Contest behaviour in ungulates

TL;DRAbstract

This chapter reviews our current understanding of ungulate contest behaviour. Before proceeding to the meat and bones we offer a caveat: following Yeats' question as to whether we can separate the dancer from the dance, we recognise that no single aggressive action employed by a contestant can be considered independent of all other actions. Nevertheless, for reasons of structure and economy we have presented an overview of the competitive process by portraying contests more as parts of their sum rather than vice versa. The reader should keep this in mind when considering the various sections on display behaviour, contest structure, assessment processes and opponent choice. Many ungulates vocalise and appear to show their body and weapon size to opponents during contests, and so we begin with a review of how ungulates communicate their competitive ability prior to physical confrontation. Following this, we consider factors that might affect how ungulates structure their fights: do body

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