Primate Behaviour

Question 1

What are the advantages of social behaviour in primates?

Answer 1

• baboons live in groups
- a large group is more efficient at hunting for food as they can search a large area and communicate back to the group where there’s a good source of food
• within each group there’s a clear cut hierarchy of adult males
- this helps to prevent fighting which wastes energy as the males already know their rank order in the group
• as each group moves through its own territory hunting for food, baboons cooperate with each other - infant baboons stay with their mothers in the middle of the group and the adult males stay on the outside
- infants and females are protected if they’re on the inside of the group, the young baboons need to be kept safe and there needs to be enough female baboons for the males to mate with to make sure that reproduction is successful and the group continues
• members of the group groom each other, they pick out small insects and dirt from each other’s fur
- grooming is hygienic and helps to reinforce the social bonds within the group