2022/08/25

What we have learned so far:

We have learned that many animals live in groups and 
that lowers predation risk – can we use a cost vs. benefit 
approach to determine when to be solitary or in groups 
and how large the groups should be? 

Obviously there must be more than predation risk 
advantages to being in groups – what about resources?

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1) Investigate benefits and costs of group living

2) Discuss advantages and disadvantages of living in 
groups, and factors affecting group size, and be able to 
predict when individuals should live in groups and when 
not.

3) Use activity budget information to build a simple 
optimal group size model

Kinds of groups
Aggregations = transient associations in resource
patches

salmon vultures

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Kinds of groups
Colony: associations at a particular site, independent
movement in between

Sea birds seals

bats

Kinds of groups
Social groups: persistent associations among the
same individuals

Flocks Troops: 10-100+

Herds: few – 2,000 +

What
governs such
variability in
group size? Family units

What governs variability in group size?

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Living in groups

Costs: Benefits:
• more • Anti-predator
conspicuous behaviour
• competition for • Finding good foraging
food sites /catching prey
•Transmission of • protection from
disease elements
• easy of movement
(fish)

What governs such variability in group size?

Costs: Benefits:

What governs such variability in group size?

Living in groups…
…and avoiding predators

Group benefits -
Increased vigilance
Dilution
Position in group
Defence

Group costs -
Increased conspicuousness

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Living in groups…
…and getting food

Group benefits -
Finding good sites
Catching difficult prey
Harvesting renewing food

Group costs -
Competition for food
Disturbance of prey

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Living in groups…
…and getting food: finding good sites

Communal roosts / nesting colonies  information centre?

Mutual parasitism / Reciprocal altruism

Peter de Groot (1980) experiment on communally roosting

weaver birds

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Living in groups…
…and getting food: finding good sites
‐ 2 groups of birds (A, B) 
1 roosting together
A
2 ‐ A knows were water is
Aviary B
3 ‐ B knows were food is
4 ‐ Both deprived of water and 
food
Results:
‐ when thirsty: B follows A
‐ when hungry: A follows B

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Living in groups…
…and getting food: catching difficult
prey
‐ Too large
‐ Too elusive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMAtL7
cx-KY

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Living in groups…
…and getting food: harvesting renewing food

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Weighing up costs and benefits: can we 
predict optimal group size?  

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‐ Sparrow experiment (bread)
1. Crumbs: flock benefits (anti‐predator) > competition 
costs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMAtL7
2. One lump: competition costs > decreased scanning 
cx-KY

time

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Hunt by touch probing 
Knot: dense flocks
the ground

Hunt by sight picking 
off the surface Ringed plover : loose 
flocks
Cost of interference >
anti-predator benefit

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Control
Fumigated

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Fumigation

No fumigation

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OPTIMAL GROUP SIZE?

Costs vs benefits   group size  survival and reproduction 

(difficult to measure)

Other  currency that relates to fitness:  time spent foraging  
(Pullian, 1976; Caraco, 1979)

Pioneering models ‐ winter flocks of small birds, survival 
dependent on:
1) Starvation 
2) Predation

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Activity budget and optimal group size

Time budget:
1) Scanning (cost of predation)
2) Feeding (benefit of resources)
3) Fighting over access to resource (cost of competition)

Mutually exclusive
Vigilance precedence on feeding 

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Scanning decreases with flock size 
Fighting increases with group size

Feeding time max at 
some intermediate 
group size

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Living in groups

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Living in groups

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What happens closer to home?

African ungulates

Competition for resources  influenced by resource

distribution

Jarman (1974) – group size & body size

1. Influence of body size on food selectivity
2. Influence of body size on anti-predator tactics

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High quality food  not wide

distribution and quickly depleted
Duiker
Anti-predator tactic: concealment

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Reedbuck Impala
(hiding) (escape)

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Wildebeest Kudu Interspersed

(grazer) (browser) grass vs.
patchy
browse

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Unselective feeder Buffalo

Anti-predator tactic:
chase away
predator

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