The Well-Connected Animal

Book excerpt: "In the cloud forests of Monteverde, Costa Rica, pairs of male long-tailed manakins-clad in their stunning, red, blue, and black plumage-use perches as a stage for a coordinated song-and-dance to attract mates. Because the potential benefits are so great, males compete intensely for access to the stage. Who wins that competition? If you want a good perch to attract a mate, you need to have connections-and be deeply embedded in the manakin social network from the days of your youth. This is just one example in biologist and science writer Lee Alan Dugatkin's book The Well-Connected Animal. Drawing on work in animal behavior, evolution, computer science, psychology, anthropology, and genetics, Dugatkin enlightens readers about the role of social networks for animals in the wild. Readers will learn that social networks play a key role in the lives of giraffes, elephants, kangaroos, many a primate and bird species, Tasmanian devils, honeybees, whales, bats, badgers, field crickets, manta rays, and more. Interviews and insights from researchers offer a front row seat to understanding animal behavior and uncovering animal networks"--