Washington, Nov 4 : When it comes to settling disputes over access to fertile females, antelopes click their knees to ward off the competition, according to a new study.
The study, conducted on eland antelopes, has revealed the dominance displays used by males to settle disputes over access to fertile females, without resorting to genuine violence.
Led by Jakob Bro-Jorgensen from the Zoological Society of London and Torben Dabelsteen from the University of Copenhagen, researchers studied antelopes within a
400km2 area of Kenya.
They discovered that the males (bulls) use some signals to make competitors aware of their fighting ability, based on three different factors, body size, age and aggression.