Social Behaviors

What benefits can social living provide? 

It can increase foraging efficiency, reduce predation risk, provide thermal regulation, and other offspring care.

Describe how group living can be advantageous with respect to increasing foraging efficiency.

It allows for an increase in finding food, an increase in food quality, and an increase in prey.

Describe different mechanisms through which group living may reduce predation risk. 

Bunching behavior leads to the dilution effect, which can be defined as a decreased chance of being caught by a predator if the group of prey is larger. Another mechanism is the “Many Eyes” hypothesis, which states that the larger the group, the number of animals need to maintain vigilance decreases.

Define mutualism and altruism, and give an example of each. 

Mutualism is when both animals benefit from an interaction, such as penguins huddling to keep warm. Altruism is a helpful behavior that lowers the helper’s fitness while increasing the fitness of the animal being helped, such as protecting young from predators.

What costs/problems may arise with group living?

It can increase competition for resources, increase parasite and disease exposure, and increase detection of predators.

Describe the difference between home range, territory, and flight distance. 

Home range- an area an animal knows well and patrols often to rest but won’t defend.

Territory- an area an animal will defend with a group to deter other animals from entering.

Flight distance- A radius of space around the animal that an animal will not allow intrusion into without fleeing, signaling, or fighting.

Define affiliative and agonistic behavior. 

Affiliative behavior is a pro-social behavior that brings 2+ individuals together into proximity

Agnostic behavior: Is any activity related to fighting, threatening, aggression, submission, avoidance, and retreat.

Describe some different examples of affiliative behavior?

social grooming, and suckling

What is a dominance hierarchy, and what benefits do they provide? 

It is a dominant/submissive relationship between animals in a group, where dominant animals get primary access to resources and mates before the rest of the group. The benefit is providing rules based on dominance relationships, which social interactions rely on.

Define threats, aggression, and submission, with examples for each. 

Threats: signify hostility and intent to intimidate; e.g., cows showing their large size to appear bigger

Aggression: Act by one animal to threaten to harm another through altercations/flights ex: Attack

Submission: Communicates through posture that an individual will not challenge the dominant individual ex: reducing size or avoidance

What are the 3 prerequisites for a stable dominance hierarchy, and how do we accommodate them in the management of domestic animals?

1. individual recognition

2. means to reinforce relationships

3. Integrity of a group composition

We can accommodate this by not frequently adding and removing animals from a group and maintaining group composition similar to wild interactions.

When might attempts to establish a dominance hierarchy become maladaptive (i.e., no longer beneficial)? (Hint: think about situations where we see a lot of aggression and one of the prerequisites for a stable dominance hierarchy is missing.)

Attempts to establish dominance may be maladaptive in captivity, as the increase in aggression, but lack integrity of group composition or no means to reinforce relationships.