Silverbacks used to be the go-to primate “alpha” example, but we know that “the tribe” isn’t controlled by the Silverback, and it’s not the biggest or most aggressive that “leads”.
The females select more for compassion than anything. And the only real point of the Silverback in the tribe is to scare off rogue males.
Fights rarely happen, there just has to be a silverback already with the group to stop the rogues from hassling the group.
Even if a rogue male started a fight, and beat the group’s silverback, there’s still like 20 other gorillas, it’s not like they only have conflict in 1v1 fights. They don’t “win” leadership thru fighting.
The tribe just picks their own Silverback as designated chest thumper to avoid conflict.
Well, yeah…
Silverbacks used to be the go-to primate “alpha” example, but we know that “the tribe” isn’t controlled by the Silverback, and it’s not the biggest or most aggressive that “leads”.
The females select more for compassion than anything. And the only real point of the Silverback in the tribe is to scare off rogue males.
Fights rarely happen, there just has to be a silverback already with the group to stop the rogues from hassling the group.
Even if a rogue male started a fight, and beat the group’s silverback, there’s still like 20 other gorillas, it’s not like they only have conflict in 1v1 fights. They don’t “win” leadership thru fighting.
The tribe just picks their own Silverback as designated chest thumper to avoid conflict.