What happens to gorillas or other mammals when they can't size each other up?

Question

Like imagine a barn of bucks that are isolated individually where they can't knock antlers. Or a group of blind-folded gorillas that can't tell who is the bigger gorilla. Heard of anything like this where a group of animals comes to a stalemate in determining who has alpha status? Thanks

Answer 1

good question, they keep away from each other as neither will confront the other due to not wanting an injury, however if they can hear they can judge the others size from sound & in some cases judge the age & weakness' from scent of urine

Answer 2

Well, first off, Gorillas and other primates don't just use size to determine an alpha. Primates use a very complex mixture of social ties, physical prowess, and sometimes luck to determine their place on the pecking order.

Often hierarchies are not fluid, so it's not always obvious who's the alpha, beta, etc.