{"id":8167,"date":"2016-10-26T15:18:26","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T15:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2016\/10\/26\/personality-not-just-for-humans\/"},"modified":"2016-10-26T15:18:26","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T15:18:26","slug":"personality-not-just-for-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/2016\/10\/26\/personality-not-just-for-humans\/","title":{"rendered":"Personality; not just for humans"},"content":{"rendered":"

wolveswolves<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

\nWe usually see \u201celephants\u201d\u2014or \u201cwolves\u201d or \u201ckiller whales\u201d or \u201cchimps\u201d or
\n \u201cravens\u201d and so on\u2014as interchangeable representatives of their kind.
\nBut the instant we focus on individuals, we see an elephant named Echo
\nwith exceptional leadership qualities; we see wolf 755 struggling to
\nsurvive the death of his mate and exile from his family; we see a lost
\nand lonely killer whale named Luna who is humorous and stunningly
\ngentle. We see individuality. It\u2019s a fact of life. And it runs deep.
\nVery deep.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Individuality
\nis the frontier of understanding non-human animals. But for decades, the
\n idea was forbidden territory. Scientists who stepped out of bounds
\nfaced withering scorn from colleagues. Jane Goodall experienced just
\nthat. After her first studies of chimpanzees, she enrolled as a doctoral
\n student at Cambridge. There, as she later recalled in National
\nGeographic, \u201cIt was a bit shocking to be told I\u2019d done everything wrong.
\n Everything. I shouldn\u2019t have given them names. I couldn\u2019t talk about
\ntheir personalities, their minds or their feelings.\u201d The orthodoxy was:
\nthose qualities are unique to humans.<\/p>\n

But these
\ndecades later we are realizing that Goodall was right; humans are not
\nunique in having personalities, minds and feelings. And if she\u2019d given
\nthe chimpanzees numbers instead of names?\u2014their individual personalities
\n would still have shined.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf ever there
\nwas a perfect wolf,\u201d says Yellowstone biologist Rick McIntyre, \u201cIt was
\nTwenty-one. He was like a fictional character. But real.\u201d McIntyre has watched free-living wolves for
\nmore hours than anyone, ever.<\/p>\n

Even from a
\ndistance Twenty-one\u2019s big-shouldered profile was recognizable. Utterly
\nfearless in defense of his family, Twenty-one had the size, strength,
\nand agility to win against overwhelming odds. \u201cOn two occasions, I saw
\nTwenty-one take on six attacking wolves\u2014and rout them all,\u201d Rick says.
\n\u201cWatching him felt like seeing something that looked supernatural. Like
\nwatching a Bruce Lee movie. I\u2019d be thinking, \u2018A wolf can\u2019t do what I am
\nwatching this wolf do.\u2019\u201d Watching Twenty-one, Rick elaborates, \u201cwas like
\n watching Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan\u2014a one-of-a-kind talent outside
\nof \u2018normal.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Twenty-one was a
\n superwolf. Uniquely, he never lost a fight and he never killed any
\ndefeated opponent. And yet Twenty-one was \u201cremarkably gentle\u201d with the
\nmembers of his pack. Immediately after making a kill he would often walk
\n away and nap, allowing family members who\u2019d had nothing to do with the
\nhunt eat their fill.<\/p>\n

One
\n of Twenty-one\u2019s favorite things was to wrestle little pups. \u201cAnd what
\nhe really loved to do,\u201d Rick adds, \u201cwas pretend to lose. He just got a
\nhuge kick out of it.\u201d Here was this great big male wolf. And he\u2019d let
\nsome little wolf jump on him and bite his fur. \u201cHe\u2019d just fall on his
\nback with his paws in the air,\u201d Rick half-mimes. \u201cAnd the
\ntriumphant-looking little one would be standing over him with his tail
\nwagging. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to
\n pretend,\u201d Rick adds, \u201cshows that you understand how your actions are
\nperceived by others. I\u2019m sure the pups knew what was going on, but it
\nwas a way for them to learn how it feels to conquer something much
\nbigger than you. And that kind of confidence is what wolves need every
\nday of their hunting lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Twenty-one\u2019s
\n life, there was a particular male, a sort of roving Casanova, a
\ncontinual annoyance. He was strikingly good-looking, had a big
\npersonality, and was always doing something interesting. \u201cThe best
\nsingle word is \u2018charisma,\u2019\u201d says Rick. \u201cFemale wolves were happy to mate
\n with him. People absolutely loved him. Women would take one look at
\nhim\u2014they didn\u2019t want you to say anything bad about him. His
\nirresponsibility and infidelity; it didn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

One day,
\nTwenty-one discovered this Casanova among his daughters. Twenty-one ran
\nin, caught him, biting and pinning him to the ground. Other pack members
\n piled in, beating Casanova up. \u201cCasanova was also big,\u201d Rick says, \u201cbut
\n he was a bad fighter.\u201d Now he was totally overwhelmed; the pack was
\nfinally killing him.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly
\nTwenty-one steps back. Everything stops. The pack members are looking at
\n Twenty-one as if saying, \u2018Why has Dad stopped?\u2019\u201d The Casanova wolf
\njumped up and\u2014as always\u2014ran away.<\/p>\n

After
\nTwenty-one\u2019s death, Casanova briefly became the Druid pack\u2019s alpha male.
\n But, Rick recalled: \u201cHe doesn\u2019t know what to do, just not a leader
\npersonality.\u201d And although it\u2019s very rare, his year-younger brother
\ndeposed him. \u201cHis brother had a much more natural alpha personality.\u201d
\nCasanova didn\u2019t mind; it meant he was free to wander and meet other
\nfemales. Eventually Casanova and several young Druid males met some
\nfemales and they all formed the Blacktail pack. \u201cWith them,\u201d Rick
\nremembers, \u201che finally became the model of a responsible alpha male and a
\n great father.\u201d <\/p>\n

The personality of a wolf \u2018matriarch\u2019 also helps shape the
\nwhole pack. Wolf Seven was the dominant female in her pack. But you
\ncould watch Seven for days and say, \u2018I think she\u2019s in charge,\u2019 because
\nshe led subtly, by example. Wolf Forty, totally different; she led with
\nan iron fist. Exceptionally aggressive, Forty had done something unheard
\n of: actually deposed her own mother. <\/p>\n

For three
\nyears, Forty ruled the Druid pack tyrannically. A pack member who stared
\n a moment too long would find herself slammed to the ground, Forty\u2019s
\nbared canines poised above her neck. Yellowstone research director Doug
\nSmith recalls, \u201cThroughout her life she was fiercely committed to always
\n having the upper hand, far more so than any other wolf we\u2019ve observed.\u201d
\nForty heaped her worst abuse on her same-age sister. Because this sister
\n lived under Forty\u2019s brutal oppression, she earned the name Cinderella. <\/p>\n

One year
\nCinderella split from the main pack and dug a den to give birth. Shortly
\n after she finished the den, her sister arrived and delivered one of her
\n infamous beatings. Cinderella just took it, as always. No one ever saw
\nany pups at that den. <\/p>\n

The next year,
\nCinderella, Forty, and a low-ranking sister all gave birth in dens dug
\nseveral miles apart. New wolf mothers nurse and guard constantly; they
\nrely on pack members for food. That year, few pack members visited the
\nbad-tempered alpha. Cinderella, though, found herself well assisted at
\nher den by several sisters.<\/p>\n

Six weeks after
\n giving birth, Cinderella and several attending pack members headed out,
\n away from her den\u2014and stumbled into the queen herself. Forty
\nimmediately attacked Cinderella with was, even for her, exceptional
\nferocity. She then turned her fury onto another of her sisters who\u2019d
\nbeen accompanying Cinderella, giving her a beating too. Then as dusk
\nsettled in, Forty headed toward Cinderella\u2019s den. Only the wolves saw
\nwhat happened next, but Doug Smith and Rick McIntyre pieced together
\nwhat went down. <\/p>\n

Unlike the
\nprevious year, this time Cinderella wasn\u2019t about to remain passive or
\nlet her sister reach her den and her six-week-old pups. Near the den a
\nfight erupted. There were at least four wolves, and Forty had earned no
\nallies among them.<\/p>\n

At dawn, Forty
\nwas down by the road covered in blood, and her wounds included a neck
\nbite so bad that her spine was visible. Her long-suffering sisters had,
\nin effect, cut her throat. She died. It was the only time researchers
\nhave ever known a pack to kill its own alpha. Forty was an
\nextraordinarily abusive individual. The sisters\u2019 decision, outside the
\nbox of wolf norms, was: mutiny. Remarkable.<\/p>\n

But Cinderella
\nwas just getting started. She adopted her dead sister\u2019s entire brood.
\nAnd she also welcomed her low-ranking sister and her pups. And so that
\nwas the summer that the Druid Peak pack raised an unheard-of twenty-one
\nwolf pups together in a single den.<\/p>\n

Out from under Forty\u2019s brutal reign, Cinderella developed into the
\npack\u2019s finest hunter. She later went on to become the benevolent
\nmatriarch of the Geode Creek pack. Goes to show: a wolf, as many a
\nhuman, may have talents and abilities that wither or flower depending on
\n which way their luck breaks. <\/p>\n

\u201cCinderella was
\n the finest kind of alpha female,\u201d Rick McIntyre says. \u201cCooperative,
\nreturning favors by sharing with the other adult females, inviting her
\nsister to bring her pups together with her own while also raising her
\nvanquished sister\u2019s pups\u2014. She set a policy of acceptance and cohesion.\u201d
\n She was, Rick says, \u201cperfect for helping everyone get along really
\nwell.\u201d<\/p>\n

(This piece is adapted from Carl Safina\u2019s most recent book, Beyond Words; What Animals Think and Feel<\/a>, which will is newly out in paperback)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

wolveswolves: We usually see \u201celephants\u201d\u2014or \u201cwolves\u201d or \u201ckiller whales\u201d or \u201cchimps\u201d or \u201cravens\u201d and so on\u2014as interchangeable representatives of their kind. But the instant we focus on individuals, we see an elephant named Echo with exceptional leadership qualities; we see wolf 755 struggling to survive the death of his mate and exile from his family; … Continue reading Personality; not just for humans<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","without-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archive.gabapple.com\/tumblr\/gabapple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}