Lecture 17 Flashcards
Social behaviours
What is social behaviour?
1pt
refers to the interactions occurring between individuals of the same or different species that share some sort of structural relationship
What is social structure?
1pt
Organization between individuals with long-term consequences for spatial distribution, access to resources and behavioural interactions. It promotes cooperation.
What is bonding?
1pt
Process of attachment between individuals (e.g. mating, maternal bonding,…)
What is socialization?
1pt
the process of adopting behavioral patterns that leads to a relatively stable social structure.
What is primary socialization?
2pt
- Initial emotional attachment formed with their own or other species.
- Not shaped by consequences: No matter if the animal is rewarded, punished, or treated indifferently by the individual or object of socialization.
- Kittens 3 - 9 weeks of age
- Puppies 19 d - 12 weeks of age
What is imprinting?
3pt
- Phase-sensitive learning process that occurs at birth (6-18 hours). Form of bonding. Rapid and irreversible.
- Newborns accept as parents the first object with which they have visual, auditory, or tactile experience (e.g. their parents, rubber boots, a toy train)
- Intensively studied in birds, but a similar bonding occurs in many mammals and some fishes and insects.
Konrad lorenz
What is secondary socialization?
3pt
- With more mobility and developed senses, the animal engages in interactions with peers or other species.
- Lifelong learning process integrating positive and negative consequences from those interactions.
- Play behaviours are key early in the socialization process, influencing brain development and cognitive skills
Precocial va Altricial
2pt
- Precocial: Offspring require little parental care (cattle, piglets, foal) - primary socialization starts before birth
- Altricial: Offspring require prolonged and extensive care (rodents, rabbits, babies)- primary socialization starts after birth
What are affiliative behaviours? give examples.
5pt
Positive social interactions that benefit all animals involved, reinforcing social bonds.
➢ Mutual Allogrooming/allopreening
➢ Allofeeding/Food sharing
➢ Behavioural synchrony
➢ Spatial proximity
what is a hierarchy and what are the differnt types?
4pt
A pattern of social organization and dominance that results in maximal group-bonding and minimal aggression.
* Linear: Quite common in small groups
* * a > b > c > d > e
* Triangular: Horses and cattle
* Despotism: Roosters
* * A > b = c = d = e
What are factors influencing dominance?
7pt
- Age of animal: Older > younger
- Size of animal: larger > smaller (except if they are older)
- Presence or size of horns/combs/antlers, tusks, claws
- Genes: Breed, coat colour
- Gender: Males (usually) > females > juveniles
- “Home court advantage” on familiar territory
- Win/loss record: Related to previous experience. Individuals showing to be dominant in other groups are more likely to win dominance in a new group irrespective of their size or age.
Injection of androgens can increase/alter status
What are the social roles in a group?
3pt
- Initiator: the individual that is the first to react to an stimuli. The one that moves first. Typically, a bold and exploratory individual.
- Controller: the individual that determines when and where group movements occur.
- Leader: the individual that is in front during an orderly group progression. The one that is followed by others. E.g. moving into the milking parlour
What are advantages of social groups?
6pt
- Protection from environment (huddle for warmth)
- Protection against predators
- Enhanced ability to find mates
- Increased ability to find and protect resources
- Division of labor
- Richer learning environment for young
Social isolation is a bad alternative
What are disadvantages of social groups?
5pt
- Increased competition (feeding, breeding)
- Increased spread of disease and parasites
- Group may be more conspicuous to predators
- Reduced fitness due to inbreeding
- Risk of exploitation by group members
What is the human-animal interaction?
1pt
Ducks, pigeons, squirrels, crows, seagulls,… they all learned to live close to humans for their benefit, and probably this was the first step for domestication of dogs, cats, cattle, etc
What are cooperative behaviours?
3pt
- Pool defensive resources: acute sense of one species makes up for deficiencies in another.
- Multispecies flocking: alarm calls, discovery of food resources, confusion to predators.
- Cooperative hunting: One species uses another species (or vehicles) to flush prey (e.g. badger + coyote).
What is Interspecific social behaviour?
1pt
Some species that are capable of forming social groups with other species (e.g. cats and dogs with people) may adapt their intraspecific behavioural repertoire in order to improve communication
What is social transmission?
1pt
All processes that involve a simple transfer of information and/or behavior between individuals of the same or different species
Information transfer
What is social learning?
1pt
Observational learning of novel behaviors between subjects of the same species requiring more complex cognitive abilities
Information transfer
What is social facilitation?
1pt
Social transmission
is when the behaviour by an individual is triggered or increased in rate or frequency by the presence of another individual carrying out that behaviour (increases motivation without learning involved)
Social transmission
Calf with muzzled calf in samepen will drink more
What is stimulus enhancement?
1pt
where the observer becomes more likely to interact with the object with which the demonstrator interacts. The observer is therefore more likely to learn about the consequences of interacting with these types of stimuli through individual associative learning
Social transmission
What is local enhancement?
1pt
where the behavior of a demonstrator results in an increase in the salience of a particular location. The observer’s motivation to investigate the location may be increased.
Social transmission
What is goal emulation?
1pt
refers to the reproduction of the results of a model’s behaviour, rather than the reproduction of the precise behavior that produced those results. The observer engages in similar behaviours to achieve that goal, without necessarily replicating the specific actions of the model.
Social learning
What is action level imitation?
1pt
The observer copies a motor pattern from the demonstrator to achieve a goal. It requires a certain cognitive sophistication.
Social learning
What is program level imitation?
1pt
It involves a sequence of copied movements that are observed. Ex: young mountain gorillas learn how to prepare certain noxious plants for consumption
Social learning
Imitation vs Learning
3pt
In many cases imitations occurred as a form of associative learning, mediated by human reinforcement
* Learning involves intention and purpose
* Learning requires cognitive skills and brain structures not found in other species
* Evolutionary speaking, the cost/benefit of having those structures may be low.
What is an example of a moral behaviour in animals?
1pt
Reconciliation behaviour
