The role of skill in animal contests: a neglected component of fighting ability

Abstract

What attributes make some individuals more likely to win a fight than others? A range of morphological and physiological traits have been studied intensely but far less focus has been placed on the actual agonistic behaviours used. Current studies of agonistic behaviour focus on contest duration and the vigour of fighting. It also seems obvious that individuals that fight more skilfully should have a greater chance of winning a fight. Here, we discuss the meaning of skill in animal fights. As the activities of each opponent can be disrupted by the behaviour of their rival, we differentiate among ability, technique and skill itself. In addition to efficient, accurate and sometimes precise movement, skilful fighting also requires rapid decision-making, so that appropriate tactics and strategies are selected. We consider how these different components of skill could be acquired, through genes, experiences of play-fighting and of real fights. Skilful fighting can enhance resource holding potential (RHP) by allowing for sustained vigour, by inflicting greater costs on opponents and by minimizing the chance of damage. Therefore, we argue that skill is a neglected but important component of RHP that could be readily studied to provide new insights into the evolution of agonistic behaviour.

Keywords: agonistic behaviour; contest; fight; resource holding potential; skill; vigour.

Figure 1.

Schematic of relationships between ability, skill and technique, applied to animal contests. In sports, opponents try to thwart one another's attempts to win and in sports training it is therefore necessary to distinguish between innate ability, technique in the absence of significant opposition and skill, where techniques are used against real opponents. Fighting is also characterized by opponents that interfere with one another and similar distinctions must be made when considering the role of skill in animal fights. The blue arrows show how fighting skill is underpinned first by ability and then by technique. Green arrows represent hypotheses for the causes of variation in ability, technique and skill. The components of skill are listed in the clear callout box. On the right-hand side of the figure skill is grouped with other traits that contribute to RHP, which along with RV and the agonistic behaviour of the opponent, will determine a fighting individual's agonistic behaviour. In addition to influencing the ability to win fights (RHP) skill could also influence the ability to make strategic decisions about whether to initiate or persist in a fight, as more experienced individuals might be better at gathering and using (assessing) information on RV, their own RHP and in some cases the opponent's RHP. Note also that all of these RHP traits may interact with one another (e.g. skill might influence endurance) and drive some of the hypothesized causes of variation in skill (e.g. aggressiveness might influence the number of play fights or real fights experienced, see [50]). While other RHP traits have been investigated at length they do not explain all of the observed variation in contest outcomes [3]. By contrast, the role of skill has been neglected and its contribution to RHP remains an open question.