page_title: Shark agonistic display
section_title: Definition
hierarchical_section_title: Shark agonistic display / Characteristics / Definition
caption_attribution_description: English: Great white shark, also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death (Carcharodon carcharias), Taken from cage diving boat in Gansbaai, Hermanus near Cape Town South Africa.
context_page_description: Agonism is a broad term which encompasses many behaviours that result from, or are triggered by biological conflict between competing organisms. Approximately 23 shark species are capable of producing such displays when threatened by intraspecific or interspecific competitors, as an evolutionary strategy to avoid unnecessary combat. The behavioural, postural, social and kinetic elements which comprise this complex, ritualized display can be easily distinguished from normal, or non-display behaviour, considered typical of that species' life history. The display itself confers pertinent information to the foe regarding the displayer's physical fitness, body size, inborn biological weaponry, confidence and determination to fight. This behaviour is advantageous because it is much less biologically taxing for an individual to display its intention to fight than the injuries it would sustain during conflict, which is why agonistic displays have been reinforced through evolutionary time, as an adaptation to personal fitness. Agonistic displays are essential to the social dynamics of many biological taxa, extending far beyond sharks.
context_section_description: Agonistic displays are ritualized sequences of actions, produced by animals belonging to almost all biological taxa, in response to conflict with other organisms. If challenged or threatened, animals may employ a suite of adaptive behaviours, which are used to reinforce the chances of their own survival. Behaviours which arise from agonistic conflict include: 
  fight or flight response
  threat display to warn competitors and signal honest intentions
  defence behaviour
  simulated paralysis
  avoidance behaviour
  withdrawal
  settling behaviour.
  Each of these listed strategies constitute some manifestation of agonistic behaviour, and have been observed in numerous shark species, among many higher taxa in Kingdom Animalia. Displays of this nature are influenced and reinforced by natural selection, as an optimal strategy for avoiding physical conflict, and the costs of such interactions. In nature, agonistic behaviour is both species and situation-specific, and is often expressed as a graded response to imposed threats.
caption: Clear agonistic behaviour observed in Great White Shark
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