Side-Blotched Lizard

The side-blotched lizard provides the clearest biological example of non-transitive (circular) dominance. Males display three throat-color strategies that exist in a rock-paper-scissors dynamic.

Orange-throated males are aggressive, defending large territories with many females. Blue-throated males are cooperative, defending smaller territories with pair bonds. Yellow-throated males are sneaky, holding no territory but mimicking females to sneak matings.

The dominance relationships form a cycle: Orange beats Blue (aggression overwhelms cooperation), Blue beats Yellow (pair bonds detect sneaks), Yellow beats Orange (sneaks can't be excluded from large territories). This creates population frequency cycles on a 6-year period - no strategy is permanently dominant.