Successful Species of Animals that prove that males are not ALWAYS "top dog"

[quietleah]

1. Spotted Hyenas

In a spotted hyena clan, every single female is completey dominate of the males. They are very successful and have nearly no natural enemies. Females decide when to eat, where, who can have what, everything.

2. Lions

You've prabably heard "king of the jungle" but despite what many people will tell you, its really the lionesses who decide when and where to hunt. They also decide who is the Leading Lion.

3. Orcas

A.K.A, killer whales. Females decide where and when and who. All of the time. No questions asked.

4. Honey Bees

Everyone has seen a honey bee. Queen Bee isn't just an expression, its a fact.

5. Elephants

Yep, thats right, the largest land mammals are ruled by females. They are also the most dangerous and have no natural enemies.

6. Peafowl

Yes, peahens are higher ranking than peacocks. Seems odd, but it is true.

[RationalMale]

Off the top of my head, no, the male lions are in fact the top dog. They defend the pride against competing males, and if the lead lion of the pride is killed, the new male will kill all the cubs under two years of age.

[Tycwep]

This was just brought up when that dentist killed the lion they were afraid this was going to happen but I think it didn't.

[SilenRose]

Nice take. Don't let the haters stop you. <3

[OpenClose]

You forgot arguably the most relevant of all, Bonobos.

Equally related to humans as Chimpanzees, these apes are matriarchal in the sense that the females form close bonds, while the males' status is determined by his mother's status, and female hierarchies are determined largely by things like seniority.

One of the big reasons this is the case, is because unlike chimpanzees, bonobos don't have much interest in paternity certainty:

When a new "alpha" chimpanzee takes command, they often go through the whole troop and slaughter the existing infants, then rape the females to ensure that it is only THEIR progeny the females are taking care of, and to establish dominance over the females. Not quite as bad as Baboons, but quite dystopian nevertheless.

For bonobos, there is no male that has exclusive reproductive access, all the females have lots of sex with all the males, making paternity lines impossible to determine for them, thus no evolutionary pressure towards infanticide. Furthermore, since there isn't a single group of males who monopolize all reproduction, there is no need for males to compete with one another.

This is further emphasized by the fact that they have far more sex than they could possibly reproduce with, including ways that can't possibly reproduce. It has become a way of keeping everyone calm. In bonobos, we find sex acts that we originally through were exclusive to humans, like tongue kissing, oral sex, hand jobs, and tons of homosexual acts, including the ever-important "Bonobo Handshake", where females rub their vaginas together as basically a handshake.

The males are still stronger than the females, but they don't act out in groups, so the females gang up to stop the male, then have sex with him to ease tensions.

When two tribes of Bonobos meet up, the males get restless in case things go bad, but the females of each group basically initiate a large orgy which binds the groups together and, again, ease tensions.

Their discovery in the 30's and first published finding is the 50's shook the core of how we viewed human sexuality, and was a major contributor to the sexual revolution in the following decades. We thought human sexuality was more chimp-like, but evidence is mounting that the common ancestor was more like bonobos, and it was Chimps who deviated and became violent, with humans only adopting this lifestyle AFTER the advent of agriculture.

[Jager66]

So whats your point? This means nothing about humans if that's what your trying to imply, maybe if you had a bunch of example from primate species but even then that would be totally different, maybe try look into how tribal societies work and that will give you a bit better idea how humans evolved to be.

Also you clearly have no understanding about power, it comes in many forms and in the human species, above any other, social and covert power is VERY important, females have LOTS of this kind of power, always have.

Your point of view is very narrow minded and even misogynistic. Think about it, if men have always been dominant and more powerful then women doesn't that mean women are inferior and should be dominated? The reality it is much more complex then this and women have always held a great deal of power, just not in the only way Feminists are able to grasp what power means.

[openwide]

Interesting adaptations for reproduction of these species, however none of them have what we have the long childhood of an offspring, human babies are very fragile, they are small because of their head being so large compared to their bodies ( so they are small so the head can be expelled... ).

This long childhood means great care of the offspring, best way to achieve this is trough cooperation, domination wouldn't do it.

So bottom line is that we are so smart because female and males cooperate in raising the babies, they don't compete/dominate.

[pandabear25]

Lol well from my experience they don't cooperate. The mom does everything while the dad does nothing. We work hard and look after the family while daddy drinks and cheats on mommy. Actually now that I think of it I can't even think of one family I know whose dad does anything to help. It's always the mom.

[openwide]

@pandabear25 Just to understand your conclusion, we are in this evolutionary position because males agreed between themselves that each one gets to dominate some female, so we just put them work for us, build the house, pay the bills and do the babies?

[Anonymous]

If you think about it, power is more evenly spread through females of almost every animal whereas only small numbers of males ever really have any power.

This is how our species works too.

A woman can get almost any male she wants as long as she's healthy and attractive whereas even relatively healthy and attractive men can't get almost any women. You need to be one of the few men with money and social status to have a decent pick of women.
This is what allows women to be hypergamous. Men don't have that choice.

Yes women can also attain money and power themselves but save from a big inheritance or winning the lottery, attaining it themselves is the ONLY way men can get money, social status and power.

So even though men are in the very highest individual positions of power, women generally have more power over men through more options.

[openwide]

Male power is physical and social ( money/status ) and female power is reproduction ( being healthy, beauty being an indirect measure). So its no wonder that top females go for top males.

Just think of an unattractive girl, what kind of power does she have over you? Probably none, we both have some sort of power our advantage as man is that we can change while a unattractive girl doesn't have the chance.

[hellionthesage]

The lion is actually the dominant, relatively speaking. The females hunt and bring food to him, he has top pick of mates etc. But what was the point of this? Females are dominant in most species. They are the dominant gender in humans as well, so I really don't understand what your trying to get at?

[VampireEmpress]

you really think so? I'd have never thought you'd ever say something like that. unless you're just trolling?

[John_Doesnt]

Some of these are way off or misinterpreted. The male lion is always the king of a pride. And to put things in greater context he's always in charge of more than one female. He sits, eats, roars, humps and the women go get the dinner. He truly is the king. The lionesses also don't actually choose, the male lion has to compete with other male lions and prove he can take a beating.
As for the elephant: the woman only leads the juveniles and the other women. The fully mature male elephants leave until they're ready to come back and have sex with one of the girl elephants. Then he does his own thing and goes back to being a bachelor.

Lastly the peacocks: I live in Southern California and seeing random peacocks is pretty normal. And it's always one male leading a pack of women, which I assume he's screwing whenever he feels like it.

Don't want to rain on your parade, but for someone who studies animals all the time I had to correct all this wrong information.

[Octavius]

Actually the alpha lion is decided by a fight between two lions. The females just go to the winner. Lionesses hunt while Lions protect the pride from intruders.

Actually most animals the female is larger and stronger than the male. Only in mammals (who make up an incredibly small portion of animals) and a few select groups of other animals are the males larger.

But we aren't primitive anymore (at least not entirely) so it really shouldn't matter.

[TatyanaTheEmpress]

Not true, in some species of birds of pray, and most of the sharks - females tend to be quite larger than males.

[Octavius]

@TatyanaTheEmpress Neither birds nor sharks are mammals.

[TatyanaTheEmpress]

I know that, I misread what you said...

[paestejo]

Idiot, that's ONLY because most animals are insects. And insects aren't really animals anywas.

in reptiles, mammals, aves etc. MALES ARE DOMINANT

[TatyanaTheEmpress]

Nice MyTake, you should have also mentioned Seahorse: animalia-life.com/.../seahorse7.jpg

In all species of Seahorse - males get pregnant, females pump them up with their eggs ;)

www.theseahorsetrust.org/seahorse-facts.aspx

[front2back]

You forgot foxes, one of the few species were the female is the sexual aggressor. Female foxes, aka "Vixens", even have something called the "Vixen's scream" where they give out a distinct loud mating call to find a male.

[Anonymous]

Female lions are slaves... they are sent to bring the lion his food. Children are also of no value, and will be disposed of if their father loses to another male.

An elephant herd has females and children. Males live alone or in gangs. The male dominates a herd if he passes by. The only reason rape is unsuccessful is because the female has some inner protection that makes consent necessary. But that doesn't stop the male from trying...

Bees are insects, not animals

[quietleah]

female lions are not slaves, ask anyone who actually works with lions. they decide when and were to hunt. and they will kill the male lion if they decide he is not a good leader.

i have observed elephants, the males do not dominate the herd if they pass by. they fit underneath the female leader, above the others, but the female leader stays in charge

[Opinion Owner]

LOL either you're an uneducated bigot or you want to spread BS MYTHS to support the feminist agenda. You're spreading OUTRIGHT LIES about elephants and lions.

Female lions can't do anything when he comes to kill their kids... they also bring the kill to the male, who eats his lions share and leaves the slaves (females) the leftovers. It is rare for females to overstep their bounds, but when they do, the male often kills them. There have been so many recorded incidents of this...

[TatyanaTheEmpress]

LOL, insects are also animals, they are certainly not plants ;)

[Phoenix98]

Well actually that's not true male lions are indeed leaders and in charge of the prides they inhabit. And no the female lions do not choose the male lions as leaders, male lions actually fight over who is leader of the pride, the strongest males leads while the weaker one is either killed or exiled.

Your also wrong on a couple of others as well.

[mrsingle]

Male lions can hunt, but the mane weighs them down they usually save energy for fighting other males to protect the pride.

How about female seahorse making the male pregnant.

Or the male angler fish, that actually becomes attatched to the female! He becomes a part of her body to transfer sperm, and is like a parasite since it cannot feed itself after.

[mrsingle]

Termites and ants also have a queen. Some insects can also selectively rid themselves of Sperm to find a better mate.

[CityBoy773]

I kinda find this hilarious. Each guy is obviously a little butthurt which adds to the humor. I find the Take funny and I love animals, so I admit to being a little bias too.

[Anonymous]

Male lions hunt; There's videos showing male lions hunting together. Female lions need male lions for protection, whereas male lions don't actually NEED a female lion to provide him with food.

A more important point: We're not these animals, so if the point of this post was to derive pride out of these different species, then all I have to say is 'look into a mirror'. You ain't an elephant; You're a female human, and as a female human you aren't 'top dog'.

[PublicEnemyNumber-1]

I fail to see your point. Unless you are implying that females can be superior to males, in which case you misunderstood the phrase "Top Dog". Top Dog refers to one specific person, not a group of people.

[Anonymous]

just for fun...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfHAiIq-Yeo

[Zorax]

Interesting Take, from a Zoological point of view :)

[MysteriousFlower]

The elephants can be hunted by poachers, besides that I didn't know about these animals, I did suspect about the Lioness. Girl power!.

[Resoglass]

Worker bees can leave.

Even drones can fly away.

The Queen is their slave.

[Nuqood]

His name is Resoglass.

[Resoglass]

@Nuqood I have bitch tits

[Nuqood]

Winstrol... they use that on race horses for Christ sakes.

[mrsingle]

Queens can fly away to find a new hive or if the old one is destroyed, but the other bees give her food. The only threat to a queen, is a new, younger queen born. Only one queen can stay in a hive or there is a fight to the death for one queen!

[mrsingle]

Ant queens and termites are slaves, they lose their wings forever.

[Resoglass]

@mrsingle You're really harshing my Fight Club-mellow over here

[mrsingle]

Sorry, animals are what I'm very knowledgable on.

[Resoglass]

@mrsingle I dunno if this is the place for this but: Have you heard anything about that coyote-wolf hybrid? Would they make good pets?

[mrsingle]

I know of them and they are naturally more timid and active than domestic dogs. They must be raised from pups around humans and need an outdoor area to run. unless your Cesar the dog whisperer who can tame any dog.

[Minxxie]

I was surprised you didn't mention preying mantis or spiders or clown fish