Social Behaviour Flashcards
Many animals live in social groups and have behaviours that are adapted to group living, such as?
Social hierarchy
Cooperative hunting
Social defence
Define social hierarchy
A rank order within a group of animals consisting of a dominant and subordinate members
Explain how social hierarchies work
Dominant individuals carry out ritualistic (threat) displays
Subordinate animals carry out appeasement behaviour to reduce conflict
Explain the effects of social hierarchies
Increase the chances of the dominant animals favourable genes being passed on to offspring.
Animals often form alliances in social hierarchies to increase their social status within the group
Describe the benefits of cooperative hunting
Benefit both subordinate and dominant as the subordinate animal may gain more food than by foraging alone
Describe the advantages of cooperative hunting
Less energy is used per individual
Enables larger prey to be caught
Increases chance of success
How do social defence strategies increase the chance of survival?
Some individuals can watch for predators
whilst others can forage for food and groups adopt specialised formations when under attack protecting their young
Good sharing will occur as long as…
The reward for sharing exceeds that for foraging individually
Altruistic behaviour
Harms the donor individual but benefits the recipient
Reciprocal altruism
The roles of donor and recipient later reverse
What is a simple model of altruism
Prisoners dilemma
Kin selection
Behaviour that appears to be altruistic can be common between a donor and a recipient if they are related
Benefit to donor in kin selection
Increased chance of survival of shared genes in the recipients offspring or future offspring
Describe the evolution of societies of insects
Bees Wasps Ants Termites Only some individuals contribute reproductively
I’m insect societies what individuals contribute reproductively
Queens and drones
What do sterile workers in the colony do?
Most members of the colony are sterile workers who cooperate with close relatives to raise relatives
Give examples of other workers’ roles
Defending the hive
Collecting pollen
Carrying out waggle dances to show the direction of food
Why is it that sterile workers raise relatives?
Increase survival of shared genes
In primates, what allows for complex social behaviour?
A long period of parental care allows learning of complex social behaviour
Describe complex behaviours that support social structures
Grooming
Facial expressions
Body posture
Sexual presentation
How do social behaviours reduce conflict?
Through ritualistic display and appeasement behaviour
Why are alliances formed between individuals?
To increase social status within the group
