Animal Behavior: Hunting as a group.

Essay by eric674Junior High, 8th gradeA+, January 2006

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Introduction

An animal needs to be able to spot and catch prey, defend their prey against other predators and protect itself, in order to ensure an animal's survival a kind of group is then formed. All social animals belong to a kind of unit examples of these are a pack (wolf), pride (lions), and convocation (eagle). These groups are created not only for offensive purposes but for defensive purposes as well; I will be discussing the offensive side of this. Cooperative hunting requires a group of social animals; the size depends on the species of animal. This concept has many benefits; the chance of predators trying to prey on them is a lot less and killing their prey will be much easier as well but the food must be shared. A solitary hunter will get more food from its prey but will be a lot more likely to be preyed on, it is expected that most social animals boast a complex organization in group behavior.

This includes various formations and strategies, the main one is to prey on the weakest member of the herd being hunted and use as little energy as possible. Also the stronger the animal is the fewer members it will need to survive; a small and weak animal needs numerous members to stay alive.

Hunting Tactics

While hunting many tactics are employed into the group's routine, here I will discuss the main 3 strategies used during cooperative hunting. Stalking is used by various flocks of birds, it involves the group wading in shallow water till a victim comes and killing it as soon as it is spotted, it is a very time consuming process but requires little to no energy. Next is chasing and taking down the prey, this method involves a great deal of effort,