Most animal societies are ruled by males, but some are ruled by females.
These matriarchal groups are usually led by the oldest and wisest individuals. Female leadership mostly evolved in mammals, which tend to live longer and have fewer offspring than other animal species. According to a 2020 study in the journal, females have a disproportionate influence on the collective behavior of animal group members with female leaders. Management Quarterly.
Female leadership takes many forms. Females of some species, such as bonobos and spotted hyenas, rule by forming alliances and coordinating attacks against males, while others, such as African savannah elephants and killer whales, dominate through their wisdom.
So, without further ado, here are six examples of animals with female bosses.
African savannah elephants
African savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana) is the largest species of elephant and the largest land animal on Earth. According to WWFthese elephants they roam sub-Saharan Africa in family units of about 10 females and their young. Often these family units combine to form “clans” of several hundred elephants, headed by a single female matriarch. This leadership role is usually assigned to the oldest and most experienced woman in the group.
The matriarch decides where the herd goes, how to respond to threats and crises, and when and where to settle. He also guides the elephants to food and water, which is no small task considering African savannas require elephants around 300 pounds (140 kilograms) of vegetation and up to 50 gallons (190 liters) of water per day to maintain their enormous size.
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But the matriarch’s wisdom and authority don’t necessarily make her an autocrat, according to the nonprofit Elephant voices. Other members of the group can make suggestions and influence where the elephants move, for example. There can also be conflict between women, and this sometimes bubbles up when the matriarch dies, leaving behind a power vacuum.
Male African savannah elephants associate with female-led herds only during mating season.
Spotted hyenas
Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) is a highly social and intelligent species. Like African savannah elephants, spotted hyenas move in female-led clans that can include anywhere between six and 90 hyenas. Female spotted hyenas are not much larger than their male counterparts, but they are far more aggressive and can therefore have more power. Women also have a pseudopenis – an elongated clitoris that is so large it looks like a penis – and they lack a vaginal opening, ie. they look almost the same as men. Due to their anatomy, female spotted hyenas have complete control over who they mate with. When females decide to mate, they retract their pseudopenis to create an opening for males to insert their penis into.
Female spotted hyenas assert their dominance through aggressive behavior and also by mating, research has shown. Females receive much more social support than males in hyena clans, meaning females are more likely to dominate and “win” interactions between the two sexes. Differences in social support arise as male spotted hyenas leave their natal clan when they reach puberty. The social bonds they form when they join a new clan are weaker than those of females who grew up together.
Killer whales
Killer whales (Orcinus orca), also known as killer whales, are one of the main predators of the ocean. They live in matriarchal societies with separate pods made up of a female, her offspring, and her offspring’s offspring. Pods consist of several to more than 20 male and female killer whales, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Several pods may join together in large groups to socialize, hunt or mate – but eventually orcas always return to their mother pods.
Killer whales rely on other pod members to survive. For example, killer whales have been observed hunting for food to feed a pod member that was missing two fins, the Daily Mail reported. But it’s the females who do the heavy lifting: Orca mothers often to take care of their sons until adulthood by hunting and escorting them, even if it affects the mother’s chances of reproduction. Older women are too responsible for guiding the pod to food and for teach your young new skills that help them survive.
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Orcas are one of the few species who are going through menopause, which frees up time for older women to care for their grandchildren. Research showed that the care of a grandmother significantly increases the survival of her grandchildren and that the death of the grandmother, on the other hand, leads to increased mortality of these young. The evolution of menopause in killer whale societies also ensures that there is no competition for mates between older and younger related females.
Bonobos
bonobos (Paniscus), along with chimpanzees (Mr. Troglodytes), are our closest living relatives. Bonobos live in large social groups made up of males and females, but unlike chimpanzee groups, bonobo communities are led by females. Women resolve conflicts through sexual contact. To comfort the victim of a fight, for example, a woman hugs the victim and swings her hips from side to side to make genital contact. Sexual contact is thought to regulate stress in bonobos and ease tension between group members so they can live peacefully.
Female bonobos disperse and emigrate to new groups after reaching sexual maturity, while males remain in their natal group. In their new groups, females use sex to quickly create strong social bonds with unrelated – and often higher status – women. They nurture these bonds throughout their lives and use them to do so organize attacks against males. By asserting their dominance in this way, female bonobos ensure they have access to quality foodwhich increases their reproductive success and discourages unwanted male sexual behavior.
Honey bees
Honey bees (Apis) are famously led by a single adult queen. These bees live in giant colonies of tens of thousands of workers who build the nest, forage and care for the brood. Workers are sexually immature and do not lay eggs. Only the queen can reproduce, with the help of several hundred male “drones”, who join the colony only in late spring and summer. Trumpets have no stinger, wax glands, or pollen baskets; their main purpose is to fertilize the queen’s eggs, after which they drop dead University of Delaware.
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The queen bee ensures the survival of the colony by laying up to 250,000 eggs a year and possibly more than 1 million in her lifetime, according to the University of Delaware. (Queens can live up to five years.) She is also responsible for maintaining the colony by producing a pheromone that unifies the hive and gives it an individual “identity” that keeps her workers loyal. To fulfill her duties and in return for her hard work, the queen needs constant attention and a steady supply of royal jelly – the nutrient-dense milky substance produced by the workers. The number of eggs a queen lays depends on the amount of food she receives and how well her workers build the wax cells for her eggs.
lemurs
Several lemur species have female leaders. In lynx lemurs (Lemur catta) that live in mixed social groups up to 25 individuals, females can dominate because they need the first bite of food to reproduce successfully. Females are aggressive towards both males and females when competing for food, but men are more submissivewhich means women are on top.
Female lemurs constantly winning conflicts with men, but the reasons for this are still unclear. Lemurs are monomorphic, meaning that males and females grow to a similar size and generally look the same, but the males seem to still feel threatened by the females. Especially high-ranking men, prefer to skip meals than fighting hungry women. By avoiding antagonistic interactions with females, these males may improve their chances of reproduction.