Interesting read found on reddit.
[quote]I’m an Evolutionary Anthropologist who’s studied mate selection/choice and has worked with a few non-human species. There are many misconceptions I see in this post and the comment section.
Humans don’t have alpha males. We, as a species, are incredibly egalitarian. You can tell we are by the fact that we use grins as a means to show happiness rather than fear. In species with alphas (which includes alpha females, btw), there is often a strict dominance heirarchy in one or both of the sexes. In species without a strict dominance heirarchy amongst males (white-faced capuchins for example), the dominance hierarchy normally goes alpha, beta (second in command), and then the rest of the males jockey for position. Occasionally you have a male who everyone picks on, but that varies from time to time.
In species with alphas, the alpha males aren’t always the biggest, meanest males. In fact, as Frans de Waal has noted in many of his books and many other of us have noticed, the Alpha Male is often a smaller male. The biggest, meanest males are normally ‘betas’ (as we call them at our study site) which is a male that is second-in-command to the alpha and typically mates with the daughters and grand-daughters of the alpha if the alpha lives long enough. The betas rarely get to be alphas because they are huge jerks and no one likes a huge jerk.
In socially intelligent species (like us), the alphas are the ones with the best social strategies. AFAIK, the longest running Alpha Male in history is Pablo, a white-faced capuchin who ruled for at least 19 years. Pablo wasn’t particularly big or mean (in fact, the alpha female, Mezcula, kicked more ass than he did), but he was incredibly socially intelligent. He would play favorites with the subordinate males so that they never knew who was most in his favor. When he saw the others forming alliances against them, he kicked them out or put them back in line. By the time he was finally overthrown, he was overthrown by the biggest, baddest monkey I’ve ever seen, but that big old baddy is quite a softie when it comes to the ladies, babies, and allies. He only fucks you up when you try to fight him. Despite the fact that he’s a huge, dangerous monkey, he only was able to keep ahold of the group with the group’s support. Also, that big, huge male? He tried to take over another group and couldn’t because the ladies didn’t like him after he killed a baby. He kept getting chased from the group by a delicate older female.
The Alpha Male only rules by the acceptance of the others, particularly the alpha female. This pertains more to primates, as I’ve not studied alphas in non-human primates, and those might be different, but I watched a power struggle between several males trying to take over a group and the Alpha Male trying to hold onto to his power and do you know who was most important to the struggle? The alpha female. He knew that without her and her support, he’d never stay in charge so he sucked up to her every single chance he got. Even though he was twice her size and could easily beat her in a one-on-one fight, if he upset her, she’d turn all the other females (and support other males) against him and he’d never stay on. That big huge dude I mentioned earlier? He once got into a fight with the alpha female, Mezcula, who was half his size and twice as old and he was screaming and terribly upset that she and her daughter were chasing him around. They patched up afterwards and spooned together (she’s the big spoon), but in that moment, she dominated him. Pablo, the long running Alpha Male, not only ruled by being socially smart, but also being one of the sweetest males. He would groom anyone (normally grooming goes up the hierarchy, not down), even low-ranking males. Because of his kindness, he got a lot of support and his group managed to dominate a lot of the forest, with the majority of the alpha males in the area his sons, leaving him the most reproductively successful male. [/quote]