Altruistic Behavior and Cognitive Specialization in Animal Communities

Synonyms

Cooperation; Division of labor

Definition

In contemporary evolutionary biology, an organism is said to behave altruistically when its behavior benefits other organisms, at a cost to itself. The costs and benefits are measured in terms of reproductive fitness or expected number of offspring. So by behaving altruistically, an individual reduces the number of offspring it is likely to produce by itself, but increases the number that other individuals are likely to produce. Eusociality can be considered an extreme form of altruism in animal communities. This is the highest level of social organization in animals. To be considered eusocial, an animal society should meet the following criteria: reproductive altruism (which involves reproductive division of labor and cooperative alloparental brood care), overlap of adult generations, and permanent (lifelong) philopatry. Eusociality was firstly described in social insects, and later discovered in several other organisms including...