gamma female

English

Noun

gamma female (plural gamma females)

1. A female who is third in rank in the social hierarchy, beneath alphas and betas, but above deltas.
   • 1972, Advances in the Study of Behavior, page 97:

     The alpha female attacked swollen females, the beta female attacked deflating females, the gamma female attacked both inflating and deflating females, but neither beta nor gamma female attacked swollen females, perhaps because of their proximity to the male (Rowell, 1969a).

   • 1976, Sandra Lee Vehrencamp, The Evolution of Communal Nesting in Groove-billed Anis, page 51:

     The subordinate females continued to lay, and the gamma female in the end laid more eggs than the alpha female, as if trying to compensate for for the lost eggs.

   • 1998, Thomas C. Grubb, Tufted Titmouse, page 40:

     The gamma female moves up to pair with the newly divorced beta male.

   • 2012, A.B. Chiarelli, Robert Corruccini, Primate Behavior and Sociobiology, page 98:

     This changed dramatically when we introduced the gamma female Mecki together with her two children (2.8).