The Secret Social Lives of Reptiles

by J. Sean Doody, Vladimir Dinets, Gordon M. Burghardt

Covering diverse species from garter snakes to Komodo dragons, this book delves into the evolutionary origins and fascinating details of the mysterious social lives of reptiles. Reptiles have been too often dismissed as dull animals with tiny brains and simple, "asocial" lives. In reality, reptiles engage in a remarkable diversity of complex social behavior. They can live in families; communicate with one another while still in the egg; and hunt, feed, migrate, court, mate, nest, and hatch in groups. In The Secret Social Lives of Reptiles , J. Sean Doody, Vladimir Dinets, and Gordon M. Burghardt―three of the world's leading experts on reptiles―bring together a wave of new research with a synthesis of classic studies to produce the only authoritative look at the social behaviors of the most provocative animals on the planet. The book covers turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodilians, and the enigmatic tuatara. Enhanced with dozens of images, it takes readers through a myriad of social interactions, tendencies, and intimacies ranging from fierce territorial battles to delicate paternal care and from promiscuous pairings to monogamous partnerships. This unique text • explains why reptiles have been neglected as subjects of social behavior studies;
• provides numerous examples across all major reptilian groups that overturn the false paradigm of "solitary" reptiles;
• explores the sensory, genetic, physiological, life history, and other factors underlying social behavior in reptiles;
• presents the case that evolutionary "experiments" found among reptiles offer unparalleled opportunities for understanding how and why social behavior evolves in animals; and
• identifies new and developing areas of research helping to reshape our view of reptiles. Revealing the secrets of reptilian social relationships through original quantitative research, field studies, laboratory experiments, and careful analysis of the literature, The Secret Social Lives of Reptiles elevates these fascinating animals to key players in the science of behavioral ecology.

Genres: Science, Biology, Nonfiction, Nature

440 pages, Hardcover

Published June 1, 2021

Reviews

[Dallin Kohler · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a book.

I generally reserve 5 star ratings for books that are not only great reads, but also change the way I look at the world. I used to believe in the myth that reptiles were largely unsocial, but this book blew my mind with a slew of examples I had never heard of. Male timber rattlesnakes guarding hatchlings. Smart cooperative hunting by crocodiles. Sleepy lizards that are more faithful than a lot of humans. And so many more. This book is chock-full of interesting examples and analysis.

I loved it, but it has a very niche audience and I couldn't recommend it to most people. It is written like a publication in a scientific journal so it is a pretty dense read. And if you have no experience / knowledge of reptiles, you will definitely get lost reading it. But if you're a reptile nerd with at least some familiarity with scientific literature, you NEED to read this book.

[Avi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could say this were excellent. I was really looking forward to reading this, but unfortunately I can only recommend this if you are looking for something that resembles an extremely long and terribly written academic paper on reptiles. Scattered anecdotes loosely tied together, text choked with citations (instead of having them in footnotes), this book was painful to read. I started skimming half way through. Unless you have an extreme or professional interest in reptiles, this book is a hard pass.

[Makenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very extensive overview of the field. There’s so much information that does not coalesce into a single line of thought, but that is not the goal of the book. The authors achieved their goal of sparking wonder and curiosity for the reader by introducing a wide array of info. It took me a while to get through, and I didn’t fully process each section, but each section and perspective left me with a new idea.