If your teacher asked you to name some great women rulers, whom would you name? Would you think of some of the great female Egyptian queens, such as Queen Nefertiti, and perhaps the most famous Egyptian queen of all, Cleopatra? Or perhaps you might come up with a ruler who is a little more modern. Many countries around the world are currently ruled by a woman, or have been in very the recent past. These include Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and many other countries, especially in Africa.

It seems like women are working hard to lead their people around the world, but did you know that there are a lot of great female leaders in nature too? A lot of animal societies, especially carnivores (meat eaters), are lead by males. Scientists think this is because the males are often larger and more aggressive (better fighters). But females also lead some populations (groups) of animals. For example, females are dominant (rule) in populations of spotted hyenas. It turns out that when it comes to these meat-eaters, females are more aggressive than males.

Does this mean that more aggressive animals always rule? This may quite possibly be true, at least in carnivore populations. But did you know that in some populations of animals, there are no males at all? Yup, it’s true. Not a single one! It is very rare, but it does happen. One example is the whiptail lizard. All whiptail lizards are female. The question that should be on your mind right now is how in the world do whiptail lizards survive more than one generation? After all, females cannot give birth without male lizards to fertilize their eggs…or can they? Yes they can! Whiptail lizards are unique. The females give birth to an unfertilized egg. The egg hatches and is an exact copy of the mother. In other words, the baby is a clone, just like the clones in Star Wars, but of course, a lot scalier, being lizards and all. Cool!