So it's not Darwinian for animals to fight over territory? Why would you ever get upset over animals doing what animals do. Do sheep believe wolves are evil because they eat their young?
It's fundamentally Darwinian for animals to fight over territory because territoriality secures vital resources like food, mates, and shelter, directly boosting survival and reproductive success (fitness) through natural selection, a core concept in Darwin's theory of evolution. Animals that successfully defend their space pass on their advantageous traits, while those that lose out are less likely to reproduce, making territorial fighting an "evolutionary stable strategy" for resource control, as described in evolutionary biology.
Why territorial fighting is Darwinian:
- Secures Resources: Territories provide concentrated food, water, nesting sites, and mates, which are essential for survival and raising young.
- Increases Reproductive Success: By controlling these resources, a dominant animal ensures its genes are passed to the next generation, a key measure of fitness.
- "Survival of the Fittest": Individuals with better fighting ability, displays, or strategies (like deterring rivals) are more likely to win and reproduce, embodying natural selection.
- Resource Holding Potential (RHP): Evolution has favored traits like larger size, weapons (antlers, teeth), or aggressive displays to help animals defend their claims, as noted in Nature's Scitable article.
- Universal Strategy: Territorial behavior appears across the animal kingdom (mammals, birds, insects, fish), suggesting it's a successful evolutionary solution to the problem of securing essential resources, according to this Belfer Center article.