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Comment by Sharlin

9 hours ago

It's definitely not obvious, given that many, many gregarious species may certainly have inter-group clashes and skirmishes at territory boundaries but no full-scale war. Animals in general avoid violence between conspecifics, for the obvious reason that it's rarely worth the risk of being hurt unless you're very sure you're going to win. Dying for your group is something you almost never see outside eusocial species. Never mind dying in your prime reproductive age!

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Sharlin

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ozim  7 hours ago

dying in your prime reproductive age!

I guess dying because you think you’re going to impress’s a mate and stay alive is quite common.

  • Sharlin  5 hours ago

    On the contrary, that's very uniquely and peculiarly human stupidity, possibly caused by the fact that our brains take so long to fully mature. In other species, competing for mates (just like territory) is typically highly ritualized exactly because getting seriously hurt is the opposite of adaptive.

    • Eridanus2  4 minutes ago

      I feel that rituals of this nature work because they are backed implicitly by the threat of violence, which must be actualized from time to time in order for the ritual to hold force. Just like in human cultures.

  • bryanrasmussen  5 hours ago

    >I guess dying because you think you’re going to impress’s a mate and stay alive is quite common.

    based on my memory of readings in the matter I don't think so, most animal species "impress a mate" is either

    1. do mating ritual better than others

    2. actually directly compete with rival who has mate to win mate.

    In the second more rare scenario the actually directly compete with rival tends to be very ritualized, and thus when you lose you don't actually get significantly hurt.

    In the ritualized combat for mates some species have evolved to points in which accidents become a major problem, for example Stags locking antlers in combat for does.

    Obviously this is a scenario where you want to impress and stay alive but it doesn't work out, but it is relatively rare in the species that has evolved antlers to the point where it happens, and it is rare for species to have similar problems, generally the one who loses these competitions does not die, they just assume a lower status.

    So all that said the human tactic of Bob, hold my beer while I impress Cindy by riding this croc, is a pretty rare tactic for getting a mate.