Animal contests govern access to key resources and are a fundamental determinant of
fitness within populations. Little is known about the mechanisms generating individual …

Competition for resources is a ubiquitous feature of life, and a central topic in behavioral
ecology. Organisms use assessment strategies to resolve contests, which can be delineated …

Safe and effective conflict resolution is critical for survival and reproduction. Theoretical
models describe how animals resolve conflict by assessing their own and/or their …

Emotions encompass cognitive and behavioural responses to reward and punishment.
Using contests as a case-study, we propose that short-term emotions underpin animals' …

A fundamental understanding of behavior is essential to improving the welfare of billions of
farm animals around the world. Despite living in an environment managed by humans, farm …

To successfully navigate their social environments animals need to assess conspecifics.
Quality signals and social recognition are 2 assessment strategies that animals employ to …

Animals settle disputes through contests (Archer, 1988, Hardy and Briffa, 2013, Huntingford
and Turner, 1987). These disputes occur when animals compete to determine priority …

Since the 1970's, models based on evolutionary game theory, such as war of attrition (WOA),
energetic war of attrition (E‐WOA), cumulative assessment model (CAM) and sequential …

Understanding animal contests has benefited greatly from employing the concept of fighting
ability, termed resource-holding potential (RHP), with body size/weight typically used as a …

Although possession is 'nine‐tenths of the law', respect for ownership is widespread in the
animal kingdom even without third‐party enforcement. Thus, the first individuals to find …