Am I cruel for doing this???

[rabernet]

When this copperhead study first came out I swear I read that the looser males didn't breed until the next year but all I'm finding now is "suppression of sexual behavior" for 7 days and increased stress hormones for an hour:

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=3079119

At any rate, I'd worry about letting a male combat that he might loose and the impact on the male ego might affect his breeding.

Randy, the Barkers address this in their book, that they don't battle their males, because they've found that all too often, the loser will not breed after that. I remember it being a significant amount of time, but I'd have to go back and look it up, and I'm headed out the door to work right now.