Lanchester's attrition models and fights among social animals
Eldridge S. Adams and
Michael Mesterton-Gibbons
Behavioral Ecology, 2003, vol. 14, issue 5, 719-723
Abstract:
Lanchester's models of attrition during warfare have served as the basis for several predictions about conflicts between groups of animals. These models and their extensions describe rates of mortality during battles as functions of the number and fighting abilities of individuals in each group, allowing analysis of the determinants of group strength and of the cumulative numbers of casualties. We propose modifications to Lanchester's models to improve their applicability to social animals. In particular, we suggest that the per-capita mortality rate of a group is a decreasing function of the fighting abilities of its members, that the mortality rate is an increasing function of the number of individuals in both groups, and that there will often be diminishing returns for increasing numerical advantage. Models incorporating these assumptions predict that the ability of social animals to win fights depends less on group size and more on individual prowess than under Lanchester's original models. We discuss how data on casualties can be used to distinguish among alternative attrition models. Copyright 2003.
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)
Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/beheco/arg061 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:beheco:v:14:y:2003:i:5:p:719-723
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals
Access Statistics for this article
Behavioral Ecology is currently edited by Louise Barrett
More articles in Behavioral Ecology from International Society for Behavioral Ecology Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().