Mr. WildsideMr. Wildside fun fact
The "alpha wolf" is mostly a myth
The idea of a ruthless alpha wolf fighting its way to the top came largely from studies of unrelated wolves kept together in captivity, starting with a 1947 study of wolves in a zoo enclosure in Basel.
Wolf biologist L. David Mech spent many summers watching a wild pack on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. In a 1999 paper, he explained that a wild pack is usually just a family: a breeding pair and their offspring from the past one to three years.
The so-called alphas are simply the parents. Over his years with the Ellesmere pack, Mech reported seeing no dominance fights at all.
Young wolves eventually leave home to find mates and start families of their own.
Wear the Gray Wolf Family
A gray wolf family with playful pups in a snowy mountain valley, painted in a vintage national-park style.