Agonistic behaviour is social behaviour that is related to fighting and the establishment of dominance hierarchy's amongst animals, it encompasses all of the aggression, appeasement and avoidance behaviours that occurs between members of the same species during social interactions.
The immediate goal of most agonistic behaviour is to establish and maintain dominance hierarchy's between subordinate and dominant foxes with as little conflict as possible.
Agonistic interactions can be divided into three types of behaviour;
Threat (real threat or false threat during play)
Aggression (real aggression or false aggression during play)
Submission (real submission or false submission during play)
While these behaviours are interrelated with aggression, they fall outside it's narrow definition; behaviour that is specific in serving to harm or intimidate another.
Most social agonistic behaviour in foxes is seen between competing males, but it may also occur between females, between males and females, between foxes and their human carers or between foxes and other species that share the home territory. Social aggression increases during adolescence and dispersion season (‘October Crazies’ which occurs around July - October) and again during each breeding season (December - March). Agonistic behaviour and aggression are commonly more prevalent in foxes; at certain times of the year, in males, in wild foxes, around food and when they feel vulnerable or threatened.
Agonistic behaviour is strung together into sequences that vary in their intensity and duration. The lowest intensity social encounters result in chasing and following, as the intensity increases, posturing and lunging occur, until eventually, physical contact like sparring and biting. These physical encounters may escalate in rare instances, into a fight to the death (such as those that occur in territorial battles between the North American Red fox and the Arctic fox).
Types of agonistic behaviour observed in captive bred foxes (from my own observations and recorded in studies (Karl Frafjord, 1993)), includes:
Aggressive Neck Grooming (Offensive) - Grooming consists of rapid little nibbles in which the fox that is doing the grooming seizes folds of skin between their teeth. The groomed fox remains immobile, any sudden movement may trigger an escalating response from the fox doing the grooming.
Ignoring (Defensive) - When one fox ignores the advances of another.
Evading (Defensive) - When one fox takes measures to avoid contact with another.
Follow (Offensive) - When one fox will walk or run after another.
Chase Away (Offensive) - When one fox will walk or run towards another. Head is frequently lowered and tail is slightly elevated. They may attack the other fox physically and pursue a short distance.
Positioned Over (Offensive) - When one fox jumps over, stands over/on, sits on or lies upon another fox.
Turn Away (Defensive) - When one fox turns away from another fox to prevent them from reaching the head and neck region.
Back Arch (Defensive) - Walking slowly on stiff legs, back arched, head slightly lowered.
Submissive Towards (Defensive) - Orientated towards another fox, head is lowered, ears backwards. May remain stationary or move towards the other fox. Tail is somewhat raised and curled to the side.
Submissive Away (Defensive) - Same as the preceding behaviour but orientated away from the other fox.
Play Mount (Offensive) - Standing upon another fox by clasping their sides with their forelegs in a mounting position.
Press Against (Offensive) - Two foxes lie against each other in a head to tail position, pushing against each other’s bodies often taking a firm hold of each other’s tail in their mouth.
Rear Against (Offensive) - Two foxes balance on their hind legs, stabbing with the forelegs against each others shoulders. Ears are back, mouths are open and teeth are exposed.
Wresting (Offensive) - Intensive physical contact during play fights, the attack is generally directed toward the scruff and neck.
Jaw Gape (Defensive) - Fox is lay down with it's tail between legs, belly partly exposed. Mouth is open displaying teeth and ears back.
Lunging (Offensive) - Lunging is directed at another fox. Legs are stiff, head is lowered, ears are back and mouth is open. May involve tail biting.
Belly Roll (Defensive) - One fox will roll over exposing it's belly to the other. Tail moves quickly from side to side as a sign of appeasement.
Great post! My resident litter are all males so I see a lot of this behaviour on the trail cam. Interestingly in my group the runt has become the most dominant cub and the one that was originally dominant is now very submissive