US EditionAlpha 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.
53 Articles
53 Articles
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.
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…
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…
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