Animal groups are often organized hierarchically, with dominant individuals gaining priority
access to resources and reproduction over subordinate individuals. Initial dominance …

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

Highlights•Considering social information is key to understanding how animals make
aggression decisions.•Hierarchies vary in the extent of information present, from low to high …

The requirements of living in social groups, and forming and maintaining social relationships
are hypothesized to be one of the major drivers behind the evolution of cognitive abilities …

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 …

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 …

Cooperative behavior is widespread among animals, yet the neural mechanisms have not
been studied in detail. We examined cooperative territory defense behavior and associated …

Theoretical models have been developed to understand how animals decide to withdraw
from a contest. They provide testable predictions regarding the relationship between …