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Alpha Males Are Rare Among Our Fellow Primates, Scientists Say

  • On July 7, 2025, a collaborative team from France and Germany disclosed intricate power relationships among primates after examining information gathered from over 250 groups representing more than 120 different species.
  • The study tested five evolutionary hypotheses and found no single explanation fully accounts for male-female dominance across diverse primate societies.
  • Results showed male dominance appears mainly where males have physical advantages, while female dominance links to reproductive control and less risky conflicts.
  • Researchers observed that males dominated females by winning over 90% of confrontations in 17% of populations, females dominated in 13%, and 70% had moderate or no sex bias.
  • These findings challenge traditional views on gender roles and suggest primate dominance varies by ecological and social context, informing human social evolution understanding.
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Although the alpha male has become such a viable meme among humans that the idea tends to be attributed to other species, a new study shows that among most primates, power relations between the sexes are more balanced. A clear male dominance is the exception rather than the rule.

·Estonia
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The alpha male who subjects the group, especially the females who compose it, has more myth than reality. They do not always command, not even often. For a long time it has been assumed that the few primates species in which the domain is female, such as ringed-tail lemurs or bonobos, represented an exception that required a special explanation.It is not so.In most primates species, no sex is clearly imposed on the other, according to a study ca…

·Spain
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Lean Left

Here a data, in principle, counterintuitive: the power relations between males and females in nature are not, at all, clear. For a long time they were thought to dominate socially over them, as a general rule, among primates. Because they are larger, stronger, more necessary for the survival of the group. But this vision is increasingly questioned by the scientific community. And with arguments. A new study has evidenced that in most populations…

·Spain
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Alpha males are rare among our fellow primates: scientists

New research on Monday contradicted the commonly held idea that males dominate females among primates, revealing far more nuanced power dynamics in the relationships of our close relatives.

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Phys.org broke the news in United Kingdom on Monday, July 7, 2025.
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