Animal social behaviour - Cooperation, Communication, Hierarchy

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

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

Images & Videos

Serengeti National Park, Tanzania: herd of gnu (wildebeests)

Millipedes (class Diplopoda) mating on a branch.

Two American rubyspot damselflies (Hetaerina americana) mating.

Aggregation of pink-edged sulfur butterflies (Colias interior).

Read Next

Why Do Some Animals Eat Their Mates After Sex?

Chimpanzees sitting on a rock wildlife shot, Gombe/Tanzania

How Other Species Learn

Discover

Still from the film Deliverance, 1919. The story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. View shows Keller in the cockpit/front seat of an airplane.

How Did Helen Keller Fly a Plane?

earthquake. Heavily damaged school in the town of Yingxiu after a major earthquake struck China's Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008.

The 6 Deadliest Earthquakes Since 1950

solar eclipse, sun, moon, astronomy, space

How Do You Tell the Difference Between Total, Annular, Solar, and Lunar Eclipses?

The Sun Was Eaten: 6 Ways Cultures Have Explained Eclipses

Queen Elizabeth II addresses at opening of Parliament. (Date unknown on photo, but may be 1958, the first time the opening of Parliament was filmed.)

All 119 References in “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” Explained

Periodical Cicada, Adult, Magicicada spp. Requires 17 years to complete development. Nymph splits its skin, and transforms into an adult. Feeds on sap of tree roots. Northern Illinois Brood. This brood is the largest emergence of cicadas anywhere

Why Do Some Cicadas Appear Only Every 17 Years?

9 of the World’s Deadliest Spiders

Social behaviour is best understood by differentiating its proximate cause (that is, how the behaviour arises in animals) from its ultimate cause (that is, the evolutionary history and functional utility of the behaviour). Proximate causes include hereditary, developmental, structural, cognitive, psychological, and physiological aspects of behaviour. In other words, proximate causes are the mechanisms directly underlying the behaviour. For example, an animal separated from the herd may exhibit behaviours associated with fear reactions (such as elevated heart rate, shaking, and hypersensitivity to sounds), which cause it to behave in ways that increase its chances of reuniting with the group. The ...(100 of 17953 words)

Access the full article

Help support true facts by becoming a member.