New Video Shows the Hierarchy of Yellowstone's Wapiti Wolf Pack

Since we live in the wolf country known as Wyoming, we know more about wolf packs than most places in America. But, many still don't fully understand how the hierarchy works within the pack. A new video show's a little bit about how this works from Yellowstone's Wapiti Wolf Pack.

Yellowstone Wolf Tracker recently shared this video on Facebook. The status says this is a subordinate female wolf greeting one of the alpha females. It's an interesting interaction.

Since this was originally shared a few days ago, there have been over 58,000 likes and 1,500 comments. Most of the comments have to do with the wolf "family" and how these interactions work.

Wolf Haven International adds some more details of how packs like Yellowstone's Wapiti operate. They sum it up this way:

Wolves live in packs – groups of animals that are usually related by close blood ties (family units). A hierarchical order exists within the pack; every animal knows its place in that order.

They add that it's the male and female leaders that are the breeding ones. They are also known to be the first to eat when a kill is made. One thing I did not know is that there is an Omega wolf which is the lowest rank in the pack. It's something of an outlier that eats last and more or less orbits the pack, but is also one that might instigate play.

The wolf pack is a fascinating dynamic. This video is yet more proof of this interesting ranking and interaction.