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 …

Dominance-based social hierarchies are common among teleost fishes. The rank of an
animal greatly affects its behaviour, physiology and development. The outcome of fights for …

Various game theory models have been used to explain animal contests. Here we attend to
the presumed cognitive abilities required by these models with respect to information …

Social competence is defined as the ability of an animal to optimize the expression of social
behaviour as a function of the available social information. The social environment …

Condition-specific competition is widespread in nature. Species inhabiting heterogeneous
environments tend to differ in competitive abilities depending on environmental stressors …

The nature of individual social interactions can have a profound influence on group structure
and function. Here, we use social network analysis to examine patterns of dominance …

Cooperative breeding–characterized by the joint care of young produced primarily by
dominant group members–is widespread in animals, including invertebrates, birds, and …

Oxytocin and its nonmammalian homologues play an important role in modulating a diverse
array of social behaviours. Recently, it has been suggested that one of the key functions of …

Size-based dominance hierarchies influence fitness, group size and population dynamics
and link dominance structure to evolutionary and ecological outcomes. While larger …

Aggressive interactions are ubiquitous among animals. They are either directed towards
heterospecifics, like predators or competitors, or conspecifics. During intraspecific …