Abstract

We investigated the effects of body size, resident status, and handedness on fighting success of male Uca bengaliCrane, 1975. We predicted that residents as well as larger males would win more combats, heteroclawed combats would be more common than homoclawed combats, only larger males in the population would engage in combats, and fighting duration would be negatively correlated with body size asymmetry of fighting pairs. We observed 70 pairs of naturally engaged combats between residents and intruders, sampled 80 non-fighting males, and measured their body size, claw size, and handedness. We found that only larger males in the population were involved in combats. Resident status and body size together showed effects on fighting success, but handedness had no effect on fighting behaviour. Fighting duration was negatively correlated with body size asymmetry of fighting pairs.