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Abstract

Skill is the ability to do a challenging behaviour well. We examined how contest skill influences contest success, costs and whether skilful behaviour enhances welfare. We measured skill across three domains: accuracy, appropriateness (selecting suitable agonistic tactics when the optimal choice varies) and efficiency, alongside vigour, sex and body weight. Skill was weakly correlated across domains. Winners were heavier relative to their opponent, displayed greater vigour and were more skilful at blocking, but other skill measures did not predict contest win/loss outcome. Appropriate blocking by winners reduced the number of lesions received by reducing exposure to attacks, suggesting it can both reduce costs and improve competitive success, with potential welfare benefits. Losers received more lesions when they adopted appropriate postures after submission; however, this unambiguous submission may have resulted from more costly contests. For winners, being heavy relative to the opponent tended to reduce skin lesions received, but otherwise, having a weight advantage did not reduce contest costs. Fighting with increased vigour led to a considerable increase in contest costs, particularly in losers. Compared to other resource-holding potential traits, skill has moderate effects on winning and injuries but nevertheless modulated energetic costs of fighting.

Publication Date

2026-04-15

Publication Title

Biology Letters

Volume

22

Issue

4

ISSN

1744-9561

Acceptance Date

2026-02-13

Deposit Date

2026-07-22

Funding

Funding was provided by BBSRC (grant no.: BB/W000563/1). SRUC receives support from the Scottish Government.

Keywords

agonistic behaviour, animal welfare, contests, pig, skill, behaviour

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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