Appropriate company

• What are presocial animals?

  animals that live together in groups in order to benefit from each other
• What are solitary animals?

  animals that usually live alone, but come together for mating
• what are eusocial animals?

  animals that live in colonies and have specific roles
• Solitary animals spend most of their lives without others of their own species. They tend to live alone and find their own food
• With solitary animals, their offspring are rejected and need to fend for themselves once they are old enough, and the adult is ready to mate again
• What are some advantages of solitary animals?

  no need to share food once caught/gathered, individual animals tend to have established boundaries/territories to avoid conflict, little or no competition for food or mates.
• What are some disadvantages to solitary animals?

  choice of mates or food may be limited,

  provisions to house them must be made, to ensure they are not placed in stressful or potentially harmful situations
• Genetic diversity is very limited with solitary animals. Special efforts must be made to broaden the gene pool as much as possible in animal collections
• Social animals live together in groups, it is important to house them together, to allow the interaction they need.
• Why do animals form in groups?

  in order to survive
• what is aggregation?

  groups of animals that come together but don’t intentionally interact
• animals from groups of the same species for mating purposes
• What are colonies?

  groups that form and interact for group survival, detecting predators and warning the group
• Eusocial animals live in colonies, they have complex and rigid social structures. They include several generations of animals but only include one reproducing female
• Presocial animals involve aspects of hierarchy and working together. Grooming may be an important part of their natural behaviours
• When housing social animals, the housing must be big, why?

  to provide a big enough space to allow the group to interact normally
• Social animals must be in groups of an appropriate size, with a ratio of males to females
• Social animals must be monitored to ensure they are living together harmonically
• Presocial animals must be mixed either the same species, may be mixed with appropriate species
• For social animals, housing may need to allow access to special areas for grooming