An attempt is made to develop a model of male fights which can account
for the stylized facts, observed by Kummer and his team, for hamadrya
s baboons. By two special versions of the general model it is shown th
at these observations can be consistently explained by one mathematica
l model which may deserve some interest for its own sake. To demonstra
te the relative advantages of our approach we also analyse an ad hoc-t
ype of model. (C) 1998 Academic Press Limited.