Biological Explanations of Social Behavior in Animals

Biological Explanations of Social Behavior in Animals 1. 2. Animal Behavior: Foraging: Foraging is the search for food within an animal’s environment (optimal foraging occurs when you get the most energy while spending the least amount of energy to obtain it) Solitary foraging is when an animal searches for food by itself Group foraging is when a group of animals search for food together This sort of behavior is obviously driven by genetics but also is learned by exposure (watching adults and copying their behavior) Animal Communication: When humans communicate with one another, we tend to rely on language, nonverbal cues (facial expressions), and visual cues are a type of sensory cue that is processed by the eye (showing who you are to others) Other animals don’t really use language, but do use nonverbal cues, visual cues, and many other types of communication methods Animals communicate with their own species and also animals of other species (even humans) They also use autocommunication to communicate with themselves (i.e. bats using echolocation) The function can be to attract a mate, to establish/defend territory, to convey information about food, to warn other animals, to establish dominance, etc. Let’s not always assume what animals mean when they do certain things because we simply can never really know Types of Animal Communication: They can communicate through sound (i.e. dogs barking, snakes rattling, etc.) even though they don’t particularly have language (mating, alarms, and warning sounds) → they can do this in different ways, through the mouth or other body parts and is quicker but not as long lasting They can also communicate through chemical signals in order to communicate (i.e. gain info from environments, release pheromones, detect predators through smell) and typically is slower/longer lasting (can get jumbled if there are a lot in a given area) They can also communicate through somatosensory communication which is communication through touch and movements (touch/movement) → can indicate pair bonding, mating, body language, etc. Seismic communication which is the feeling of movement (i.e. a spider feeling the web moving when they’ve caught a prey) Electro communication which is the generation of electrical signals that convey information Visual cues can also be used to camouflage from others Gaze following is when you look in the same direction that someone else is looking 1. 2. Mating Behavior & Inclusive Fitness: Mating is the pairing of opposite sex organisms for the purpose of reproduction and subsequent propagation of genetic material into the next generation Mating strategies are a set of behaviors used by individuals to select, attract, and retain mates: Random mating is when all individuals of a species are equally likely to be mating partners (not influenced by environment or heredity) Assortative mating is a strategy where individuals with certain similarities (genotypes or phenotypes) tend to mate with each other at a higher frequency (can lead to inbreeding which weakens the genetic diversity of the population and increase the likelihood of passing on harmful recessive traits to offspring) → the best option because although the risk of inbreeding, it 3. generally increases the fitness of the organism Disassortative mating (non-assortative mating) is a strategy where individuals with different or diverse traits may have a higher frequency of mating than individuals with the same traits Inclusive fitness concerns the number of offspring an animal has, how they support them, and how their offspring support each other (larger level than simply that of individual fitness) - - You behave helpfully/altruistically with individuals who are similar to you in order to ensure that they pass on those same genes/traits to their own offspring Evolutionary Game Theory: Evolutionary game theory is the idea that game theory can be applied to evolution (can also include unconscious intends on the parts of the player) How individuals interact with the group can also play a role in evolution Can help predict the traits we would expect to see in populations Altruism actually increases the success of the group and EGT predicts this component of behavior within a group (no “conscious” intention) Extra Notes: Imprinting is the acquisition of behavioral characteristics Group selection refers to when natural selection acts at the group level