    30

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    effects far more than just how many feathers you lose.  It readjusts your

    lifestyle, your chances of survival, your sex life, and your physiology.

    The pecking order can determine whether you live or die.

    According to the father of sociobiology, E.O. Wilson, the highest wood

    pigeons in a pecking order go to bed at night with a full stomach.   The

    birds on the bottom frequently don't.  The lower-class pigeons perch on

    the evening roost with a meager meal working its way through their

    gut--just enough fuel to carry them through the night.  If the weather

    grows unusually cold or if they don't find food the next day, some of

    those birds on the underside of the heap may not make it alive.  On the

    other hand, the comfortable birds on the top of the tree nearly always

    manage in even the most troubled times.  Their right to all the best

    food and lodging makes sure of that fact.57

    Pecking order privileges include sex.  Three male and three

    female rats were left alone in a cage to battle out their social system and

    sleep with whomever they liked.  Two males lost out in the struggle for

    top position.  They apparently also ended up with an empty dating

    calendar.  When the females gave birth and their pups were examined,

    it turned out that all of them had been sired by the one dominant male.

    The experiment was run another twenty-one times, with different

    rodent participants on each occasion.  The final result: the dominant

    rats managed to father a walloping 92% of the young.58

    Where you end up in the pecking order can even change your

    physical makeup.  A dominant male monkey has a higher sperm

    count, more visible testicles, and a far more regal posture.  The

    monkeys who don't make it to the top skulk around stoop-shouldered

    and less sexually potent.  But if some meddling researcher kidnaps the

    ruling simian and leaves his lordly spot vacant, the round-shouldered

    subordinates will grab for the empty throne.  The monkey who ends

    up on top will undergo a change.  His testicles will drop.  His sperm

    count will climb.  And his hunched posture will melt away, replaced

    by an authoritative upright strut.  The new king of the castle goes

    through a biological transformation...simply because he's moved up on

      s yielded some startling revelations.  Position in the pecking order

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