Social Living

Question 1

Agnostic

Answer 1

Behaviour related to physical conflict:

• Offensive
• Defensive
• Submissive

Question 2

Aggressive

Answer 2

Behaviour that threatens or delivers physical injury:

-Direct, discrete interaction

Question 3

John Maynard Smith and Price

Answer 3

• Evolutionary stable strategy
• Game theory
  - More than 2 players who can make decisions

Question 4

Hawk- Dove Model

Answer 4

Hawk- Always engage in aggression or escalate it.

Dove- Give up when one escalates.

Question 5

Resource Holding Potential

Parker, 1974

Answer 5

Ones ability to win an all-out fight if one were to take place.

Question 6

Deciding to fight

Answer 6

When winning is high the value of the resource is very high and the cost is very low.

Question 7

Coalitions

Answer 7

‘A coalition is a coordinated attack by two or more individuals on one or more opponents, the so-called targets’ (Chapais 1995)

Question 8

Coalition and Alliances

Answer 8

Options:

• Relatives if available, familiar and trustworthy
• Highest RHP individual available

Question 9

Coalition and Alliances’ constraints

Answer 9

• Demographic structure
• Choices of others
• Personal dominance rank

Question 10

Winner and loser effects

Answer 10

If one is losing a fight they undergo physiological processes whereby they essentially give up. How one does in one fight may affect how they do in their next one.

Question 11

Social Dominance

Answer 11

If two individuals fight and one wins and the other loses, the next time these two individuals come to fight they must ignore it as experience tells them that the same one will probs win again.

Question 12

Dominant Individuals

Answer 12

Net benefits but they’re not expected to win every fight only the ones that matter.

Question 13

Subordinate Individuals

Answer 13

Alternate sneaky strategies,

best of a bad job.

Question 14

Dominance

Answer 14

Dyadic. Interactions and relationships.

Question 15

Rank (Status)

Answer 15

Position across individuals. Relationships > Social structure. Primates aware of their relative rank.

Question 16

Linear

Answer 16

A is dominant to B who is dominant to C

Question 17

Triangular

Answer 17

A is dominant to B who is dominant to C whose dominant to D but D is dominant to B

Question 18

Complex

Answer 18

A is dominant to B who is dominant to C whose dominant to D who is dominant to E but E is dominant to C and F

Question 19

Egalitarian

Answer 19

Such as Tonkean Macaques

Question 20

Despotic

Answer 20

Japanese Macaque

Question 21

Female Primate Hierarchies

Answer 21

• Matrilineal
• Size/age related
• RHP/ Contest based

Question 22

Matrilineal inherited dominance

Answer 22

Small group 
-Intrinsic power (RHP)
-Dominant FF=> RS
Medium group 
-Matriline size/ rank correlation 
-Kin based alliances
Large group 
-High ranking matrilines
-Dominant ranking 
-Rank/RS - Family grows faster 
- Maintains Dominance
(Dunbar, 1988)

Question 23

Why be dominant?

Answer 23

If you’re in a high ranking lineage the juveniles have a larger body mass as they get older.
Females of a high rank have a higher reproductive success.

Question 24

Lower stress

Answer 24

• Socially astute
• Confident
• High ranking

Question 25

Benefits of high rank

Answer 25

-Reduces stress -Improved access to food Higher growth rates Younger maturation Increased fertility Improved survival -Improved access to other resources Mates Allies Infant helpers -Ability to manipulate group composition

Question 26

Benefits of group living

Answer 26

- Protection from predators - Defence of food - Foraging efficiency - Care giving

Question 27

Dilution effect

Answer 27

Likelihood that any one individual is chosen by the predator decreases with group size. However, there may be a greater rate of encounters, little data on this.

Question 28

Selfish herd

Answer 28

Put other individuals between you and the predator. (Hamilton 1971)

Question 29

Sociality as anti-predation

Answer 29

- Dilation - Selfish herd - Vigilance - Cooperative defence - Predator confusion

Question 30

Costs of Group Living : Indirect Costs

Answer 30

- Coordination | - Travel time and more travel requires more energy and therefore more feeding required.

Question 31

Costs of Group Living : Direct Costs

Answer 31

- Conspicuousness - Disease risk - Competition of resources needs extra foraging time - Harassment, aggression

Question 32

WG Scramble

Answer 32

- Even costs +day range, - reproductive rates. | - Scale with group size

Question 33

WG Contest

Answer 33

-Skewed costs, dominance rank.

Question 34

Reproductive Suppression

Answer 34

Dominant females can suppress other females ovulation. This is done with pheromones.