--- title: Wolves and teamwork: family packs, the alpha myth and hunting together — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Wolves and teamwork: family packs, the alpha myth and hunting together», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A wild wolf pack is not a gang ruled by a fighting boss: it is a family, a mother and father wolf w --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Wolves and teamwork: family packs, the… # Wolves and teamwork: family packs, the alpha myth and hunting together Lesson 240 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 13 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/0/) — A wild wolf pack is not a gang ruled by a fighting boss: it is a family, a mother and father wolf with their young from the last few years. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/1/) — The «alpha wolf» idea came from unrelated wolves kept together in zoos, who fought; in the wild the leaders are simply the parents. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/2/) — Picture a family walking through deep snow: the parents go first and break the path, and the children step in their footprints, which is just what a wolf pack does. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/3/) — Wolves, lionesses, African wild dogs and even geese in a V show that working as a team can beat being the strongest on your own. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/4/) — Most wolf packs are a family: a mother, a father and their young of different years, and their land can cover hundreds of square kilometres. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/5/) — Leading wolves break a path through snow and the others walk in their tracks to save energy. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/6/) — The alpha idea came from zoo wolves that were strangers to each other; David Mech, who made the word famous, spent years asking people to stop using it. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/7/) — Real wolves rarely attack people and usually avoid them, and bringing wolves back to Yellowstone in 1995 let riverbank trees grow back as elk, a kind of big deer, grazed less there. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/9/) — Wolves test a herd to find a weak, young, old or sick animal, most hunts fail, and a wolf can eat about 9 kilograms of meat at once. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/11/) — Lionesses hunt together, some driving prey towards others hiding in ambush, so they can catch animals as strong as buffalo. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/12/) — African wild dogs, also called painted wolves, seem to vote by sneezing on whether to go hunting, and they share food with pups and the sick. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/13/) — Geese fly in a V to save energy, each riding the upward swirl of air from the bird in front, and they take turns at the front. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/240-wolves-and-teamwork-family-packs-the-alpha-myth-and-hunting-together/14/) — Dogs came from wolves tamed more than 15,000 years ago, and even a Chihuahua has 42 teeth like a wolf. - ← previous: [Bees: the waggle dance, the hive and honey](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/239-bees-the-waggle-dance-the-hive-and-honey/) - next →: [Team players and partners: meerkats, naked mole rats, huddles, cleaners (and do lemmings jump?)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/241-team-players-and-partners-meerkats-naked-mole-rats-huddles-cleaners-and-lemmings/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)