Abstract

The Lanchester models of combat were originally created for human warfare. These models were inspired by advances in technology and automatic weaponry at the turn of the 20th century. They parameterize army group size and individual fighting ability to explain the mortality rate of soldiers in a group during battle. In the last few decades, they have been applied to conflicts involving interactions between groups of nonhuman animals of varying degrees of sociality. This review focuses on the predictions and applications of Lanchester laws to nonhuman animal contests. Behavioral researchers have used the Lanchester models to interpret a variety of life history strategies and behaviors, such as colony fission in army ants, size differences in native versus non-native ants, recruitment behavior in chimpanzees, and dominance hierarchies in birds. These researchers assumed that the Lanchester laws apply qualitatively, and sometimes quantitatively, to the specific circumstances studied. To increase their biological realism, mathematical modifications have been proposed. While applications suggest that these laws may explain a multitude of social behaviors, there are surprisingly few empirical tests. Thus, further empirical data are needed to fully assess the accuracy of the models in predicting outcomes in nonhuman animals and their usefulness to biological systems.

摘要

Lanchester战斗模型最初是为人类战争而创建的。这些模型的灵感来自20世纪初技术和自动武器的发展。他们将军队的人数和个人战斗能力参数化，以说明战斗中某组士兵的死亡率。在最近的几十年中，它们已被应用于涉及社会程度不同的非人类动物群体之间相互作用的冲突。这篇评论集中在兰切斯特法律在非人类动物竞赛中的预测和应用。行为研究人员已使用Lanchester模型来解释各种生活史策略和行为，例如军蚁的群体分裂，原生和非原生蚂蚁的大小差异，黑猩猩的募集行为以及鸟类的优势等级。这些研究人员认为，兰切斯特定律在质量上，有时在数量上适用于所研究的具体情况。为了增加它们的生物学现实性，已经提出了数学修改。尽管应用表明这些法律可以解释多种社会行为，但令人惊讶的是，实证检验很少。因此，需要进一步的经验数据来全面评估模型在预测非人类动物的转归及其对生物系统的实用性方面的准确性。实证检验很少。因此，需要进一步的经验数据来全面评估模型在预测非人类动物的转归及其对生物系统的实用性方面的准确性。实证检验很少。因此，需要进一步的经验数据来全面评估模型在预测非人类动物的转归及其对生物系统的实用性方面的准确性。