pieces of information is the concept of the alpha wolf. "Alpha" implies competing with others and becoming top dog by winning a contest or battle. However, most wolves who lead packs achieved their position simply by mating and producing pups, which then became their pack. In other words they are merely breeders, or parents, and that's all we call them today, the "breeding male," "breeding female," or "male parent," "female parent," or the "adult male" or "adult female." In the rare packs that include more than one breeding animal, the "dominant breeder" can be called that, and any breeding daughter can be called a "subordinate breeder."

For details, see www.wolf.org/wolves/learn/scientific/mech_pdfs/267alphastatus_english.pdf.

 

International Wolf CenterSchenkel's Study Available