London, Aug 3 (ANI): A new study has indicated that female moose incite fights between male competitors by moaning.
It was already known that females made "protest moans" in response to courtship.
Researchers have now found that females moan more when smaller males approach them, and that this triggers aggression in larger males.
A team led by Dr Terry Bowyer from Idaho State University in the US carried out the study in Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska.
"Female moose gave protest moans more often in response to courtship by small males, even though the large males engaged in more courtship," Dr Bowyer told the BBC.
"This behaviour by females helped them avoid harassment by smaller males, but also provoked fights between large males.
"Male aggression was more common when females gave protest moans than when they did not, indicating that this vocalisation incited male-male aggression," he said.
Dr Bowyer also suggested that female moose could purposefully provoke fights between males as a way of choosing their mates.
"Protest moans allow females to exert some choice in a mating system where males restrict [that] choice through male-male combat," he added.
The findings were published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology. (ANI)
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