KA6 Social Behaviour Flashcards
describe social hierarchy and its benefits
social hierarchy is a system where individuals are organised into an order of rank. benefits include reduced aggression avoiding injury and ensuring the individuals best suited to their environment reproduce and pass on their genes
describe the benefits of cooperative hunting
animals can cooperate to hunt, benefitting dominant and subordinate animals. more food is gained compared with foraging alone, larger prey can be caught, subordinate animals will gain more food than if hunting alone, food sharing will occur as the reward for sharing exceeds the reward for foraging alone
give three examples of adaptations to group living
cooperative hunting, social hierarchy, social defence
describe the benefits of social defence
having many individuals means the group is able to fend off attacks by predators by making it difficult to isolate an individual and confusing/intimidating the attacker, there are more eyes looking out for danger
describe altruism
altruism harms the donor but benefits the recipient
describe reciprocal altruism
in reciprocal altruism, the roles of donor and recipient are reversed, this is very common in social animals. (e.g. vampire bats who have hunted may share food with those who have not, but the successful hunter may be later unsuccessful and need to obtain food from a previous recipient)
what is kin selection?
Altruism may be common between individuals who are related (kin). The donor will benefit in terms of the increased chances of survival of shared genes in the recipient’s offspring
give examples of social insects
wasps, ants, bees, termites
state the roles of social insects
workers, queens, drones
how do complex behaviours in primates help reduce unnecessary conflict
behaviours displayed by primates support their social hierarchy and help reduce unnecessary conflict
explain the need for a long period of parental care in primates
gives offspring the time to learn complex social behaviours
