The term pecking order came about in the 1920s from the writings of Norway’s Thorleif Schjelderup on his study of social order among hens. A hen pecks another who is lower on her social scale without fear of retribution. Then another pecks another until they get their order established. The pecking order theory transfers to other animal groups and it is how animals in a group interact, which creates ranking. Every community of animals or people have a pecking order − a social standing order.There is a noticeable pecking order of the birds that come to my birdfeeder. The red bellied woodpecker is first, then the blue jays are second and all the others just kind of fall into place.When I talk about farm animals I’m referring to groups of females. A male of the species added to the group would make a whole different dynamic. In a herd of cattle there is likely a boss cow. I asked my nephew, who raises cattle, about this. He thought maybe it had to do with survival of the fittest or strongest or taking care of one’s own needs first. I thought perhaps she’s the boss because she can and wants to.We see a pecking order among the sheep. I wouldn’t call them nasty, but some are dominant. When we make pens of a few ewes and their lambs we consider age, size and personality traits of the ewes as we pen them together.

I recently ran across an old issue of the Farm and Dairy weekly newspaper and a column by a ranchwoman in South Dakota. She wrote about the social order of her barn cats, not as a pecking order, but barn cat politics. It made me think about the barn cat politics on our farm. We have several barn cats and I feed them at two different barns.

The barns are about 100 feet apart and the cats have mostly divided themselves as to who lives in which barn and they rarely cross the invisible line between the barns. There is a dominant female in each barn and an interesting point about that is that they are sisters. Apparently neither barn was big enough for both. The domineering is especially noticeable at the feed bowl as they like to smack other cats down even though there is plenty of food for all.

As the young tomcats get to be a year or a year and a half old they begin to work out among themselves who will be the top cat. A lot of young toms begin to disappear. Do they go to seek their fortunes elsewhere, do they find a new home (unlikely) or are they victims of coyotes or the elements?

I think my cats are a bit like the parties in government politics. They bicker and they don’t cross the line to come to any reasonable agreement.

Iris Eppley is a member of the Farm Bureau Council.

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: All animals, even people, have a pecking order