School of fish
Social groups which have formed to improve the probability of survival and reproduction of individual
members.
Social behavior is any kind of interaction among two or more animals, usually of the same species.
A wide range of sociality occurs among animals. Many social behaviors of animals are adaptive, meaning that being social ultimately increases an animal's fitness – its lifetime reproductive success. One example of how social behavior is adaptive is aggregation against predators. This concept applies to caterpillars feeding together on a leaf, a herd of wildebeest, schools of fish, and flocks of birds.
Agonistic behavior is any social behavior related to fighting.
Types of social behaviors are:
Cooperation : Cooperation is the process by which the components of a system work together to achieve the global properties.
Agonistic Behavior :In ethology (Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior ), agonistic behavior is any social behavior related to fighting. Thus it is broader than aggressive behavior because it includes not only actual aggression but also threats, displays, retreats, placating aggressors.
Dominance Hierarchies :A dominance hierarchy is the organization of individuals in a group that occurs when competition for resources leads to aggression.
Territoriality : A territory is an area an organism defends and from which other members of the community are excluded. Territories are established and defended by agonistic behaviors and are used for capturing food, mating, and rearing young. The size of the territory varies with its function and the amount of resources available.
Altruism : On occasion, some animals do behave in ways that reduce their individual fitness but increase the fitness of other individuals in the population; the functional definition of altruism, is selflessness.