In David Mech's 1999 paper "Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs," he argued that the concept of an "alpha" wolf who asserts his or her dominance over other pack members ...

Popularized the alpha wolf concept. A great deal of research was done on the wolf's pack structure in the 1960s and 1970s, but this was mainly on wolves in captivity, Zimmermann said.