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Fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal

Conflicts between social groups or “intergroup contests” are proposed to play a major role in the evolution of cooperation and social organization in humans and some nonhuman animal societies. In humans, success in warfare and other collective conflicts depends on both fighting group size and the pr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Green, P. A., Thompson, Faye J., Cant, Michael A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9231503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35700363
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119176119
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author Green, P. A.
Thompson, Faye J.
Cant, Michael A.
author_facet Green, P. A.
Thompson, Faye J.
Cant, Michael A.
author_sort Green, P. A.
collection PubMed
description Conflicts between social groups or “intergroup contests” are proposed to play a major role in the evolution of cooperation and social organization in humans and some nonhuman animal societies. In humans, success in warfare and other collective conflicts depends on both fighting group size and the presence and actions of key individuals, such as leaders or talismanic warriors. Understanding the determinants of intergroup contest success in other warlike animals may help to reveal the role of these contests in social evolution. Using 19 y of data on intergroup encounters in a particularly violent social mammal, the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo), we show that two factors, the number of adult males and the age of the oldest male (the “senior” male), have the strongest impacts on the probability of group victory. The advantage conferred by senior males appears to stem from their fighting experience. However, the galvanizing effect of senior males declines as they grow old until, at very advanced ages, senior males become a liability rather than an asset and can be evicted. As in human conflict, strength in numbers and the experience of key individuals combine to determine intergroup contest success in this animal society. We discuss how selection arising from intergroup contests may explain a suite of features of individual life history and social organization, including male eviction, sex-assortative alloparental care, and adult sex ratio.
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spelling pubmed-92315032022-06-25 Fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal Green, P. A. Thompson, Faye J. Cant, Michael A. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences Conflicts between social groups or “intergroup contests” are proposed to play a major role in the evolution of cooperation and social organization in humans and some nonhuman animal societies. In humans, success in warfare and other collective conflicts depends on both fighting group size and the presence and actions of key individuals, such as leaders or talismanic warriors. Understanding the determinants of intergroup contest success in other warlike animals may help to reveal the role of these contests in social evolution. Using 19 y of data on intergroup encounters in a particularly violent social mammal, the banded mongoose (Mungos mungo), we show that two factors, the number of adult males and the age of the oldest male (the “senior” male), have the strongest impacts on the probability of group victory. The advantage conferred by senior males appears to stem from their fighting experience. However, the galvanizing effect of senior males declines as they grow old until, at very advanced ages, senior males become a liability rather than an asset and can be evicted. As in human conflict, strength in numbers and the experience of key individuals combine to determine intergroup contest success in this animal society. We discuss how selection arising from intergroup contests may explain a suite of features of individual life history and social organization, including male eviction, sex-assortative alloparental care, and adult sex ratio. National Academy of Sciences 2022-06-14 2022-06-21 /pmc/articles/PMC9231503/ /pubmed/35700363 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119176119 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Biological Sciences
Green, P. A.
Thompson, Faye J.
Cant, Michael A.
Fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal
title Fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal
title_full Fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal
title_fullStr Fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal
title_full_unstemmed Fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal
title_short Fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal
title_sort fighting force and experience combine to determine contest success in a warlike mammal
topic Biological Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9231503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35700363
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2119176119
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