I had the same thought. And also, the whole classification of "alpha male", "beta male" of the pack has been debunked, since there's no pack, just the wolves family. So the "betas" are actually the young adults of the family, and the "alphas" the father and mother.

I mentioned the article title to my high school animal enthusiast and that is the first thing they said; haven't researched it yet but it seems like these scientists would be "in the know."