Social Behavior in Animals - Essay Example

Social Behavior in Animals Socialization is one of the few things that traverses through all species and spectrums of life. The social life of different species may be similar or may vary by a great margin (Sarkar 12). The deer is an animal that displays the aspects of socializing in an almost perfect way. There are over forty species of deer that are known to man. All these species have distinct social characteristics and are found in different parts of the world. Their behavior is determined by the environment that they are in. 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 challenges 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 the 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 stationery phase and a migratory phase. The stationery phase takes place when the queen ant is pregnant. The queen ant 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 in to groups. One group is responsible for protection of the queen, another is responsible for fetching food and the other is responsible for building the nests. The multipurpose soldier ant has the duty of also fetching food and making the nests for the eggs which will be hatched. The worker ant 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. The ants show the power of unity in the society. The lion is also an animal which exemplifies unity through its life cycle. The lion may be a much larger animal than an ant but the principles are still the same. The lion lives in prides. Prides can consist of as few as five lions to as many as fifty. The greater the number in a pride, the greater the strength and territory of domination. A pride must have one or more dominant male lions. The dominant male lion(s) has two major duties; to protect the pride from other male lions and to mate with the pride females to ensure continuity of the pride. The lions show their unity in hunting and protection. The female lions are the primary hunters of a pride. They work together in an ambush so that they can provide food that is enough for the whole pride. Just like the deer, the lions also seek dominance. If a male lion wishes to take over a pride of another male lion, he must challenge him. The aim of the new lion is to take over the pride of the other while the task of the other is to protect his position as the dominant male of the pride. In any case, lions do not take it lightly when another lion that is not part of the tribe invades their territory. In most cases, this results to death of the invading lion, whether a cub or a fully matured lion. Lions exemplify their unity in everything that they do. The lions sleep together, hunt together, and even drink together. More importantly, lions bring up cubs as a pride, not as individuals. The reason for this is to ensure that the prides dominance, and strength is progressive and will not come to an end. Unity is a fundamental requirement of any society. This is because of the existent fact that unity is strength. The animals that have been discussed above set a trend which we as humans ought to follow. Just like the lions, we ought to be unified in all that we do. This way, we can be able to achieve greater things than we can when divided. Just like the ants, deer, and lions, people live together, it would be prudent if people came to work together, as these animals do, and cared for one another. People should not be divided on ethnic or racial divides but should be united for the greater good of the human species. Furthermore, people should be well aware of their duty in any social setup. This way things can be able to run smoothly and efficiently without the risk of duties being overlapped or duplicated. If the intelligence that is at our disposal is combined with the strength that can be drawn from unity, then nothing can be too hard to achieve. Work Cited Sarkar, A. Social Behaviour in Animals. New Delhi: Discovery Publishing House, 2003. Print. Read More