A groundbreaking study has upended decades of assumptions about power relationships in primate societies, revealing that the notion of the dominant “alpha male” is actually rare rather than the rule. The comprehensive research, published July 7, 2025, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analyzed data from 253 populations across 121 primate species. Scientists from the University of Montpellier, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and German Primate Center spent five years compiling detailed records of who fought whom and who won in primate conflicts. Their findings paint a far more complex picture of male-female power dynamics than … Continue reading Primate Alpha Males Are Rare: Study Shows 70% of Species Lack Clear Gender Dominance