caa a22 4500 465781942 CHVBK 20180323111957.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170327e19900601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/BF00170894 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/BF00170894 Sparring, relative antler size, and assessment in male caribou [Elektronische Daten] [C. Barrette, D. Vandal] Summary: There are two kinds of antler combats in male deer. Fighting is rare, violent, occurs between matched males, and can cause injury and death. Sparring is common, usually gentle, often occurs between unmatched males, and involves no risk of injury. We recorded 1308 sparring matches and only 6 fights between wild male woodland caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in 2 years of study. In the 713 sparring matches between males with unequal antlers, the animal with smaller antlers initiated close to half of the encounters, but terminated nearly 90% of them. That was true whether a sparring match involved two adults, two yearlings, or an adult against a yearling. We argue that the best interpretation of that shift in the decisions of the smaller-antlered male is that sparring serves to assess a partner's weight and strength relative to one's own. Thus, through sparring, antlers could be used to allow a form of tactile (proprioceptive) assessment of fighting ability, which could be the basis for subsequent visual assessment at a distance. Springer-Verlag, 1990 Barrette C. Département de Biologic, Université Laval, G1K 7P4, Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada aut Vandal D. Département de Biologic, Université Laval, G1K 7P4, Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada aut Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Springer-Verlag 26/6(1990-06-01), 383-387 0340-5443 26:6<383 1990 26 265 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00170894 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00170894 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Barrette C. Département de Biologic, Université Laval, G1K 7P4, Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Vandal D. Département de Biologic, Université Laval, G1K 7P4, Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Springer-Verlag 26/6(1990-06-01), 383-387 0340-5443 26:6<383 1990 26 265 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer