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behavioural ecology🦓🐝🐒 > Social Behaviour > Flashcards

Social Behaviour Flashcards

1
Q

What are the 3 types of social groups in animals?

A

Asocial
Social
Eusocial

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2
Q

Describe ASOCIAL animals

A
  • have little interaction with conspecifics (members of same species)
  • usually solitary for most of life
  • may come together to reproduce
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3
Q

Describe SOCIAL groups

A
  • Monogamous pair or polygamous groups (hierarchical) – alpha dominance
  • can be unstable or stable groups
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4
Q

What is an example of a stable social group?

A

Wolf pack
Baboons
Lions
Chickens

= highly organised, stable.

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5
Q

What is an example of an unstable social group?

A

Shoal of fish

= movements, changes etc are all in flux - no hierarchical organisation

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6
Q

Describe a EUSOCIAL species

A
  • highly social
  • labour is divided
  • sacrifice of reproduction is often made to benefit whole group
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7
Q

Give some examples of eusocial species

A

Bees
Naked mole rats
ants
termites

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8
Q

Name 3 advantages to group living

A 
Any: 
–	Heat (thermoregulation)
–	Predator avoidance
–	Predator protection 
–	Defence
–	Feeding
–	Locating food
–	Defence of prey
–	Reproduction and mating systems
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9
Q

Name 3 disadvantages to group living

A 
Any from: 
–	Increased competition for food
–	Increased disease transmission
–	More obvious to predators (pheromones)
–	More risk of parasitism/cannibalism of young
–	Reduced reproductive success
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10
Q

How does group living reduce risk of predation

A

o More eyes can detect a predator earlier = more vigilance (meerkats)
o As group size increases, individuals can decrease own vigilance
o Spend more time foraging and/or save energy

  • groups can also confuse predators (zebras)
  • communal defence
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11
Q

Give an example of when group living reduces predation risk

A

Meerkats (Suricata suricatta) - have a sentinel to look out for predators and warn the group

Zebras - confusion defence from markings

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12
Q

Give an example of predator confusion in social groups

A

zebras - groups stripes confuse predators

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13
Q

Give an example of increased predator vigilance

A

birds flocking

Meerkats: Suricata suricatta

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14
Q

Give an example of communal defence

A

Buffalo grouping to defend against an attacker

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15
Q

How do Harbour seals show increased vigilance in groups?

A

When they haul out offshore sandbanks/ beaches, scanning behaviour is observed to look out for predators.
The bigger the group, the more time spent scanning

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16
Q

What are sentinels

A

They act as look-outs and signal alarm calls in presence of danger

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17
Q

Give an example of a sentinel

A

Meerkats

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18
Q

What did Bedenkoff (1997) conclude about unselfish behaviour (4 points)

A

o Individuals more likely to become sentinels when satiated
o Sentinels detect predators first and also flee first (increased survival)
o Sentinels change in the group as the sentinels become hungry and are replaced by foragers
o Observations that even solitary individuals become sentinels when satiated

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19
Q

What does the presence of pups cause in meerkat behaviour?

A

When on foraging trips, both male and female meerkats increase sentinel behaviour when pups were with them.
Consequently, females found less food (because more time spent on look out)

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20
Q

What is the dilution effect?

A

The dilution effect is the idea that the chance of an individual being captured by a predator decreases as group size increases. This is because the predator only takes a single or a limited amount of prey in each attack

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21
Q

How do you calculate an individuals risk of predation, according to the dilution effect?

A

1 individual = 100%

10 individuals = 1/10

12 individuals = 1/12

n = group size
risk = 1/n
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22
Q

What is the selfish herd effect/ principle? (Hamilton, 1971)

A

the idea that each individual in the herd will try to be at the group centre to avoid predation.

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23
Q

What effect can explain the constant movement in flocks and shoals?

A

selfish herd principle

24
Q

What is the trade-off for the selfish herd principle?

A

o Exterior positions may be better for foraging but greater exposure to predation. Trade off between predation risk and foraging benefit.

25
Q

How does the confusion effect protect groups?

A
  • In large groups predators have difficulty focusing on a single target
  • Difficult to focus on individual stimuli at the same time = sensory overload for predator = confusion effect
26
Q

What is the confusion effect?

A

The effect is based on the fact that it is difficult to focus on multiple stimuli at the same time. Predators have a hard time focusing on a specific individual, when many other animals are escaping from them at the same time

27
Q

What does the Neill & Cullen (1974) study show about the confusion effect?

A

o Attack success declined with increasing prey shoal size, regardless of attack mode
o Based on 4 aquatic predators (squid, cuttlefish, pike = ambush predators; perch = chasing predator)

Aquatic predators were less successful at catching prey in bigger groups

28
Q

What is the odd prey effect?

A
  • Idea is that if an individual differs from the rest of the group, it is more likely to be attacked and captures
29
Q

What can make an individual in a group more likely to be predated?

A

If it differs from the rest of the group
i.e: odd-coloured, weaker, deformed etc…

The odd effect.

30
Q

What is communal defence?

A

When prey may actively defend themselves by attacking a predator

31
Q

Give an example of communal defence in birds

A

Artificial nests of fieldfares (Turdus pilaris) placed near colonies survived better than those placed as solitary nests.

32
Q

What do fieldfare birds do to protect themselves?

A

They make artificial nests around the colony, even though solitary, as a form of communal defence (appear more abundant)

33
Q

How does social living benefit foraging?

A
  • Less time looking/ locating food (golden shiners fish)

- Capture prey too difficult for an individual to capture (lions)

34
Q

Give a species that demonstrates co-operative hunting

A

Lions

African Hunting Dogs

35
Q

Which position do lionesses adopt when group hunting

A

wing or centre positions

wings stalk prey
centres ambush and kill

36
Q

Why do lionesses use preferred positions when hunting

A

their hunts are more successful

Centre positions are filled by the usually larger individuals = better ambushers

37
Q

What did Creel & Creel (1995) find about African Hunting Dogs?

A

showed that hunting success, prey mass and the probability of multiple kills increased with number of adult hunting dogs

More dogs = better/ more kills

38
Q

How does co-operative hunting help African Hunting Dogs?

A

Dogs weigh ~25kg
Buffalo weighs ~250kg (10x more)
By hunting together, they can kill prey much bigger than themselves

39
Q

How does information sharing benefit a social group?

A

Groups can find food more efficiently

Stay away from predators/ danger

40
Q

How does information sharing benefit colonies and roosts

A

o Unsuccessful birds may follow successful foragers without any signalling (eavesdropping).
o Successful birds may communicate where food is to others and recruit them.
= more efficient foraging & less predation risk

41
Q

How do Ravens (Corvus corvax) use information sharing?

A
  • A territorial pair of ravens finds food source (i.e: a carcass)
  • Defends carcass against juvenilles
  • Pair will give up food when confronted by a gang of 6 or more juvenilles
  • Juveniles then call out loudly to others to recruit them and feed on the carcass
42
Q

How does group living impact parental care?

A
  • Help defend young against predation
  • Help raise young
  • more food availability/ foraging
  • Créches
43
Q

Give an example of a species that uses group living to defend young from predation

A

Nesting black-headed gulls

  • will mod crows that try to steal eggs and chicks
44
Q

Give an example of a species that uses creches

A

LIONS

45
Q

How do lion creches work

A
  • Lionesses have 1 to 6 cubs in a litter.
  • Mothers of similarly aged cubs form a crèche and remain together for 1–2 years.
  • Crèche-mates often nurse each other’s cubs
  • More protection against infanticide
46
Q

How does group living benefit thermoregulation

A
  • Maintenance of internal body temperature within a range
  • Need to conserve heat
  • Solitary animals may find it difficult to cover the cost of this
  • Social animals share the cost of keeping warm between them
47
Q

What are 2 ways animal groups conserve heat

A

Huddling

Clustering

48
Q

How does huddling conserve heat?

A

 Reduces surface area to volume ratio

 Assumes that both sides in contact are the same temperature, therefore there is no heat loss.

49
Q

Name a species that uses clustering to conserve heat

A

Slugs

50
Q

How does clustering conserve heat?

A

Bodies pack together to reduce evaporation

51
Q

Name a species that uses huddling

A

Emperor Penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri)

52
Q

What did Gilbert et al (2008) find out huddling in emperor penguins?

A
  • Huddling behaviour allows male penguins to save energy while fasting during their incubation period’
  • Estimated to save 38% of metabolic energy by reducing exposure of body surface and production of a microclimate within the group
53
Q

Give a species that supports the desiccation hypothesis

A

North American Lepidopterans

Cluster eggs tightly normally. In Tropical areas they lay the eggs singly or in loose monolayers to avoid too much humidity

54
Q

What is the desiccation hypothesis?

A

Clutch size and hatching success in eggs vary at different humidity levels

55
Q

Name a study on the confusion effect

A

Neill & Cullen (1974)

Prey catching success of squid, cuttlefish, pike and perch decreased as shoal size increased

behavioural ecology🦓🐝🐒 (13 decks)

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