How Do Wolf Packs Work?

Terms like 'alpha wolf' are misleading -- in the wild, wolf packs are ruled by the wolves' parents, not through a pecking order. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/wolf-pack-mentality.htm

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey Brainstuff florin volgebam.
Here you can find all sorts of high school and
college athletic programs named after wolves, and why not in
a mascot battle, North Carolina State University's Mister Wolf would
surely vanquish Sammy the slug of University of California Santa Cruz.

(00:26):
But furthermore, gray wolves do tend to organize themselves into
social groups known as packs, with multiple animals cooperating and
hunting together, a great metaphor for sports teamwork. But in nature,
wolf packs operate very differently than most people think. One
of the biggest misconceptions involves their power structures. ALFA wolf

(00:49):
is a term that gets tossed around in a lot
of popular culture. The concept as we know it today
can be traced back to a nineteen forty seven study
written by animal behaviorist Rudolph Schneckel. According to this study,
a wolf packs are led by an alpha male and
an alpha female, which rule the roost by fighting the
other wolves for dominance until they've clawed their way up

(01:10):
the pecking order. A Schneckel wrote, by continuously controlling and
suppressing all types of competition within the same sex. Both
alpha animals defend their social position. He also posited that
the alpha wolves outrank beta wolves, who in turn looked
down on submissive omega wolves. All very hierarchical. This belief

(01:33):
that every wolf pack is a dog eat dog environment
where some members are constantly vying to climb the ranks
by aggressive means has been repeated in countless wildlife documentaries
and nonfiction books over the past seventy odd years. Our
colleagues at Houstuff Works even repeated that idea when we
first published the article this episode is based on back

(01:54):
in two thousand and eight. However, it is misleading. Bencke's
nineteen forty seven paper was describing two wolf packs in captivity.
His study specimens were unrelated animals that had been brought
together at a Swiss zoo where they shared an enclosure
measuring only about two thousand square feet or two hundred

(02:15):
square meters. N Schneckel didn't study any wild wolves at
the time, unlike their counterparts at this particular zoo, a
natural wolf packs mainly consist of genetic relatives. They also
take up way more space patrolling territories of one thousand
square miles or about twenty five hundred square kilometers or

(02:36):
even more. Because they don't live under the artificial constraints
that Schneckel observed, wild wolves usually organize themselves in a
way that's less competitive. A noted wolf researcher, David Meck,
published a book in nineteen seventy that used the alpha terminology,
and more recently updated his views based on more current

(02:59):
scientific understanding. In a video from two thousand and eight,
he said the term alpha isn't really accurate when describing
most of the leaders of wolf packs because it implies
that the wolves fought and competed strongly to get to
the top of the pack. In actuality, the way they
get there is by mating with the member of the
opposite sex, producing a bunch of offspring, which are the

(03:21):
rest of the pack, then and becoming the natural leaders
that way, just like with a pair of humans producing
a family. Don't get us wrong, the alpha wolf hierarchy
system isn't a complete myth. Again, a captive wolf packs
like Schnekels have been known to adopt this kind of
pecking order, but outside of zoos and other artificial environments,

(03:45):
the stereotypical alpha beta omega social structure is incredibly rare,
if it can be said to exist at all. Instead,
what we usually see is a howling nuclear family. Your
typical wild wolf pack is made up of two breeding
adults and their progeny, and new pups are born during
the spring in litters, usually consisting of four to six

(04:08):
babies weighing about one pound or half a kilo each. Oftentimes,
the little tykes receive care from both parents as well
as from their older siblings. Most youngsters leave their original
pack after anywhere from nine months to three years, so
it's not uncommon to find parents and tiny infants living

(04:29):
together with adolescent wolves born in previous years. After moving out,
young adults try to find mates and establish their own packs,
beginning the cycle. Anew unrelated wolves do sometimes join a pack,
and packs may include multiple breeding pairs, although that's a
departure from the norm. Bigger packs aren't necessarily the most successful.

(04:50):
Having extra mouths to feed can be a real detriment
when your prey is scarce, though of course it depends
on your prey. At Yellowstone National for example, packs of
nine or more wolves are the most likely to succeed
when they go bison hunting. Elk, by comparison, are easier
to kill, with packs containing two to six wolves regularly

(05:11):
taking them down. That being said, it's not all friendly cooperation.
Wolves are territorial creatures. A crossing into another group's domain
can open the door for confrontation. But how can wolves
tell where their land begins and ends? Sometimes the nose nose.

(05:32):
Wolves scent mark by spreading urine and feces on above
ground targets, such as a tree stump. This tells intruders
that they're approaching boundaries and provides the wolves with olfactory signposts.
Howling can also be used to signal rival packs, hopefully
keeping them at bay. Today's episode is based on the

(05:55):
article what is a wolfpac mentality on how stufforks dot
Com written by Kristin Conger and Mark Vncini. The Brainstuff
is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com
and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts myheart Radio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.