Male combat for mating access frequently causes serious wounds and sometimes death

Evidence

Sexual selection differs from most forms of natural selection in ways tailor-made for pushing traits to their extreme. For one thing, sexual selection can be a lot stronger than natural selection. Whenever a small subset of males monopolizes access to large numbers of females, the disparity in reproductive success skyrockets. A few victorious males sire dozens or even hundreds of offspring, while the overwhelming majority of males sire none. When payoffs for success are high enough, weapons can evolve to really big sizes. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 177 (#expands, via linked claim)

During the craziest fights I’d lose track of who was who but, at the end of the scuffle, it was almost always the male with the smaller horns that ended up leaving. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 402 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Sexual weapons sometimes protect rather than burden their bearers from predators — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 774; Extreme skew in mating success drives arms-race escalation in weaponry; Rutting stag health collapses from the cost of weapons and mating — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 309 (+6 more)

Related

• Mating competition kills off most males before they ever reproduce. (similarity 0.89)
• Extreme skew in mating success drives arms-race escalation in weaponry (similarity 0.87)
• Monopolized reproduction drives males of many species to cheat (similarity 0.86)
• Excess rival males over scarce fertile females drove knightly combat in medieval Europe (similarity 0.86)
• Sexual selection can be far stronger than natural selection and drives weapon extremes (similarity 0.85)
• Rutting stag health collapses from the cost of weapons and mating (similarity 0.85)
• Sexual selection drives weapons to extremes because payoffs for winners are enormous. (similarity 0.84)
• Cheating males erode the reproductive payoff of weapons, capping their evolution (similarity 0.84)
• Rare localized resources translate fighting success into reproductive success (similarity 0.84)
• Fighting and dispersal are alternative male strategies in Cardiocondyla ants (similarity 0.83)
• Reproductive success, not survival, drives the largest animal weapons (similarity 0.83)
• Weapon costliness keeps signals honest by excluding weaker males (similarity 0.82)
• Smaller-horned males usually lose escalated dung beetle fights (similarity 0.82)
• Clumped sparse resources make territorial fighting pay off reproductively (similarity 0.82)
• Weapon-bearing male deer pay extreme costs and most never mate (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Extreme skew in mating success drives arms-race escalation in weaponry #expands (0.60)
• Smaller-horned males usually lose escalated dung beetle fights #exemplifies (0.60) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 402
• Sexual selection can be far stronger than natural selection and drives weapon extremes #expands (0.60) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 177
• Sexual weapons sometimes protect rather than burden their bearers from predators #qualifies (0.50) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 774
• Rutting stag health collapses from the cost of weapons and mating #expands (0.50) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 309
• Mating competition kills off most males before they ever reproduce. #expands (0.50) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 314
• Excess rival males over scarce fertile females drove knightly combat in medieval Europe #exemplifies (0.40) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 169
• Fighting and dispersal are alternative male strategies in Cardiocondyla ants #complicates (0.40) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 764