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The ecological constraints prevalent in arid environments have promoted the evolution of social groups with a high reproductive skew in mole rat species occurring there. Outbred social bathyergids face conflict between maintaining colony integrity to enhance personal foraging success and hence survival, and dispersal to maximum individual lifetime reproductive success (LRS). This conflict will be a crucial determinant of the response of colony members to the presence of foreign conspecifics. We investigated how ecological constraints, sex, and reproductive status influence the outcome of meetings between foreign common mole rats (Cryptomys hottentotus hottentotus) in a series of dyadic encounters. Individuals from two localities, at the extremes of an aridity gradient, were used to assess the effects of aridity. The effects of sex and reproductive status were investigated by trials between individuals of …