"You must be the alpha dog in your pack." "If you're not the alpha, your dog will try to take over that role." You've heard these phrases before. "Alpha" is commonly understood to mean the top dog; the head honcho; the big cheese. But where did the term come from, and is it still applicable today?David L. Mech has studied wolves for 50 years and is a seminal source of information on wolves and their behavior. He's written several books, including "The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species," which was published in the late 1960s. The book discusses the structure of wolf packs and the behavior of pack members toward each other. Mech included information based on a study done by Rudolph Schenkel, who had published his findings at a time when there was very little information available about how wolves behaved in the wild. At the time, scientists did not think as we do now of wolves as forming and retaining families, but as groups who came together in the winters in order to be more effective hunters.
At the time, to study wolves, a group was formed by combining wolves from various zoos. These wolves had no relationship with each other, so like any other social group, a sort of hierarchy had to be worked out. This was the situation that Schenkel observed before releasing his famous publication that described wolf behavior, pack order, and the "alpha pair." Thanks to Mech's book and other publications that then dispersed this information, the idea of an "alpha" trickled down to the general public.
Since Schenkel's time, scientists have realized that the story of how wolves form and maintain packs is different than originally thought.
The real story is this: A male and female wolf find each other, court, mate, and soon have offspring. The parents affectionately guide the offspring, teach them necessarily life skills, and keep them safe. Those pups, at about a year of age, become older siblings to the next litter, and like human siblings, dominate the new pups--but there is no "fighting for rank." The rank is obvious. The parents are still in charge, period. Eventually, the offspring will disperse and eventually form their own packs.
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