The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray

Re:The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray by cbsmith on Tuesday January 28, 2025 @12:07AM (#42849035)

> There's no redefinition here. When we refer to animals in every context, alphas are leaders.

Yes, there is a redefinition. The context of Alpha Wolf was based on the notion of a dominance hierarchy, which does occur when unrelated wolves are put together in a confined space. In the wild though, they function more like a family, with no acts of dominance. The breeding pair still lead the pack, but not through dominance.

https://web.archive.org/web/20051214072331/http://www.npwrc....

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Re:The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray by ninetyninenine on Tuesday January 28, 2025 @12:19AM (#42849100)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42848939

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Re:The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray by cbsmith on Tuesday January 28, 2025 @04:36PM (#42858373)

That'd be relevant if it pointed to a problem with the etymology of the term Alpha Wolf.

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Re:The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray by earnestinger on Tuesday January 28, 2025 @01:39AM (#42849530)

Dominance != aggression

(South park had interesting episode on that)

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Re:The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray by JumpCrisscross on Tuesday January 28, 2025 @03:03AM (#42849960)

> Dominance != aggression

"Dominating behaviour" is frequently used to refer to aggression, albeit not necessarily violent aggression. (I would like to blame the sociologists, but I think this mess is mostly the work of pop scientists.)

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Re:The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray by HWR_14 on Tuesday January 28, 2025 @01:43PM (#42856187)

Which episode are you thinking of?

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Re:The Alpha Myth: How captive wolves led us astray by earnestinger on Saturday February 01, 2025 @02:49AM (#42896656)

I think it was this one https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0705911/

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