Wolf Pack ranks?

[aspen snow]

Hey so I was just wondering, what are all the ranks people talk about (delta, beta, alpha, etc.), what do they do, and what order of ranking are they in? I'm really curious and want to know... thanks!

[valkea]

Wild wolf packs do not have these rankings, and are instead made up of a breeding pair and their offspring, though sometimes an unrelated wolf may belong to a pack. Ranks such as alpha were previously used to describe "ranks" in wolf packs, but they are now considered outdated and incorrect. Any remaining usage of ranks such as these would either be incorrect information, or for purely roleplay purposes.

[alethe]

But then would the breeding pair still be dominate, and technically the rank of alpha would still fit, but not beta, delta, etc?

[Koa]

But then would the breeding pair still be dominate, and technically the rank of alpha would still fit, but not beta, delta, etc?

Labeling a high-ranking wolf alpha emphasizes its rank in a dominance hierarchy. However, in natural wolf packs, the alpha male or female are merely the breeding animals, the parents of the pack, and dominance contests with other wolves are rare, if they exist at all. During my 13 summers observing the Ellesmere Island pack, I saw none.

Thus, calling a wolf an alpha is usually no more appropriate than referring to a human parent or a doe deer as an alpha. Any parent is dominant to its young offspring, so "alpha" adds no information. Why not refer to an alpha female as the female parent, the breeding female, the matriarch, or simply the mother? Such a designation emphasizes not the animal's dominant status, which is trivial information, but its role as pack progenitor, which is critical information.

The one use we may still want to reserve for "alpha" is in the relatively few large wolf packs comprised of multiple litters. Although the genetic relationships of the mothers in such packs remain unknown, probably the mothers include the original matriarch and one or more daughters, and the fathers are probably the patriarch and unrelated adoptees (Mech et al. 1998). In such cases the older breeders are probably dominant to the younger breeders and perhaps can more appropriately be called the alphas. Evidence for such a contention would be an older breeder consistently dominating food disposition or the travels of the pack.

The point here is not so much the terminology but what the terminology falsely implies: a rigid, force-based dominance hierarchy.

http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/mamm ... /alpst.htm

[_Nimbus_]

These ranks are obsolete but here you are
Alpha:leader of pack
beta:Second in command
delta:In line for the beta position
Hope that helps
Fun fact:Wolf ranks are named after the Greek alphabet by their ranksl

[alethe]

These ranks are obsolete but here you are
Alpha:leader of pack
beta:Second in command
delta:In line for the beta position
Hope that helps :D
Fun fact:Wolf ranks are named after the Greek alphabet by their ranksl

Wild wolf packs do not have these rankings, and are instead made up of a breeding pair and their offspring, though sometimes an unrelated wolf may belong to a pack. Ranks such as alpha were previously used to describe "ranks" in wolf packs, but they are now considered outdated and incorrect. Any remaining usage of ranks such as these would either be incorrect information, or for purely roleplay purposes.

Basically what was said before.

[Koa]

The report feature would have been better to use.
Considering the question has been answered thoroughly, I will lock this.