It turns out that the depiction of King Julien and his rank in Madagascar wasn’t 100% accurate. But we’ll get to that later. First, let’s learn more about some other animal species that have a leader and a dominant hierarchy.
1. Wolves
Wolves are used in almost every moody Instagram image and every cliche romance fiction book out there. And if you’ve seen Twilight, you’ll know that there’s a leadership structure amongst these howling specimens.
However, it turns out that they didn’t accurately portray this structure in the movies or books. It’s a fictional world with fictional characters, so surprise surprise. Apparently, the entire alpha wolf idea is a myth. The truth is that the breeding pair or parents of a pack are the rightful leaders. That’s right, the mom and the dad are in charge of teaching the children to hunt and survive in the wild. When they grow up, they go out to find mates and start packs of their own.
While we’re still on the topic, did you know that a timberwolf is actually just a gray wolf that lives in a forested area?
2. Elephants
Our biggest land friends, elephants, have an entirely different take on things. Instead of electing an elder male or appointing the parental pair as leaders, they’re led by the oldest female in the group. We call them the matriarchs.
If you know how elephants communicate, it should come as no surprise to you that the matriarch uses her trunk and feet to listen to earthly vibrations. They use these vibrations to lead the group and to sense danger before it strikes. They can even distinguish between friendly and dangerous lions by listening to their roars, which brings us to…
3. Lions
Where I live (in sunny South Africa) lions are king of the jungle and practically part of the furniture. And no, they don’t really roam around in the streets and we don’t keep them in our backyards. But around here we’ve learned to respect them and their leadership dynamics.
Lions live in prides that consist of 3 to 4 dominant leaders, which are males known as kings. Their job is to defend their pride and its territory. Different prides can also form a sort of coalition, in which there will be a single dominant male that pulls all of the strings. However, this role isn’t permanent and sometimes it changes because of injuries, death, and even power struggles.
4. Honey Bees
We all know about the honey bees and their mighty queen, right? But did we know that bees kill their queen?
Honey bees live in colonies with a queen bee and many worker bees. They share leadership in some ways but the queen bee is solely responsible for managing and growing the colony’s population. She’s the only female in the colony that’s got fully developed reproductive organs, so basically, she’s the big momma of all the bees. The only decision she makes is who to mate with next.
Worker bees, the little guys that are second in charge, make all of the practical decisions. They decide how big the brood nest should be, when to swarm, and where they need to look for food. They can also decide to eliminate and replace the queen bee if they believe she’s not doing her job.
5. Orcas
Killer whales are matriarchal. Their pods are led by older females because they’re more experienced and they know how to get through lean years. What’s interesting about orca pods is that individuals stay in their mother’s pod until they die. But they don’t breed with orcas in their own pod to prevent inbreeding.
6. Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees are incredible animals. In fact, they’re great apes, which are considered the smartest amongst the four types of primates. And yes, their social hierarchy is just as complex as their cognitive abilities.
The most important chimp in a group is known as the alpha male. This is the individual that earned himself this spot by gaining support from other males in the group. They use tactics like coalitions and bribes to build bonds and relationships with other males. Not to mention their size and strength, which is usually intimidating enough to keep them in power. Their most important tasks are preventing and resolving conflict in the group, controlling food access and distribution, and determining who mates.
But they’re not the only leaders in the group. There’s also an alpha female that leads all of the females in the group, but she doesn’t have nearly as much power.
7. Meerkats
When I think of meerkats, I picture them as the little mobs of the animal world. They form groups and then they work together to fight off predators. And every meerkat has a job, from babysitting to teaching the young to hunt. But they need someone to make sure that these jobs get done, right?
Meerkats are also matriarchal, so their groups are also led by a dominant female. She’s responsible for foraging, reproduction, and the general movement of the group. She keeps her position with force and aggression by attacking females that try to overthrow her. Any meerkat that threatens her leadership gets evicted from the group and when she dies her daughter takes over. It really is as simple as that.
8. Spotted Hyenas
Hyenas don’t have groups or prides. Instead, we call them hyena clans and yes, they’re also led by an alpha female. Females are usually stronger, bigger, and more aggressive than males, which make them perfect to lead the clan. What sets their leadership apart from the rest is that their clans are matrilineal, which means the scepter gets passed down in a linear style. When the matriarch dies, her daughter is next in line, and when she dies her daughter is next, and so forth…
9. Crows
Crows don’t make great pets, but they’re extremely intelligent. In fact, they’re one of the top puzzle-solving animals. They can even make tools and remember faces out in the wild. Perhaps this is why their hierarchy is so well-thought-out.
If you spot a crow at the top of a tree, it’s most likely the leader busy with lookout while the rest of the group forages for food. The breeding male is the leader and he’s followed by immigrant males, then male offspring. After the males, there’s the breeding female and then the female offspring. Older offspring have a higher rank than the young, and even the youngest male crows are more important than the females in the family.
10. Dolphins
Dolphins and their leadership structures aren’t as strict and linear as you may think. Actually, you can call their hierarchy fluid if you want. They’ve got leaders, but the individual in charge of the pod can change depending on the situation.
Some dolphin species rely on dominant males to lead the pod, while other species may have female leaders. On the other hand, some dolphin pods don’t care about the gender, as long as the individual is older with more life experience. At the end of the day, these marine animals are egalitarian, so they don’t care about the spotlight at all. They also don’t get aggressive and overthrow the current leader because they’ll happily give up their position when necessary.
11. Clownfish
These brightly colored fish also answer to females. The most dominant leader is a female, while her second-in-command is a male. But get this…
Clownfish are sequential hermaphrodites. This means that they are born male, but they’re able to morph into females. As soon as the female leader dies, the 2IC changes his sex and takes over. Other than this, they’re monogamous and very territorial and aggressive.
12. Lemurs
I’ve kept you hanging with that King Julien statement for long enough now. It’s finally time to let the lemurs of Madagascar out the bag! Unless King Julien is supposed to be a girl, his leadership role isn’t accurate. At all. Lemurs are also matriarchal, so Queen Julienne would’ve been more appropriate.
Their groups consist of the matriarch, her babies, and a couple of males. Female lemurs are very aggressive, so they use this trait to maintain their social structure. Their main responsibility is maintaining and protecting their territory, so they show dominance by attacking males. They pull their tails, slap them, and even bite them. Plus, they chase off any males that try their luck when they don’t want to mate with them.
13. Mongooses
Mongooses have two leaders in every pack or mob, which consists of between 6 and 40 individuals. They’re the dominant male and female, or the parents of the lot.
Things are somewhat different for dwarf mongooses, who just have a dominant female that leads the group. But just like other mongooses, every pack member has a job, like hunting or caring for the young. Unfortunately, some mongoose leaders are prepared to exploit the group for personal benefits. When the pack realizes this, they’ll start a mini war and kill the leaders.
