Clumped scarce resources make guarding territories economically worthwhile
Evidence
If, instead, those same food resources were sparse, and especially if they were clumped into rare but concentrated patches, then the male would face a very different set of payoffs for guarding a territory. He would still pay a price for producing the weapon, and for expending time and energy fighting to keep rival males out of his territory. But now these territories would matter, and the benefits he could glean from guarding them might be significant. Females would be much more likely to visit him, since the resources they needed were few and far between, and one of the only places where they could access them was inside his territory. Indeed, lots of females might visit his territory and, if the resources were localized enough to be readily defended from rival males, he might be able to mate with a disproportionate number of these females—more females than other males who were not able to guard a territory, and possibly even more than males who were guarding a territory, if his territory were bigger or better than theirs or contained more of the limiting resources. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 202
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Evenly distributed food resources make territorial fighting economically wasteful; Clumped sparse resources make territorial fighting pay off reproductively; Bases occupying land represent an economic loss rather than gain (+8 more)
Related
- Evenly distributed food resources make territorial fighting economically wasteful (similarity 0.91)
- Clumped sparse resources make territorial fighting pay off reproductively (similarity 0.90)
- Uniformly distributed resources make territorial weapons uneconomical (similarity 0.90)
- Bases occupying land represent an economic loss rather than gain (similarity 0.86)
- Resource value and defensibility are relative to each species’ perspective (similarity 0.83)
- Weapons disappear when fights stop being duels over defensible resources (similarity 0.82)
- Protection industries flourish where economic transactions are intense (similarity 0.81)
- Weapon evolution needs both competition and economically defensible resources (similarity 0.80)
- Rare localized resources translate fighting success into reproductive success (similarity 0.80)
- Force superiority within a territory requires organized mobilization of resources (similarity 0.80)
- Weapons evolve only when reproductive benefits exceed costs (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Uniformly distributed resources make territorial weapons uneconomical
#corroborates(0.85) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 201 - Weapon evolution needs both competition and economically defensible resources
#expands(0.70) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 191 - Costly weaponry can drive a species extinct when resources degrade.
#qualifies(0.65) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 437