Animal, competition, prey, predator, alpha, superiority, fighting, foraging, territory, interspecific.
There are several reasons why animals fight. For one, they might want to fight for superiority. This means that they want to fight for the top spot in their family, or clan. Sometimes, this can be fatal, and one of the competitors may die. This is a natural course of action, as it has been happening since the species evolved.
A wolf pack will walk for miles, but the alpha will always walk behind the rest. This is because the sick will be at the front, and the rest will follow at their pace. The alpha will be able to see all of the pack and move appropriately if needed.
Well, competition is a healthy thing to have. If there was no competition, there would also be no choice.
Let's think about it from a supermarket perspective:
There are a whole plethora of supermarkets and shops you can go to for the same (or similar) items. For me, I personally shop in Tesco, Lidl, Sainsbury's, Aldi, M&S, Morrisons, ASDA... That's just my food shopping. Seriously, I shop [mainly] in Tesco, and pop to the others for other bits.
So, the same goes in the animal world. A lion will forage for food for its pride or coalition, but they will happily perform competition between species. They may fight a zebra, or antelope, for example, in order to find food for the day.
Another reason why there may be competition is because it is for the survival of the species. One species may fight another species to gain territory - superiority over an area of land - to be able to keep their species alive. This is called interspecific competition. For example, a lion may have an area that is protected by the lions, and a leopard family may come into contact with them by pasing through. Animal competition may ensue, and the lion will fight a leopard. Whoever wins, gains the territory.
The following still is from a video on animal competition, with the following details:
Please click on the image to view the video.
Why would a female pick one male over the other? This is something that in the animal world is decided by a fight. Whether that fight is fatal is something else, as it's not always the case. It is to see who can be on top, and become what is known as the Alpha.
This is also present in humans. OK, maybe not the fighting so much, but we all choose a partner based on many factors - the way we look to others, the way we present ourselves to others, and the way we behave when approached by others can all give indication to the other sex of our intentions.
When animals fight, there are two terms that are used to describe the product of the fight. First off, there is interspecific competition. This is where two different species of animal fight against each other. The reasons are the same, for territory, food, or just because they feel like it. Yes, they really do just fight for no reason sometimes. An example of this is for territory; a wolf alpha will fight a lion for the area that he controls. The wolf pack will fight until they have control of it.
The other type of fight is intraspecific competition. This is the same sort of thing that happens as above, however, it is with another wolf, as an example. So, a wolf alpha and pack will fight another wolf alpha and pack for territories in control, and the victor will then control both territories.
Does this happen with humans? Yes. If you look throughout history, land borders, whole countries and other states have changed hands due to wars that have shaped the world we live in now. Just look at the last World War, when Germany invaded all those countries - Poland, France, and other surrounding countries - just for power of position to control. In the end, if you look at maps of borders before and after the war, you'll see that a lot of land changed hands, and back again.
