Social Behaviour - Living In Groups

Question 1

What are the three basic types of spatial distribution in an organism?

Answer 1

Uniform - penguins
Random - trees
Clumped - shoaling in fish

Question 2

Describe the social groups of geladas

Answer 2

Family groups - 1 dominant male ~12 females

• high levels of infanticide
• females miscarry after unfamiliar male exposure

Question 3

Describe the size of the Japanese ant supercolony

Answer 3

306 million worker ants, 1 million queens, 45,000 interconnected nests

Question 4

When is group living selected for?

Answer 4

Often appears to be related to predation or foraging benefits
Comes down to an analysis of the costs and the benefits

Question 5

What are the 5 benefits of group living?

Answer 5

Predator detection 
Dilution effect
Predator confusion
Group vigilance
Group foraging

Question 6

What problems may occur if a group gets too large?

Answer 6

Starvation due to limited resources

Predation due to increased fighting within the group and less scanning

Question 7

What biotic factors affect how animals interact with their environment?

Answer 7

Facilitative - mating, foraging etc

Constraining - copetition, infection etc