Rob Salguero-Gómez of the University of Oxford led a recent study that shows how the people we spend time with influence our life patterns.
Since many animals create social groups for the purpose of sharing resources, defending themselves from predators, and caring for their offspring collectively, social interactions have long been associated with lifestyle behaviors. Large group life does, however, come with disadvantages, including the possibility for conflict, competition for food, and faster disease transmission.
To learn how social behaviors affect life patterns throughout the animal kingdom, the study looked at 152 animal species from 13 taxonomic groupings, including everything from humans to jellyfish.
Five social categories were used to classify animals. Animals that live alone most of the time, like tigers and cheetahs, were included in the first group. The second group included sociable animals like as zebras and wildebeests.
