Science Marches On: The references to Alpha and Beta Wolves are generally considered redundant in modern literature, being based on observations of captive packs with an unnatural social structure of unrelated or semi-related individuals.note The breeding pair of a wild pack is naturally dominant because they are the parents of the other wolves - the other adults are last year's grown cubs who haven't yet left to form their own packs, and who typically do not challenge their parents, since they would then have breeding rights with their other parent and wolves aren't big on Parental Incest. Captive packs made up of unrelated wolves introduced to each other in adulthood tend to have a more volatile hierarchy, since there's no natural order but physical strength and disagreements must be settled; the two parties can't simply part ways.
