This leader, as some barnyards and university labs show, need not be a male animal.
Hens can kill roosters.
So to begin, let's free the idea of leadership from images of the biggest, the bravest and, the brawniest. Yet, from watching tv nature shows, we do tend to associate leaders with the first vulture at the carnage, the large wolf that puts down younger male challengers. And we see leadership as being in harmony with and following the innate will of the group rather than trying to dominate the group. A culture sees in animals its own myths. This idea is transparent enough when Eurocentric anthropologists report Australian and African tribal beliefs.