Topic 5 - Group Living Flashcards
What does conspecific mean?
Animals of the same species.
What does home range mean?
Area for foraging and roaming.
What does dispersal mean?
When an animal leaves its home range.
What does philopatry mean?
When an animal stays in its home range.
What is life as a primate like?
Primate live in groups, no contact outside the group, and the group is tied to a location. Groups avoid each other, they are hostile/aggressive (exception: chimpanzees).
Where do primates live?
Non-human primates mostly live in the southern hemisphere/tropical areas (new vs. old world primates). Humans can live everywhere thanks to niche construction.
How many species of primates are there?
Circa 250, from lemur to human.
How many species of great apes are there?
5: orangutan, gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, humans.
How do orangutans live?
They are mostly solitary. Males leave, females are philopatric. They have overlapping home ranges where they are related.
How do gorillas live?
Gorillas live in harems (one male, multiple females and offspring). Benefits: alloparenting, protection. Both females and males disperse. When males disperse, some multi-male troops will form.
How do chimpanzees live?
Chimpanzees live in groups of 20-150. There is strong hierarcy in the group. They practice fission-fusion. Males are philopatric, females disperse (genetic pool argument).
What are the benefits of fission-fusion?
Often happens in response to scarce resources. Decreases competition, aggregation can offer protection, can variate seasonally/daily.
What is sexual dimorphism? What is an example of it?
It’s when sexes of the same species are different. An example is bonobos and chimpanzees (that’s how we told them apart).
How do bonobos live?
Bonobos are a female centric species, male disperse. Females have sex with each other. Females/male copulate face to face.
What are some benefits of group living?
Shared resources, protection, access to mates, division of labour.
