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0 pointsBrybry3y ago0 comments

I thought the pack dominance hierarchy concept for wolves, that the article mentions, was observed to be a myth?[1]

Wolf packs are generally a monogamous pair with their recent offspring.

And feral cats certainly form colonies, though it seems like what research there is has the primary cat social groups being a female and her young and extending from there to multiple females and their young.[2]

Really for both wolves/dogs and cats it seems like environment strongly influences social behavior and there is a large amount of variance.

[1] https://phys.org/news/2021-04-wolf-dont-alpha-males-females.... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7149619/

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danaris3y ago

"Pack living offers a better platform for coordination and training hence dogs are more motivated to learn tricks" does not require a strict dominance hierarchy as was once erroneously thought to exist.

User233y ago

> Wolf packs are generally a monogamous pair with their recent offspring.

Larger packs have been observed in Yellowstone. I think it’s largely a function of prey density. In a case where family packs merge into a larger pack I imagine somehow the animals work out who the leader is as a necessary condition for cooperation.

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