Konrad Lorenz's 1930s observations of captive wolves fighting over food sparked the "alpha" dominance theory, later popularized by L. David Mech. But Mech's own field studies of wild wolves revealed packs are organized around breeding pairs, not hierarchies. Parents eat last and younger wolves lead hunts, making wolf packs cooperative families, not competitive ladders.
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Did you hear that this guy is still alive? This guy actually has a YouTube channel as well. This man is the man in 1970 that proved that dogs compete for dominance, to climb the pecking order, to become the alpha. And his observations were actually originally found in 1930 by this man here, Konrad Lorenz. They both discovered this by observing wolves around food in captivity, realising that some wolves got more food than others and there was always one that got the most food and had the ability to submit every other wolf. But wait, doesn't that mean that they just observed a bunch of wolves resource guarding around food? Yeah, that's exactly what they saw. This man is Dr. L. David Mech, and he actually dedicated the rest of his life to completely disproving what he originally proved. And don't you find it strange how this whole being dominant to the ones below you, submissive to the ones above is very similar to the old Nazi ideology? Well, that's because Mr. Konrad Lorenz actually was a Nazi. What David did was observe wolves in the wild instead, and they do not show any of those behaviors. They don't exist. And they've actually realized there is no alpha. They call it a breeding pair, and they get their authority through being mum and dad. Because what kind of pack would you be if you're always competing to climb the ladder? Mum and dad actually eat last because eating first doesn't make you a leader, and the youngest are actually leading the hunt because they're faster and fitter. You know, because there's no alpha. These are just functional families. But the findings didn't stop there.
