Animals fight for food, mates and sometimes just for sport – but occasionally, when confrontations escalate, they can become deadly. Faced with the fight-or-flight conundrum, some species choose to stand their ground, leading to violent, often fatal clashes.
From lions and elephants to ants and banded mongooses, these aggressive animals are responsible for some of the greatest fights to the death in the animal kingdom.
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Animals that fight to the death
Lions
Infraspecific killings are very common in lion prides, when males fight over territory and potential mates. When males fight over territory, cannibalism can sometimes follow.
When a male lion takes over a pride, he will also kill any cubs fathered by the previous male leader. This is a way of getting access to the females of the pride, who will become more sexually receptive once they stop lactating.
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Chimpanzees
Chimpanzees can be very aggressive, with groups of males attacking other groups, often resulting in serious injuries and fatalities. Fights will usually be over dominance within a troop, with the ousted male sometimes killed in the conflict.
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Banded mongooses
Banded mongooses are extremely territorial animals and will have violent fights with their neighbouring groups about three times a month. Unlike many other species, fighting is not restricted to the males – in the case of the banded mongoose, it’s often the females who are the instigators.
Black rhinos
Black rhinos are believed to have the highest rate of mortal combat recorded for any mammal, with about 50 per cent of males and 30 per cent of females dying from combat-related injuries. Conflicts can lead to intense battles, with rhinos using their horns to ram one another.
Elephants
Male elephants enter a state known as ‘musth’, which is when their testosterone increases by a factor of 60 or more. This prepares them to compete for mates and generally makes them much more aggressive, and it's the time when much of the infighting occurs among males. In Asian elephants, the musth is more pronounced, lasting for up to 60 days. During this time, they fight one another – sometimes to the death.
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Ants
It’s not just big animals that fight! Conflicts can break out between different groups in some ant species, sometimes with entire ant colonies at war. This can sometimes be due to competition for territory and food sources, or as an attempt to capture the pupae from another colony for their own use.
The bodies of dead or injured ants are brought back to the colony, where they are eaten. Workers will be sacrificed before majors will join the battlefield. These brutal wars can result in the death of tens of thousands of ants.
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Main image: banded mongoose in Etosha National Park. Credit: Getty