Description
Book SynopsisCovering 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. Burghardtthree of the world's leading experts on reptilesbring 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 interact
Trade ReviewThe authors show that many ideas about reptile behavior are based more on folklore and bias than science. They review the research and present findings in highly readable accounts, demonstrating that reptiles interact with each other in surprising and intricate ways.
The Secret Social Lives of Reptiles reveals, once again, that life on this planet is far more stunning than we can imagine.
—Matthew Miller,
Nature - Cool Green ScienceScience writing about family lives in turtles, snakes and crocodilians promises a much needed corrective to our assumptions about 'lowly' reptiles.
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Times Literary SupplementThis is an excellent book on an underappreciated topic. The coverage is thorough and the insights are sharp, as is to be expected from a group of authors with tremendous expertise in the social behavior of diverse groups of reptiles.
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Herpetological ReviewTable of ContentsForeword, by Gordon W. Schuett
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Social Behavior Research: Its History and a Role for Reptiles
Chapter 2. Reptile Evolution and Biology
Chapter 3. Mating Systems, Social Structure, and Social Organization
Chapter 4. Communication
Chapter 5. Courtship and Mating
Chapter 6. Communal Egg-Laying: Habitat Saturation or Conspecific Attraction?
Chapter 7. Parental Care
Chapter 8. Hatching and Emergence: A Perspective from the Underworld
Chapter 9. Behavioral Development in Reptiles: Too Little Known but Not Too Late
Chapter 10. The Reach of Sociality: Feeding, Thermoregulation, Predator Avoidance, and Habitat Choice
Chapter 11. Looking toward the Future
References
Index
