Animal social behaviour - Cooperative Breeding, Eusociality, Communication

animal social behaviour

Table of Contents

Introduction
General characteristics
- Categorizing the diversity of social behaviour
- The range of social behaviour in animals
- A historical perspective on the study of social behaviour
The how and why of social behaviour
- Proximate versus ultimate causation
- Strong inference and the scientific study of social behaviour
The ultimate causes of social behaviour
- Social interactions involving sex
- Social interactions involving the costs and benefits of parental care
- Social interactions involving the use of space
  - Aggregation and individual protection
  - Cooperative foraging
- Social interactions involved in monopolizing resources or mates
  - Territoriality
  - Dominance
- Social interactions involving movement
- Social interactions involving cooperative breeding and eusociality
- Social interactions involving communication
The proximate mechanisms of social behaviour
Evolutionary psychology and human behaviour

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Cooperative breeding occurs when more than two individuals contribute to the care of young within a single brood. This behaviour is found in birds, mammals, amphibians, fish, insects, and arachnids; however, cooperative breeding is generally rare because it requires parental care, which is itself an uncommon behaviour. In birds, which have a high taxonomic commitment to biparental care, about 3 percent of species are cooperative breeders. Cooperative breeding is generally linked to cases of restricted dispersal and cases where opportunities for prolonged contact between close relatives occur (such as in species inhabiting mild climates with year-round residency). In vertebrates, most ...(100 of 17953 words)

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