When 2 animals fight/play, why do they both pause at certain points and then continue fighting/playing after a few seconds?

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I’ve noticed this behavior in animals like Rams who butt heads but then both pause for a second before continuing to fight.

In: Biology

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

They pause to take in the situation. When they are play fighting either with another animal or with a human, you will notice they wouldn’t wanna go all in esp when they get too involved. They pause to see if the other person is doing ok- these are more or less training phases for them. When it’s a real fight, it’s to see if the opponent is dead or if they need to be more dominating/or switch to a submissive stance, or to see if the other would submit. Mostly animals don’t wanna kill during a play fight and they dont wanna keep attacking something that’s dead/dying.

Anonymous 0 Comments

In addition to other explenations. Look at fighters. MMA, boxing, anything. There are times when, in a fight or just sparring, that they aren’t actively fighting. They are looking for openings, waiting to defend, evaluating the situation.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Looking for cues, examining each other’s social status as well as body language to see if they should keep playfighting etc. – if someone is being more aggressive than they should be, you need to find out quickly, otherwise you’ll get hurt.

Anonymous 0 Comments

When you fight/play, don’t you take breaks every so often? Especially if you are physically exerting yourself, it will get increasingly difficult to maintain that level of activity. If it was a contest of stamina and you didn’t need to stop, you would win every time.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because fights in nature are not designed to kill/injure but to determine who is the most dominant, a pause in a playfight simulates them looking for various cues that will let them know who is the most powerful, in nature the weaker will usually give up and allow the stronger competitor to have the food/mate/resource.