Intra-specific co-operative behaviour

Group formationCourtship and pair-bond formation

Parental care

Group Formation

• When members of a group come together to undertake tasks e.g Hunting

Advantages to forming groups

• Team work leads to increased success rate.• Less predation as can have members of the

group on “look out”• Older members protect young or weak

individuals• Large numbers can cause confusion for

predators• Breeding sites are located within a boundary

that is protected by members of a group

Disadvantages

• Competition is increased• Disease can spread faster• Parasites (e.g. fleas) spread faster• Increases conflict between members

Courtship/Pair bonding

• Requires co-operation, suppression of aggressive behaviours and communication.

• Usually females make the choice who they mate with, but both partners need to make sure;– They are the same species– Both fertile– Both fully prepared to mate.

Courtship

• Males usually will compete for the attention of females by– Competing with other males by fighting or

ritualised combat– Compete indirectly by attracting females by

displays and adornments• E.g. antlers in deer, brightly coloured feathers in

peacocks, singing and dancing of many bird species, producing pheromones.

Pair-bond Relationship

• A stable relationship between animals of the opposite sex that ensures co-operative behaviour on mating and rearing of the young

Parental Care

• Survival depends on successfully breeding adequate numbers of offspring.

• Can be achieved by to possible strategies– R-strategy – produce large numbers of

unprepared offspring with a low chance of survival– K-strategy – produce few, well prepared offspring

which have a high chance of survival

• R-Strategy – Shell fish, bacteria,insects

• K – strategy – Kakapo, whales, humans

Parental Care

• Degree of parental care depends on the species– E.g. eggs buried and then abandoned (many fish

species), nest constructed and defended, offspring themselves defended

– Often those species that have a high degree of parental care will teach their offspring how to find food, where to find water, how to make a home etc.

Reproductive Strategies

• Monogamy – each mating with only one member of the opposite sex (often for life)

• Polygyny – males mate with many females thus fathering many offspring

• Polygamy – dominant males mates with a harem of females

• Polyandry – females mate with more than one male

• Polygynadry (promiscuity) – both male and female mate with more than one member of the opposite sex