Chimpanzees and the mathematics of battle Export

@article{citeulike:5289292, abstract = {10.1098/rspb.2001.1926 Recent experiments have demonstrated the importance of numerical assessment in animal contests. Nevertheless, few attempts have been made to model explicitly the relationship between the relative number of combatants on each side and the costs and benefits of entering a contest. One framework that may be especially suitable for making such explicit predictions is Lanchester's theory of combat, which has proved useful for understanding combat strategies in humans and several species of ants. We show, with data from a recent series of playback experiments, that a model derived from Lanchester's 'square law' predicts willingness to enter intergroup contests in wild chimpanzees (). Furthermore, the model predicts that, in contests with multiple individuals on each side, chimpanzees in this population should be willing to enter a contest only if they outnumber the opposing side by a factor of 1.5. We evaluate these results for intergroup encounters in chimpanzees and also discuss potential applications of Lanchester's square and linear laws for understanding combat strategies in other species.}, author = {Wilson, M. L. and Britton, N. F. and Franks, N. R.}, citeulike-article-id = {5289292}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2001.1926}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/269/1496/1107.abstract}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/269/1496/1107.full.pdf}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12061952}, citeulike-linkout-4 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=12061952}, day = {7}, doi = {10.1098/rspb.2001.1926}, journal = {Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences}, keywords = {battle, chimpanzee, coalition\_formation, conflict, lanchester, war}, month = {June}, number = {1496}, pages = {1107--1112}, posted-at = {2009-07-28 10:50:46}, priority = {2}, title = {Chimpanzees and the mathematics of battle}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2001.1926}, volume = {269}, year = {2002} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:5289292 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5289292 N2 - 10.1098/rspb.2001.1926 Recent experiments have demonstrated the importance of numerical assessment in animal contests. Nevertheless, few attempts have been made to model explicitly the relationship between the relative number of combatants on each side and the costs and benefits of entering a contest. One framework that may be especially suitable for making such explicit predictions is Lanchester's theory of combat, which has proved useful for understanding combat strategies in humans and several species of ants. We show, with data from a recent series of playback experiments, that a model derived from Lanchester's ‘square law’ predicts willingness to enter intergroup contests in wild chimpanzees (). Furthermore, the model predicts that, in contests with multiple individuals on each side, chimpanzees in this population should be willing to enter a contest only if they outnumber the opposing side by a factor of 1.5. We evaluate these results for intergroup encounters in chimpanzees and also discuss potential applications of Lanchester's square and linear laws for understanding combat strategies in other species. IS - 1496 JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences EP - 1112 TI - Chimpanzees and the mathematics of battle VL - 269 SP - 1107 KW - battle KW - chimpanzee KW - coalition_formation KW - conflict KW - lanchester KW - war AU - Wilson, ML AU - Britton, NF AU - Franks, NR PY - 2002/06/07/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2001.1926 ER -