Sexual aggression in mammals

In non‐human mammals, sexual conflict should be particularly intense because males rarely provide parental care. An expected consequence of sexual conflict is male aggression towards mates. Considering how complex measurements and interpretations of behaviours such as sexual aggression and sexual coercion are, I preferred to define operationally, as ‘sexual disturbance’, any male behaviour towards females during the pericopulatory period that can be costly for females. The objectives in this review were as follows: 1) to estimate how widespread sexual disturbance is among mammals, 2) to analyse the types of female response to sexual disturbance, and 3) to characterise the costs of sexual disturbance to females. I conducted a systematic review by searching the literature in the Web of Knowledge database using the search tools available for 19 main journals, and I conducted a qualitative review via a taxon‐by‐taxon analysis. Sexual disturbance was frequent in four of the 32 mammalian orders: Primates, Artiodactyla, Carnivora, and Cetacea, which all include highly polygynous taxa. The most common expression of sexual conflict around copulation is seen in behaviours associated with female retention attempts that cause minor harm. Research suggests that the most common response of females to sexual disturbance comprises female grouping around a dominant male.