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8 The Fall of Titans
- Johns Hopkins University Press
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chapter 8 The Fall of Titans S uccess in the animal world involves producing as many young as possible. In social species, usually being the highest-ranked individual in the group—an alpha male (patriarch) or alpha female (matriarch )—makes this feasible. But the aging process means that there are always younger, eventually stronger animals growing up to replace their elders. This chapter describes the descent of some alpha animals as they lost their high status to younger rivals: redtail monkeys; chimpanzees such as Mike and Goliath; hamadryas baboons Padorn, Rosso, and Admiral ; olive baboons such as Solomon; Pan and Jupiter, the Japanese monkeys; Diva, the female ringtail lemur; and Leo the lion. Redtail Monkeys In most species, when an alpha animal is being displaced, the rest of the group knows who is in control at any one time. Occasionally, male displacement can be a slow process, as it is for redtail monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius schmidti). Over a period of many months, Thomas Struhsaker (1977) studied redtails inhabiting the Kibale Forest of Uganda. They live in groups of about 35, each with a single patriarchal male. If this male is challenged by a male of about equal strength, the winner may be in doubt. In part because of the group’s large size, neither male is forced out of it, yet neither has exclusive access to it, either. The older, longtime alpha male tries his best to avoid or to minimize conflict with the challenger, in order to remain with the group and mate with females for as long as possible . In this state of transition, solitary male adults, who usually hover around the edge of the group, infiltrate it. They themselves try to mate with females, and scrap with other interlopers who have the same ambition . Eventually, the aging alpha male is ousted by the challenger, who begins his own more stable reign. 80 Chimpanzees Jane Goodall’s definitive book, The Chimpanzees of Gombe (1986), often describes the activities of specific animals within this species (Pan troglodytes ). Thus we come to know Mike and Goliath, who were among her oldest acquaintances at the time of their deaths. Both were alpha males in their prime who, when older, fell to the bottom of the dominance order, the position where they had started out many years before. Mike, by using his wits, became an alpha male as a youth. One day he charged toward his superiors (who had ignored him up until then) several times, banging together empty kerosene cans that made a terrific racket. This aggressive stratagem scared the dominant animals into placating him, and soon won him the position of alpha male. By careful plotting, he held on to this status for over six years. For example, he kept out of the way if it looked like he might have to fight, and he threatened others with a variety of artifacts such as tripods, chairs, and tables (before these were removed), in order to enhance his frequent displays of aggression. But toward the end of his reign, his displays were largely bluff. When he was finally deposed at age 32, he looked elderly, with worn teeth and sparse hair. He did not seem to care much that his status was reduced. Soon he was showing submissive behavior to even the lowest-ranking adult males. During his last four years, he became even more of a loner, spending time only now and then with old Hugo as a companion. Goodall writes that he was a master “of reasoned thinking and skilful tactical and social manipulation.” Unlike Mike, who deposed him from the alpha male position and who himself later plummeted suddenly to the lowest rank, Goliath managed to hang on to his high status for years after his dethroning. Goliath lost alpha status to Mike when he was 26 (after the episode of the clanging kerosene cans), but his level of aggression was so great that his high ranking continued for another five years. Then he became sick and emaciated, which undermined his aggressive spirit. From that time on, he, too, was near the bottom of the dominance ladder. When his group divided into two, he unwisely chose to join the breakaway group, and was killed by his former colleagues four years later, at the advanced age of 37. Less well-known than Goodall’s chimpanzees of Gombe are those of the Mahale Mountains in Tanzania, where many of the zoologists have The Fall of...