Researchers in (non-human) animal behaviour have a long history of interest in the social lives of their study species, and so it is of no surprise that when methodology and computational power made social network analysis a more broadly accessible tool around the turn of the millennium that researchers in this field began applying social network approaches at (seemingly) an ever increasing rate to quantify the social structure of their study groups and populations. Social network analyses and modelling have provided behavioural ecologists a wealth of tools to answer exciting questions that span diverse ecological and evolutionary processes from the spread of pathogens and parasites through to the dynamics of dominance hierarchies.
Lee Alan Dugatkin’s book The Well-Connected Animal moves between many of these different ecological and evolutionary themes, considering each across the different chapters (e.g. “The Food Network”, “The Health Network”). What the book does wonderfully well is to immerse the reader in different research studies. The author uses interviews with researchers as a powerful tool to transport readers to the study sites where the research is being conducted, and understand the motivations for their work and the challenges they face in collecting the data. I really enjoyed “virtually” traversing the world and, even as someone familiar with much of this research, it was enjoyable to hear stories describing how the research came about, as well as being reminded of the many fascinating studies that have used social network approaches to study animal behaviour. The diversity of research approaches taken, as well as the behaviours studied to build social networks, provides the thread running through the heart of the book.
The book is clearly aimed mainly at a broader, popular science audience. In addition to the story-telling approach that moves deftly from study to study across diverse habitats, as well as between the wild and the lab, the discussion of the network approaches used is kept relatively light touch, with (quite fairly) much of the focus being on what we have learned by applying these approaches. At times, this can lose some of the nuances associated with various measures or tools used. This approach is understandable given the aims of the book, but may leave those well-versed in network theory and approaches wanting a little bit more. That being said, the easy and engaging writing style and bite-sized chapters mean that the book provides an accessible overview of animal social network research that could be straightforwardly divided into sections for a book club and paired with many of the papers that the book describes for an in-depth dive into topics of particular interest.
To me the real value of the The Well-Connected Animal for a broader social network and network science audience is in the way it draws attention to the day-to-day process of collecting animal social network data, as well as some of challenges this can raise. Too often there has been a disconnect between researchers working on non-human animals, and those working on human social networks of various forms. Some of these challenges–and some of the steps taken in designing studies or collecting social data–are truly unique to these ecological studies. However, yet more share similarities with challenges faced by researchers applying the same sort of approaches in humans. By offering such an engaging journey not just through what we’ve learned about animal social networks, but also how we’ve learned it, I would like to think it offers a real jumping off point for inter-disciplinary engagement. It could be just the sort of book to read for anyone curious whether theory or approaches they are interested in could be applied to study non-human animals. Similarly, it does a great job of revealing the huge diversity of different social network datasets available away from human populations that could be invaluable in inspiring new theoretical ideas or analytical approaches.
To summarise, The Well-Connected Animal is a charming and engaging read that provides a succinct and down-to-earth overview of animal social network research. For those interested, it provides a well thought out taster of research in the field, with the potential to inspire new ideas or reveal new datasets to those in the broader social network research community. However, it is really the stories behind the research that stand out, with the effort invested in speaking at length with diverse researchers across the field richly rewarded with a book that provides a delightful and easily relatable insight into the research process itself and clearly articulates a passion for understanding the social networks of the natural world.