Pack animals have leadership hierarchies. Not really politics, but there is a set order and succession.

Yes. Higher apes are capable of deception, and tribal warfare.

No we don't have a corner on politics. Chickens have a fairly complex political system. Pecking order ,which is politics in a nutshell, originated with them.

Good one. I still teach the Humanities part-time for University. We discuss the animal kingdom and see that the males of the species that we observe have more commonly a way of becoming the dominant- "locking horns" fighting until the strongest wins; urinating on trees which releases a scent that warns others this is my "turf." Female birds choose their mates from the counrting, mating ritual. Thus there is an instinctive hierarchical order and organization. Our HUMAN POLITICS is expected to be more civilized but is not in fact: assassination of the opponent physically or her/his character, dirty tricks, lying and spreading false rumors ("Obama is Islamic," "Hillary is a dyke") digging up crud from the past, buying the influence with huge money from the Big Guys. Then we have the brainless buit clever seductively cutesy 30 sec. 60 sec TV spots which makes them look good. There is Mom Dad and the kids and family pet; shaking hands with farmers, factory workers- all staged and mostly irerelevant. Aristotle called humans RATIONAL ANIMALS, the less reason we use the less rational and more animal we become.

See my post, the first for this question. I see some here and know it is common in the culture to not recognize the divine-spiritual dimension of the human who has a rational mind and will, which sets us apart fom the animal who acts instinctively. That, even though we have a lot in common with them: eating, eliminating, intelligence, can get sick, need surgery, medicines, desire to reproduce> We protect defend attack and bond with our own kind, as we do with animals and they with us and they with other living creatures- dogs and cats and hogs and puppies care for each other. I shudder when people call the human brain a 'computer' when the human can feel, write music, literature, paint and design, and think and do other things way beyond the ability of the computer. Likewise, we insult animals when we call a human an animal, or saying heshe 'acts like an animal"- because animals do what nature 'imprints' in their soul ( the principle of life as Aristotle called the soul). Our souls are so much superior in ability, not that we exercise that rationally all the time! Civilization is the process of developing the noble in our humanity and gradually moving away from war, senseless sexual activity, greed, self-destruction, by being other-directed, caring for ourselves and each other, the animal and plant world. and whole ecology and economy of the Earth and all that it contains. That task must needs happen more dilingently than we do now before we start colonizing the Moon and Mars! It all belongs to God/ a Higher Power who loaned it to us to resepct and honor. The Earth, eventually the entire Universe, and our bodies and the inter-dependence of it all kick us back real hard if we bend the rules to the point where we dishonor its marvelous ceomplexity.