3.6 Social behaviour Flashcards
What are behaviours that are adapted to group
living?
Social hierarchy, co-operative hunting and social defence
What is social hierarchy?
Social hierarchy is a rank order within a group of animals consisting of a dominant and subordinate members
What happens in a social hierarchy?
In a social hierarchy, dominant individuals carry out ritualistic (threat) displays whilst subordinate animals carry out appeasement behaviour to reduce conflict
What do social hierarchy’s increase?
Social hierarchies increase the chances of the dominant animal’s favourable genes being passed on to offspring. Animals often form alliances in social hierarchies to increase their social status within the group
Co-operative hunting and its advantages
Co-operative hunting may benefit subordinate animals as well as dominant ones, as they may gain more food
than by foraging alone. Less energy is used per individual. Co-operative hunting enables larger prey to be caught and increases the chance of success
Social defence
Social defence strategies increase the chance of survival as some individuals can watch for predators
whilst others can forage for food. Groups adopt specialised formations when under attack protecting their young
Altruistic behaviour
An altruistic behaviour harms the donor individual but benefits the recipient. Behaviour that appears to be altruistic can be common between a donor and a
recipient if they are related (kin).
Reciprocal altruism
Reciprocal altruism, where the roles of donor and
recipient later reverse, often occurs in social animals
How will the donor of altruistic behaviour benefit?
The donor will benefit in kin selection in terms of the increased chances of survival of shared genes in the
recipient’s offspring or future offspring
Social insects and the structure of their society in which..
Only some individuals (queens and drones) contribute reproductively
Most members of the colony are..
Sterile workers who co-operate with close relatives to raise relatives
Examples of social insects
Bees, wasps, ants and termites
Other examples of workers’ roles include:
Defending the hive, collecting pollen and carrying out waggle dances to show the direction of food
How do social insects benefit the workers
Sterile workers raise relatives to increase survival of shared genes
Primate behaviour
Primates have a long period of parental care to allow learning of complex social behaviour. Complex social behaviours support the social hierarchy
