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Agonistic interactions mediated by the production of acoustic signals
Introduction
It is late autumn in the temperate forest, the last leaves still on the trees finally surrender to the northern breeze and fall down, silently. The beams, as the sun sinks, pass through the naked branches and illuminate the forest clearing, where a large, old stag is moving restlessly around a group of quietly foraging females. Not far away, a young solitary male observes the scene. The breeding season is almost over and the young male has not yet mated. Testosterone, flowing abundant in his blood, makes him decide to challenge the rival, in the attempt of conquering his harem. As he moves a few meters ahead, the rival spots him and, suddenly, stops, raises the head, opens the mouth, and starts uttering grave, loud roars. The young responds in the same way. A vocal competition has begun.
Vocal competitions are common in many arthropods and vertebrates, which are...
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References
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Castellano, S. (2016). Vocal Competition. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_79-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_79-1
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