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An animal that exhibits a high degree of sociality is called a social animal. The highest degree of sociality recognized by sociobiologists is eusociality . A eusocial taxon is one that exhibits overlapping adult generations , reproductive division of labor , cooperative care of young, and—in the most refined cases—a biological caste system .
The division of labor creates specialized behavioral groups within an animal society, sometimes called castes. Eusociality is distinguished from all other social systems because individuals of at least one caste usually lose the ability to perform behaviors characteristic of individuals in another caste.
Charles Darwin considered the evolution of eusociality a major problem for his theory of natural selection. In The Origin of Species, he described the existence of sterile worker castes in the social insects as "the one special difficulty, which at first appeared to me insuperable and actually fatal to my whole theory". In the next paragraph of ...
Critical animal studies (CAS) applies critical theory [1] to animal studies and animal ethics. It emerged in 2001 with the founding of the Centre for Animal Liberation Affairs by Anthony J. Nocella II and Steven Best , which in 2007 became the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS).
Practitioners study the issues of animal position by geometric viewings. Environmental and social influences are indicators of geometric viewings. [21] Animals rely on signals called electrolocating and echolocating; they use sensory senses in order to navigate and find prey. [22] Signals are used as a form of commutation through the environment.
For many animal societies, an individual's position in the dominance hierarchy corresponds with their opportunities to reproduce. [6] In hierarchically social animals, dominant individuals may exert control over others. For example, in a herd of feral goats it is a large male that is dominant and maintains discipline and coherence of the flock.
Primate sociality is an area of primatology that aims to study the interactions between three main elements of a primate social network: the social organisation, the social structure and the mating system. The intersection of these three structures describe the socially complex behaviours and relationships occurring among adult males and ...
It is estimated that the Earth's oceans hold 40,000 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon, that vegetation and soil hold 2070 Gt, and that fossil fuel emissions are 6.3 Gt carbon per year. [220] There have been major restructurings in these global carbon budgets during the Earth's history, regulated to a large extent by the ecology of the land.