Social Behavior in Animals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Behavior in Animals - Essay Example The while-tail is one such species. It is a medium-sized deer that is native to the United States. Most deer species, including the white-tail, live in herds. The white-tail deer will migrate depending on temperature, the phases of the moon and the barometric pressure. The white-tail socializes on the basis of sex with the exclusion of the mating season. The doe, which is the female deer, and the fawns, which are the infant deer, group together. The bucks, which are the male deer, live together segregating themselves from the does and fawns. The purpose of this is to give time to the does to bring up the fawns. The buck’s social life is all about dominance. Though they co-exist together and live as a herd, there is always that one buck that is considered to be the leader. The leading buck is supposed to be given preference when it comes to mating and any other buck that wishes to take his place must challenge him. The bucks not only challenge the dominant buck but also have ch allenges amongst themselves. If a buck wishes to challenge another male, he will lay down a scent by peeing over his tarsal glands by rub-urinating. The buck also does this as a way of inciting a female to mate with him. This is their way of communicating; the white-tail also bleats as a way of communicating. The aspect of socialization among the deer is portrayed as one of living together. Just as pointed out earlier, socialization traverses through virtually everything. The ant exemplifies a social life that is near to, if not, perfection. An army ant is mostly found in heavily forested areas that are in most cases humid. An army ant colony has three major divisions. They are the queen ant, the soldier ants, and the multipurpose soldier ants. Each of them has its own distinct duty in the colony. The duty of the queen ant is to ensure the continuity of the colony. Sarkar says that she does by laying eggs which can be as many as between 100,000 to 300,000 within a 5 to 10 day spun ( 67). The socialization of an ant revolves around the life-cycle of the colony. The life-cycle of an army ant colony has two major phases. The two phases include a stationary phase and a migratory phase. The stationary phase takes place when the queen ant is pregnant. The queen and is in most cases expected to lay over 50,000 eggs and this causes her abdomen to swell. At this stage, the colony is, in essence, stagnated at one particular place. The soldier ants divide themselves into groups. One group is responsible for the protection of the queen, another is responsible for fetching food and the other is responsible for building the nests. The multipurpose soldier and has the duty of also fetching food and making the nests for the eggs which will be hatched. The worker and also has the duty of cleaning the colony’s habitat and if necessary, expanding it. The second phase of the life-cycle of an ant is the migration. This phase is triggered by the hatching of the eggs. The ants have to migrate in search of a new habitat that will accommodate the whole colony. The integrative input of every ant is vital for the survival of the colony. It is the same unity that sees ants create ant hills which are over 10 feet high.