One type of social behavior--agonistic behavior--is commonly observed among food animals. Agonistic behaviors are those behaviors which cause, threaten to cause or seek to reduce physical damage. Agonistic behavior is comprised of threats, aggression and submission.

What is meant by agonistic behavior?

Agonistic behavior refers to the complex of aggression, threat, appeasement, and avoidance behaviors that occurs during encounters between members of the same species.

What is a benefit of agonistic behavior?

Agonistic behaviour plays an important role in determining access to resources such as food, shelter and mates, and in establishing dominance status in a wide range of mammals [1] [2], birds [3] [4], fish [5] [6], reptiles [7] [8], amphibians [9] [10], and invertebrates [11] [12].