Agonistic Fighting
Actual fighting in contests is rare because of the risk of injury with the exception of the rooster or fighting cock. It is most likely to occur when individuals are similarly sized, or when reproduction and survival without the contested resource is less likely. Even when agonism escalates to actual fighting, restraint may be used. This is the case in fights among some male venomous snakes for females. They wrestle, but refrain from biting.
Read more about this topic: Agonistic Behaviour
Famous quotes containing the word fighting:
“Our frigate takes fire,
The other asks if we demand quarter?
If our colors are struck and the fighting done?
Now I laugh content for I hear the voice of my little captain,
We have not struck, he composedly cries, we have just begun our part of the fighting.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)