Male-Male competition

 Male-Male Competition is when two males will fight one another for access to a female. There are 4 types of male-male competition that were discussed in the lectures. 

Combat is one type of male-male competition. This is when males will display aggression towards another male. The two males will fight for access to a female in order to mate with her. An example of this behavior is moose using their antlers to fight one another. 

Another type of male-male competition is alternative mating strategies. Males can show different behaviors in order to gain access to females. An example of this can be seen in coho salmon. Some of these male are large and have aggressive fighting behavior. Other males are much smaller and mimic the females. Both of these behaviors are to help them gain mating access to females. 

These strategies are similar because in both instances males use aggression against another male to gain mating access. They are different because the alternative mating strategy allows other smaller males to gain mating access when in combat it would be much harder for them to gain that access.