What are social groups Animals must adapt in order to stay alive One of the most helpful adaptations that animals have made is living in social groups Animals that live in groups help one another find food care for their babies and defend against predators Big and small Small groups that include a mother father and their young are called nuclear families Other families are made up of one male several females and their babies Bigger family groups may include many females and their young Big social groups often contain several families 4 Social group names Animal groups are called by different names Some groups are known by several names Which of these animal group names do you know band baboons conspiracy lemurs colony penguins cotery prairie dogs herd elephants mob meerkats pack wolves pod dolphins orcas pride lions society chimpanzees bonobos troop apes and monkeys
Crows fly in large groups looking for dead things to eat Name the groups Read the clues in the captions and guess which group is called army murder If you cannot guess find animal group names on the Internet cackle tower zeal Hyenas make high pitched laughing sounds The necks of giraffes look like tall structures Zebras run with happy energy These caterpillars are waging war on plants 5
Elephant herds Elephants live in close family groups called herds A herd is made up of female adults called cows and their calves Adult males do not stay with the herd The matriarch or oldest female rules over the herd which can have as few as five elephants or more than 50 Elephants eat a lot so they need to keep moving to find food The members of a herd eat sleep bathe and travel together They all help take care of the calves The matriarch of the herd shows the young elephants where to find water to drink 6
Mothers and calves Like all mammals elephant mothers nurse or feed their babies milk from their bodies As the calves grow bigger mother elephants teach them which plants are good to eat The calves need their mothers to survive All the cows in a herd help take care of the calves 7
