Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests

Green, P.A.; Sankey, D.W.E.; Collins, T.; Mwanguhya, F.; Nichols, Hazel; Cant, M.A.; Thompson, F.J.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123194

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Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests

P.A. Green

, D.W.E. Sankey, T. Collins

, F. Mwanguhya, Hazel Nichols

, M.A. Cant, F.J. Thompson

Animal Behaviour, Volume: 224, Start page: 123194

Swansea University Author: Hazel Nichols

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123194

Abstract

In animal societies, groups engage in intergroup conflicts over resources. Group conflict success depends on member contributions to collective fighting, yet individual fitness incentives could undermine group performance. In banded mongooses, Mungos mungo, males contribute most to intergroup fights...

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Published in:	Animal Behaviour
ISSN:	0003-3472
Published:	Elsevier BV 2025
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa69239

first_indexed	2025-04-08T10:37:51Z
last_indexed	2025-07-15T05:11:07Z
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spelling	2025-07-14T12:12:09.0254594 v2 69239 2025-04-08 Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests 43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe 0000-0002-4455-6065 Hazel Nichols Hazel Nichols true false 2025-04-08 BGPS In animal societies, groups engage in intergroup conflicts over resources. Group conflict success depends on member contributions to collective fighting, yet individual fitness incentives could undermine group performance. In banded mongooses, Mungos mungo, males contribute most to intergroup fights, while females often initiate fights and can mate with rival group males during the fray. We tested how focal group contest outcomes are related to male motivation to defend within-group paternity, as compared to the motivation of rival group males to avoid fighting and instead gain outgroup paternity. Focal groups were most likely to win when their females were in oestrus. However, groups that won fights conceded more paternity to their rivals than groups that lost, suggesting rival group males focused on mating at the expense of contest success. We also found that younger males may be most likely to forgo intergroup fighting to focus on intergroup mating, as these males gained more paternity from between-group matings than within-group matings. Our results contribute a rare link between contest outcomes and fitness in a nonprimate species and run counter to common models of collective action by suggesting that personal fitness incentives, here, paternity, can undermine collective fighting performance. Such conflicts of interest are likely inherent in group combat and can contribute to variation in the frequency and costliness of intergroup violence. Journal Article Animal Behaviour 224 123194 Elsevier BV 0003-3472 animal contest; collective action; intergroup conflict; parochial altruism; resource value; social evolution; social mammal 1 6 2025 2025-06-01 10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123194 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee P.A.G. was funded by Human Frontier Science Program Fellowship LT000460/2019-L and by UC Santa Barbara. The long-term project was supported by National Environment Research Council Grant NE/S000046/1. F.J.T. was funded by a NERC Independent Research Fellowship NE/V014471/1. 2025-07-14T12:12:09.0254594 2025-04-08T11:26:58.7388360 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences P.A. Green 0000-0002-2434-8795 1 D.W.E. Sankey 2 T. Collins 0000-0003-1791-7002 3 F. Mwanguhya 4 Hazel Nichols 0000-0002-4455-6065 5 M.A. Cant 6 F.J. Thompson 7 69239__34626__cb25a8eff6e243ee9fa40594a29fa400.pdf 69239.VoR.pdf 2025-06-30T13:32:03.0942745 Output 1621674 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests
spellingShingle	Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests Hazel Nichols
title_short	Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests
title_full	Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests
title_fullStr	Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests
title_full_unstemmed	Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests
title_sort	Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests
author_id_str_mv	43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe
author_id_fullname_str_mv	43ba12986bd7754484874c73eed0ebfe_***_Hazel Nichols
author	Hazel Nichols
author2	P.A. Green D.W.E. Sankey T. Collins F. Mwanguhya Hazel Nichols M.A. Cant F.J. Thompson
format	Journal article
container_title	Animal Behaviour
container_volume	224
container_start_page	123194
publishDate	2025
institution	Swansea University
issn	0003-3472
doi_str_mv	10.1016/j.anbehav.2025.123194
publisher	Elsevier BV
college_str	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_title	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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description	In animal societies, groups engage in intergroup conflicts over resources. Group conflict success depends on member contributions to collective fighting, yet individual fitness incentives could undermine group performance. In banded mongooses, Mungos mungo, males contribute most to intergroup fights, while females often initiate fights and can mate with rival group males during the fray. We tested how focal group contest outcomes are related to male motivation to defend within-group paternity, as compared to the motivation of rival group males to avoid fighting and instead gain outgroup paternity. Focal groups were most likely to win when their females were in oestrus. However, groups that won fights conceded more paternity to their rivals than groups that lost, suggesting rival group males focused on mating at the expense of contest success. We also found that younger males may be most likely to forgo intergroup fighting to focus on intergroup mating, as these males gained more paternity from between-group matings than within-group matings. Our results contribute a rare link between contest outcomes and fitness in a nonprimate species and run counter to common models of collective action by suggesting that personal fitness incentives, here, paternity, can undermine collective fighting performance. Such conflicts of interest are likely inherent in group combat and can contribute to variation in the frequency and costliness of intergroup violence.
published_date	2025-06-01T05:26:25Z
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score	11.089572

Fitness incentives to male fighters undermine fighting performance in intergroup contests

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