U3.6 Social behaviour Flashcards
What is social hierarchy?
A rank order within a group of animals.
Describe the types of members in a social hierarchy.
- Dominant members who carry out ritualistic (threat) displays.
- Subordinate members who carry out appeasement behaviour to reduce conflict.
What do social hierarchies increase the chances of?
The dominant individual’s favourable genes being passed to offspring.
What do animals in social hierarchies do to increase their social status?
Form alliances.
Who does cooperative hunting help?
Subordinate animals as well as dominant ones.
How does cooperative hunting benefit animals?
- They gain more food than foraging / hunting alone.
- They expend less energy than by hunting alone.
- They can catch larger prey with a higher energy value.
What do social defence strategies increase?
Survival chances.
What do social defence strategies allow?
Some individuals in a group to feed wile others look for potential predators.
Give examples of social defence strategies.
Adopting a specialised formation to protect young, when under attack e.g. baboons and musk oxen.
What does altruistic behaviour do?
Harms the donor individual but benefits the recipient.
When may altruistic behaviours be common?
If the donor and recipient are related (kin).
Who benefits in kin selection and why?
The donor, as the survival chances of shared genes are increased in the recipient’s offspring (or future offspring) e.g. vampire bats.
What is reciprocal altruism?
The reversal of the roles of donor and recipient.
Where does reciprocal altruism occur?
In social animals e.g. grooming in chimpanzees.
Give examples of social insects.
Bees, wasps, ants, termites.
What individuals (social insects) contribute reproductively?
Queens (female) and drones (males).
What are most members in a social colony?
Sterile workers
Why do workers cooperate with close relatives?
To raise relatives to the survival of shared genes (kin selection).
What are some of the specific roles of worker bees?
Building the nest/hive,
Collecting pollen and preforming waggle dances to show the direction and distance of food sources,
Feeding and grooming the larvae.
Give examples of primates.
Humans, monkeys and apes.
Why do primates show a long period of parental care?
Allow learning of complex social behaviours in foraging, hunting and recognised danger.
What supports the social hieararchy?
Complex social behaviours.
What do complex social behaviours do?
Reduce conflict.
Give examples of complex social behaviours.
Ritualistic display - repeated behaviour in reproductive or conflict situations e.g. facial expression, body posture.
Appeasement - subordinate uses this to reduce aggression in dominant individuals e.g. grooming, facial expression, body posture and sexual presentation.
