Hierarchical

Hierarchical animals have what is known colloquially as a 'pecking order'. Animals at the top of the hierarchy aggressively dominate those lower down the ranks in order to retain privileged access to resources such as food, mates or a safe places to sleep. Males are often likely to dominate a pack, but there are some exceptions, as in spotted hyenas where females outrank males. In other cases there may be an alpha female in addition to an alpha male, as in wolves where she is the only one that will bear pups.

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About

A dominance hierarchy (in humans: social hierarchy) is the organization of individuals in a group that occurs when competition for resources leads to aggression. Schjelderup-Ebbe, who studied the often-cited example of the pecking order in chickens, found that such social structures lead to more stable flocks with reduced aggression among individuals.

Dominance hierarchies can be despotic or linear. In a despotic hierarchy, only one individual is dominant, while the others are all equally submissive. In a linear hierarchy, for example, in the above cited pecking order of chickens, each individual dominates all individuals below him and not those above him.

Dominance hierarchies occur in most social animal species, including primates who normally live in groups. Dominance hierarchies have been extensively studied in fish, birds, and mammals. Dominance hierarchies can be simple linear structures, which often arise from the physical differences among individuals in a group in relation to their access to resources. They are also influenced by the complex social interactions among individuals in the group.

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