Key Area 6: Social behaviour Flashcards
What Behaviours are included in social groups?
- Behaviours that reflect the animals rank in a social hierarchy
- Cooperative hunting
- Social defence
What is a Social Hierarchy?
A rank order within a group of animals consisting of dominant (high ranking) and subordinate (low ranking) members
Examples of Social Hierarchies
E.g. Pecking Order in chickens, Hierarchies in wolf packs
What do Dominant Individuals carry out?
Ritualistic displays
What do Subordinate animals carry out and why?
Appeasement behaviours to reduce conflict and injury within the group
What do Lower rank animals sometimes do?
They form alliances to increase their position within the social hierarchy
What do dominant individuals have greater access of?
Food and Mates
What do Social Hierarchies increase the chances of?
Increases chances of dominant animals surviving to reproduce, passing on their favourable genes to the next generation
What is Cooperative Hunting?
Hunting Behaviour in which individuals work together to catch prey and obtain food
What are advantages of Cooperative Hunting?
- Enables larger prey to be caught
- Less energy used per individual in Cooperative Hunting compared to hunting alone
- Increase chances og hunting success
- Subordinate animals get more food than if they hunted alone
What is Social Defence?
‘Safety in numbers’
Why do animals employ social defence strategies?
To increase their chances of survival
Why in large groups do some individuals watch for predators whilst others can forage for food?
This makes it more likely that approaching predators will be spotted
Examples of a group strengthening their defence by adopting specialised formaations when under attack to protect their young
Musk Ox form a defensive ring with young at the centre so they are protected
What is Altruism?
Behaviours which may be harmful too the individual carrying out the behaviour (the donor) but are beneficial to another individual (the recipient)
What are the two possible explanations for altruistic behaviour?
- Reciprocal Altruism
- Kin Selection
What is Reciprocal Altruism?
Altruistic Behaviour that is formed with the knowledge that the roles of the recipients and the donor will later reverse
Example of Reciprocal Altruism
Blood sharing in vampire bats
What is Kin Selection?
Altruistic Behaviour where the donor and the recipient are related (Kin)
What does Kin Selection ensure?
The shared genes of the donor and recipient are passed on to the next generation as the recipient will survive to reproduce
What is the structure in society with Social Insects?
- Only some individuals (queens and drones) can reproduce. This means all members of the colony are closely related
- Most members of the colony are sterile workers
What are the roles of sterile workers?
- Collecting food
- Defending the nest/hive
- Raising young relatives
- Carrying out waggle dances to show the direction of food (Bees only)
Since the workers are donors what does this help do?
They help the queen and drones survive to reproduce, and then raise their young at great personal cost.
This increases the chances of survival of shared genes
Why do Primates have a long period of parental care?
To allow time for learning of complex social behaviours essential for survival
