Alphas and Dominance as you know them are a myth

I am Tired and may edit/respond to any comments when I'm more awake, but I figured I might as well start now lmao

Alpha theory, or the idea that wolves find a hierarchy via seeing who's the strongest and most able and such, and settle into alphas, betas, gammas, omegas, and whatever other ranks you may have seen, is false. It was formed in a situation where a bunch of wolves were taken and put into a small area with total strangers. This theory was redacted/proven incorrect (by the same guy who popularized it) in 1999 if I remember correctly. His name's David Mech if you want to look it up and see for yourself! Edit here: formerly said David Mech made the original theory, it was actually Rudolf Schenkel, in 1947!

Wild wolves live in family units! The two "leaders" are typically the mother and father, with the other wolves being their offspring, who stick around to help raise the pups and gain more education before they head off on their own! It's rare for wolves to join a pack they don't belong to. 

Even in captivity, Alpha theory isn't a good representation of healthy group dynamics, as a healthy group will be much more cohesive and friendly with each other. Animals who are constantly fighting should be separated, barring environmental things that may be able to be modified to ease the tensions. 

Dogs also do not form true packs at all. They can form bonds and relationships with other dogs, but they don't generally stick together like real pack members would. Street dogs never form packs, though they will associate with each other and group together where resources are. This is why you never see a mother dog being cared for by other dogs, because they're all kinda out there for themselves.

None of this is to say that wolves and dogs and other canines don't have a hierarchy or that some are more dominant or aggressive than others, it's just not formed how the initial theory described it. It's much more correct to think of it as different personalities, and a family unit. If you have siblings, then you likely have a different personality than they do, and have a sort of hierarchy within your family as well!

Just hoping to educate some people, I'm not an expert but I am a Big Canine Nerd who will one day be an expert! I know these myths are all over the place, they're very romanticized in a lot of places unfortunately, but the real social interactions are so much more interesting, and lead to a better understanding of the animals as a whole, and their true intelligence! 

Heck yeah! I knew this already, but I'm glad someone articulated it better than I could. :)

Gray; I'm glad you think I articulated it well! :D I've gotten like three hours of sleep in 40ish hours so I just sorta threw down my basic understanding of it as best I could while it was on my mind xD 

These needs to become common knowledge tbh 

Mothmori;

Yeah, that's why I wanted to make this asap to share the info with as many people as I can! I probably annoyed Xy asking if this game would be alpha based and explaining why it's both incorrect and would be a great step forward to have what'll probably be the most popular wolf game for a long time not continue that misinformation LMAO

Yea, I find people tend to project 'alpha' onto animals; Like everything is split into submissive vs dominant actions. But when you actually sit an observe, our idea of dominance isn't totally accurate to what's happening. Nature has a way of not being clean or straight forward- things just happen *if* they can happen. I think people have a hard time grasping that? Like you said, there is a hierarchy, of sorts, it's just not so fixated on "Whose the biggest, strongest wolf boss" xD Like they also just have families, friends, passive acquaintances, symbiotic relationships, etc.

I've heard mention of the yellowstone wolf pack before, but I'm glad you also brought up dogs. I see a LOT of dog trainers bring up this idea of an alpha.. It sometimes leads people to being more aggressive with dogs than they really need to be...

This is what's keeping me from using the Alpha title, it feels weird knowing this.

I have gotten in so so SO many internet arguments over the years with this, I'm very passionate lmao. Your post explains it very well and succinctly, bravo!

I remember learning this... years ago on the WolfQuest forums. Back then I was like "well what's so wrong with it though" but now I know, misinfo is misinfo, even if it isn't harmful! It never hurts to have a little accuracy, even in fiction :-)

I hate seeing a/b/o all over ao3

hopefully people discovering that abo is based off a false concept will make it less popular....

maybe one day

I've given up on sleep so I'm back lmao.

Cloud; exactly!! It reminds me a lot of... more directly harmful science deniers who will point to old or overly simplified science as their proof. In addition to the absolutely negative impact it has on how some people train their dogs, it also leads to a lot of abuse of wolfdogs people have as pets, or dogs who people think/pretend are wolfdogs (which could be a whole nother thread....). By "the "yellowstone wolf pack" do you mean the Druid Peak Pack? I freaking love them and their weird last two leader sets. I was so broken when I learned after reading all about 21M, 42F, and Black Wolf and his brother that they all died. 

Piriya; yeah, I'm the same way. I like the word alpha, and I would love to be able to use it with a clear conscious as a generic "leader" term, which I do see plenty of people do, but I just. I don''t want to perpetuate that myth. 

Maya; Thank you! I honestly wasn't expecting to get all positive responses like this, I was really nervous posting this and feeling like I didn't have all my shit together lmao. Really, misinfo spreads and impacts things negatively in a lot of ways, even when it seems harmless at first. Like I mentioned above, it leads to mistreatment of dogs and wolves alike, because it's misunderstanding both how they see each other, and us. If you think that fighting is normal and healthy, then you're leaving them stressed out all the time without know it :/