page_title: Dominance signal
hierarchical_section_title: Dominance signal
caption_attribution_description: English: Two Galapagos tortoises engage in a dominance display in an enclosure on Santa Cruz Island.
context_page_description: A dominance signal is used in a dominance hierarchy or pecking order to indicate an animal's dominance. Dominance signals are a type of internal environment signal that demonstrate the signalers attributes. Dominance signals are necessary for several species for mating, maintaining social hierarchies and defending territories Dominance signals also provide information about an animals fitness. Animals have developed conflict management strategies to reduce frequency of aggressive incidents in competitive matters. This evolution is the basis of dominance signals.
  Dominance signals can be operationally defined by acts or displays produced by signalers, which conveys meaning messages to recipients such that the signal is met with a response and the response results in dominance being displayed. For example, hermit claws raise their claws performing a threat signal, which expresses intent to attack to challenger and the challenger makes a decision to retreat which reinforces signaller's dominance.
context_section_description: A dominance signal is used in a dominance hierarchy or pecking order to indicate an animal's dominance. Dominance signals are a type of internal environment signal that demonstrate the signalers attributes . Dominance signals are necessary for several species for mating, maintaining social hierarchies and defending territories Dominance signals also provide information about an animals fitness. Animals have developed conflict management strategies to reduce frequency of aggressive incidents in competitive matters. This evolution is the basis of dominance signals.
  Dominance signals can be operationally defined by (1) acts or displays produced by signalers, (2) which conveys meaning messages to recipients such that (3) the signal is met with a response and (4) the response results in dominance being displayed. For example, (1) hermit claws raise their claws performing a threat signal, (2) which expresses intent to attack to challenger (3) and the challenger makes a decision to retreat which (4) reinforces signaller's dominance.
  The earliest study of animal signals can be attributed to Charles Darwin's "The Expressions of the Emotions in Man and Animals", which introduced the comparative study of signals across all animals. Expressive abilities of the face are the basis of nonverbal expression. These facial signals help maintain dominance or "status" relationships by allowing species to predict the outcome of their encounter, and calculate the cost of their own fitness. Nikolaas Tinbergen furthered the essential framework for studying animal signals with his 'four questions' about the phylogeny, function, development and mechanism of signals or any other behaviour.
  Dominance signals are the basis of animal hierarchies and are triggered by stress environments. These signals are used to maintain courtship dominance, social dominance and territorial and resource dominance both within and between different species. Dominance signals are prominent far beyond the ethology literature, as humans express them in several forms.
caption: Two Galapagos tortoises engage in a dominance display in an enclosure on Santa Cruz Island.
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