Social Behaviour Flashcards
What are the benefits of living in a social group?
Individual risk of predation diluted by joining a group
Groups can tackle larger prey than individuals
Grouping confuses predators, making it harder for them to target prey
Huddling in groups help thermoregulation
Energetic advantages to swimming or flying in a group through ‘slipstreaming’
What are the costs of living in a social group?
Greater risk of contracting disease
Greater chance of mistakenly feeding someone else’s offspring
Investment in foraging, courtship, or other activities exploited by other group members
Young may be cannibalised by neighbours
Greater risk of inbreeding
What is social hierarchy?
A social hierarchy is a rank order within a group of animals consisting of a dominant and subordinate members
How is conflict reduced in social hierarchy?
In a social hierarchy, dominant individuals carry out ritualistic (threat) displays whilst subordinate animals carry out appeasement behaviour
How do animals increase social status within a group in a social hierarchy?
Animals often form alliances in social hierarchies
How does social hierarchies benefit species?
increase the chances of the dominant animal’s favourable genes being passed on to offspring
What is cooperative hunting?
a group of animals working together to find and catch prey
What is the benefit for cooperative hunting?
Cooperative hunting benefits all members of a social group, including lower ranking individuals as the subordinate animals may gain more food than by foraging alone. This means that even those organisms at the bottom of the social hierarchy (subordinate individuals) obtain food.
Group hunting also allows larger prey animals to be hunted meaning all individuals gain more food than they would by foraging alone.
By working as a group, less energy is used per individual in obtaining the prey, this maximizes energy gain.
What is social defence?
Staying together in large groups offer protection from predators and increase chance of survival eg some animals watch as other eats
What is altruism?
In some cases an animal will behave in a manner which is harmful to itself but beneficial to another individual.
What is reciprocal altruism?
Reciprocal altruism is a behaviour whereby an organism (donor) acts in a manner that temporarily reduces its fitness while increasing another organism’s (recipient) fitness with the expectation that, the roles of donor and recipient later reverse
What is kin selection
Behaviour that appears to be altruistic can be common between a donor and a recipient if they are related (kin). The donor will benefit in terms of the increased chances of survival of shared genes in the recipient’s offspring or future offspring.
Examples of social insects?
Bees, wasps, ants and termites
What are the benefits of only some animals contribute to reproduction?
This benefits the species as a whole, because the ‘workers’ become specialised in performing their function; although they are not directly involved in the reproductive process, the tasks they complete ensure the survival of the species.
What is queen bee responsible for?
queen is solely responsible for laying eggs
