This TED Talk features primatologist Franz de Wall recorded live at TEDMed 2017.

Well, I have known many alpha males in my life, chimpanzee alpha males. And I'm going to talk about

what an alpha male is, because I think we can learn a lot from our close relatives where we have alpha males.

And as an example, I want to give you Amos, a male that I knew, who was a young male, and he was

alpha male, was very popular, but he got sick. And he lost his position because, you know,

chimpanzee males,

they can spot from a mile away if you're weak, and they went for him,

and he lost his position.

And then he got sicker and sicker until at some point we had to isolate him.

The group lived on a grassy island, and we had to isolate him in a cage.

But we cracked open the cage so that the rest

of the chimps still had access to him. And what happened was most touching. Other chimps would

bring food to him. They would bring wood wool to him, which is the thing that they used to sleep

in, build nests out of. And females would put the wood wool behind his back.

He was leaning heavily against the wall, and the way we do is pillows to patients in a hospital.

They were putting that stuff behind his back.

And I thought, this is the way to go for an alpha male.

He was loved and respected, and everyone was taking care of him.

And this is not always how it goes, because some males don't end so well when they lose their position.

So Amos was an example of a male who was liked as a leader.

And I think the term alpha male, if you look it up on the Internet,

you will find all these business books that tell you how to be an alpha male.

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