The Well-Connected Animal: Social Networks and the Wondrous Complexity of Animal Societies

An engaging exploration of the wondrous social webs that permeate life in animal societies around the world.

It’s all about who you know. Whether vampire bats sharing blood meals for survival, field crickets remembering champion fighters, macaque monkeys forming grooming pacts after a deadly hurricane, or great tit birds learning the best way to steal milk--it pays to be well connected.

In this tour of the animal kingdom, evolutionary biologist Lee Alan Dugatkin reveals a new field of study, uncovering social networks that existed long before the dawn of human social media. He accessibly describes the latest findings from animal behavior, evolution, computer science, psychology, anthropology, genetics, and neurobiology, and incorporates interviews and insights from researchers he finds swimming with manta rays, avoiding pigeon poop, and stopping monkeys from stealing iPads. With Dugatkin as our guide, we investigate social networks in giraffes, elephants, kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, whales, bats, and more. From animal networks in Australia and Asia to Africa, Europe, and the Americas, The Well-Connected Animal is an eye-opening exposé of wild friends, enemies, and everything in between.

Lee Alan Dugatkin is an evolutionary biologist and historian of science in the Department of Biology at the University of Louisville. Among his many books, he is coauthor of How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog) and the author of Power in the Wild, both also published by the University of Chicago Press.