Alpha animal
Alpha animal referred to in the behavioral sciences , the lead animal of a flock or herd .
Role in the animal kingdom
Alpha animals are usually the strongest, most experienced, and most active animals in the group. Often they are also the oldest and the only males in their group to produce offspring. With domestic cattle , for example, a strong bull is the alpha animal, the lead bull, with the gorillas the so-called silverback .
If the males are kept separate in domestic animals, a strong female takes on this role in the herd.
The designation alpha animal is derived from alpha , the first letter in the Greek alphabet : Alpha animals are the "first" (read: highest in rank) animals in their group. Correspondingly, the animals immediately following them in rank are called beta males or beta females , and the omega animals in last place in the hierarchy are called .
In many species living in groups , the females and males each have their own hierarchy: In these cases, the highest-ranking male is referred to as an alpha male and the highest-ranking female as an alpha female ; together both form the alpha pair . Roan antelopes and African wild dogs are an example of this variant of coexistence .
In herd animals such as mouflons , Przewalski horses , mountain zebras and plains zebras , an alpha female leads the herd. Also spotted hyenas and lemurs are led by female lead animals.
Wolves have also been credited for years with having their packs ruled by an alpha animal. Long-term observations on wolves living in the wild, however, showed a social structure in which the lead animals (the parents) fulfill the primary management task, but only appear authoritatively depending on the situation.
Transfer of the name to humans
The term “alpha animal ” is used as an animal metaphor for assertive, dominant people - primarily men - in leadership situations to characterize position and habitus within a group or movement. The designation can have a partly positive, partly negative connotation . In a negative sense, alpha animals can be similar in meaning to authoritarian , dominant , unwilling to compromise , hungry for power and not able to cooperate . The positive aspects can essentially be summarized with the following adjectives: self-confident, initiative, committed, independent and self-critical.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Günther Bloch, Peter A. Dettling: Face to face with the wolf: 20 years on the road with wild wolves. Franckh-Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 2009, p. 41
- ↑ Duden: Alphatier
- ↑ Olaf Hinz: The management team: How effective cooperation at the top succeeds. Wiesbaden 2014, p. 77ff.