A review of carnivore group-living

Abstract

Current hypotheses on the evolution of social behaviour in carnivores and on factors facilitating group-living are reviewed. Predatory and anti- competitory group strategies are present in social canids, felids and hyenids, where social living has evolved together with social plasticity. Little territorial defence has to be expected in insectivorous viverrids, where social behaviour can play not a predatory but an antipredatory role. Furthermore, group strategies in the care of the young are present in all social carnivores and could represent a second major factor, together with foraging strategies, in the evolution of social behaviour in the Carnivora. © 1983 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.