When an orange male meets up with a yellow, not a lot happens. In this
case, we have reason to believe that the yellow has successfully pacified
the orange in previous encounters. For example, the day before, the yellow
male used in this intrusion was seen all over the orange male's territory.
Not all dominant males are so laisez faire about the presence of sneaky
yellows, blue males are chasing off yellowsa ll
the time. In fact, this same sneaker was repulsed
by a blue. Even more curious, this same orange
male gets really tweaked when an intruding blue is on his turf. Either
the orange male is somewhat blind and can't recognize the yellow male in
front of him as a male, or perhaps the yellow has soothed the savage beast
known as orange. Perhaps the yellow used the female
rejection display in an earlier encounter (see staged laboratory trial
below), or the look of the yellow male, which resembles a female in throat
and dorsal colors, may be all that it takes to convince an orange that it
is a "female". Whatever is the case, it is darn effective. The
Yellow will remain motionless, but when they have to, they can make like
greased lightening as does this yellow when the orange comes too close.