By Terri Schlichenmeyer

“The Social Lives of Animals” by Ashley Ward

c.2022, Basic Books, $30, 373 pages

Sometimes, you’re such a goose.

And that’s okay; a little horsing around never hurt anyone and times with friends are the best. You can chatter like monkeys, laugh like hyenas, get a little squirrely, and memories are made like that. You need your friends to get wild every now and then, and in “The Social Lives of Animals” by Ashley Ward, you’ll see that flying, running, climbing, and crawling creatures are really no different at all.

Anyone watching a few dogs playing in a park, or a clowder of cats in a windowsill would likely agree that animals can form relationships. But how does that matter to humans?

Says Ward, being able to “trace direct... parallels between our own societies and those of the animals...[can] help us to appreciate how sociality shapes our lives...”

We love to gather in groups, for instance, and Antarctic krill likewise hate to be alone. As it turns out, gathering in large groups helps keep krill alive because it confounds whales, who enjoy krill for dinner. Being in groups keeps locusts alive, too: locusts can be cannibals, and the innate desire not to be eaten keeps them all moving “in the same direction.”

Teamwork may be essential at your job, just as it is with army ants. One bite from a single army ant hurts like crazy but it won’t kill you. A bunch of army ants, though? That’s a different matter entirely.

Flocks of birds have influenced the making of self-driving vehicles. Fish have taught scientists how many influencers are needed to move a crowd. Studies with rats show the effects of dense crowding on mental health, and cows are good at recognizing friends by their portraits. Hyenas communicate to the pack which prey they plan to hunt for the day. Whales play, and dolphins play with them. Monkeys lie to get what they want. Animals innovate, reason, have a culture, and communicate, Ward says, and they have a lot to tell us...

So, you say that someone called you a birdbrain the other day. What a compliment, as you’ll see when you read “The Social Lives of Animals.”

Chances are – especially if you’re an animal lover – you’ve already an observer of animal behavior and, if so, you’ll be happy that author Ashley Ward extends your knowledge. There are, it seems, dozens of facts on each page that will delight lovers of fin, feather, and fur, as well as new findings and fascinating anecdotes.

But this book isn’t all serious bull. Ward is a lively writer who is obviously interested in his subject – he’s a professor of Animal Behavior at the University of Sydney, after all – and his personal tales of exploration and discovery are academically lighthearted, like cocktail party banter that’ll make you chuckle.

Perfect for armchair biologists and animal lovers of all kinds, this is one of those “hey, listen to this” kinds of books that you’ll want to share out loud. Start “The Social Lives of Animals” and you’ll go ape over it.