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Agonistic Behavior

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

Synonyms

Aggression; Agonism; Dominance

Definition

Agonistic behavior is any social interaction or engagement, which involves threatening behavior, aggression, fighting, or submission.

Overview

Agonistic behavior is commonplace across the animal kingdom. It can be described as a suite of social behaviors related to any form of aggressive or fighting actions, which occur between two or more individuals of the same species and therefore exclude predator-prey interactions. Agonistic behaviors play an important role in shaping both an individual’s life history in solitary species and group structure in gregarious animals. These behaviors can be categorized into three main components: threat, aggression, and submission. All three are interrelated and can occur in combination or alone. The most common agonistic behaviors occur over access to a certain resource, such as food, shelter, and territory, or access to a mating partner. These agonistic behaviors can range from very mild, such as...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Endocrine Research Laboratory, Mammal Research Institute, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Christopher Young

  2. Applied Behavioural Ecology and Ecosystems Research Unit, University of South Africa, Florida, South Africa

    Christopher Young

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada

    Christopher Young

Authors
  1. Christopher Young
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Correspondence to Christopher Young .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University , Rochester, MI, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd Shackelford

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Young, C. (2019). Agonistic Behavior. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_320-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_320-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

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