Power in the Wild

Lee Alan Dugatkin has a very clean, precise and to-the-point writing style that is refreshing in a landscape of science writers, but can sometimes seem a little spare. That being said, Power in the Wild is absolutely jam-packed with story after story (or research experiment after research experiment) on the way animals gain, lose, retain, acquire, and solicit power in the wild.

I've been been something of an armchair enthusiast for ethology for the last twenty five years, yet I was surprised and pleased at how many animal examples I wasn't familiar with. There were projects I was familiar with, of course, but even these were handled with interesting deftness, imparting information swiftly. I really enjoyed that every chapter - which addresses different ways animals can relate to power (i.e. forming coalitions, interfering, assessment of rivals, alliances, observation etc.) - has multiple examples, across many different species, all around the world. And I very much enjoyed the attention to detail regarding the *cost* of such strategies. In some cases, for example, learning that dominant animals actually have higher cortisol and mortality rates of their offspring, suggesting that being the dominant animal doesn't always pay (though it often does).

Dugatkin has a habit of sharing more about the methodology of an experiment than the actual place or setting where an experiment takes place. This had the side effect of leaving me feeling ungrounded in place and time. In the Afterword, Dugatkin mentions wanting the reader to feel as though they may have been there studying dolphins or similar with the scientists, but there's a lack of orienting sensory details throughout, so almost every experiment feels like it could have happened anywhere, at any time, with very little sense of place. I've encountered science writers that will describe the temperature of a place, the smell of the trees, the feel, the privations scientists had to go through (the many stinging animals in rainforests) and all of this was absent.

There were times some of the examples felt repetitive. Of course that's to be expected in a book that is solidly using multiple examples to reify variations on a single point. It also highlights just how knowledgeable this book is. It feels like it would be invaluable to students in particular, and also to those with an interest in animal behaviour. There's no spare padding here, just knowledgeable example after example. It's a very economical writing style, but the examples themselves are all so interesting and compelling that it works.

I personally found the chapter on audience effects (i.e. how the bystanders to an encounter between animals affects how the animals behave) really fascinating. I don't believe I've seen a great deal on this subject before, and to get multiple examples at once, especially among ravens (who I admit I'm pretty biased towards) felt rewarding.

This book is extremely educational, and yet not so dense that laypeople can't understand and enjoy it. It's a lot more fun read over time, instead of all at once, giving yourself time to think about every example, or perhaps taking breaks to reflect after each chapter. This bypasses the repetitive feel (at least, it did for me), and instead leaves you appreciative for all the ways animals operate in nature, how much we've learned so far, and how much we still don't understand. I think it would be a handy reference for animal behaviour scientists (as well as any scientist who deals with living beings and concepts of power - including psychologists and anthropologists etc.), since it collates the results of so many papers. I also think it's a great book for anyone interested in animal behaviour, you might be surprised how many of the examples you haven't previously come across before.

I also found this book personally refreshing, after reading a lot of nonfiction books that don't quite anthropomorphise animals, but perhaps soften the fact that all animals are seeking power, and that all their behaviours inform the seeking of it. Despite the subject, this book doesn't seem cold, if anything it highlights how adaptive, clever, determined and driven animals are - across all the families, all over the world - to persevere in the retaining of their power, and in the attaining of it. I really enjoyed it.

An accessible but in-depth examination on the mechanisms of power in non-human animals. I have always been interested in animal behaviour, so of course this book got my interest. I like how each chapter uses specific studies to illustrate aspects of power, and how each chapter discusses more than one study/species to do this. Showing how vastly different species can exhibit the same strategies in power struggles was amazing. I can't help but think about humans differently now, too.

Northern elephant seal mating season on California’s central coast is like a multi-month March Madness, with young males working their way up the hierarchy. Skirmishes begin with two opponents emitting a deafening yodel. Each individual has a unique vocalization, and seals can remember opponents based on their calls. Most interactions end there, but sometimes they escalate. Seals will slam their massive, 4,000-plus pound bodies together, violently biting each other until the winner is decided. The prize for victory? The chance to mate with what biologists call a “harem” of females, transforming a moment of physical power into generations of genetic power. The remaining 95 percent of males will never sire a single pup.

The peculiar, and often violent, efforts of northern elephant seals to secure and maintain power are one of numerous interactions explored in evolutionary biologist Lee Alan Dugatkin’s new book, Power in the Wild. The book explores how power dynamics across sexes, ages, and families pervade all aspects of social life in the animal world, including, Dugatkin writes, “what they eat, where they eat, where they live, whom they mate with, how many offspring they produce, whom they join forces with, whom they work to depose, and more.”

In a series of vignettes, Dugatkin explores the various strategies animals use — from nuanced acts of deception, manipulation, and assessment to outright violence — to assert control over others for access to mates, food, and territory. He also speaks with anthropologists, biologists, and animal behaviorists to understand how scientists understand the evolution of these strategies.

A few “endlessly fascinating” species, like dolphins and ravens, appear several times, but Dugatkin casts a wide net across the animal world. “There are so many incredible systems from which we can learn,” he writes. Hyenas in Kenya will form alliances to maintain the status quo, with “groupies” attaching themselves to cliques of higher-ranking individuals. Loons in Wisconsin will fight to the death to defend the best lakeside spots from unwelcome “floaters” searching for territory. In one particularly visceral example, Dugatkin describes how meerkats in the Kalahari will harass pregnant females until they miscarry or die. By stymieing the reproductive success of underlings, the alpha pair keeps their genetic line dominant and ensures they have no shortage of “babysitters” for their own pups.

It would have been easy for Dugatkin, given the scope of his book, to get bogged down in numbers, names, and details, producing a litany of “gee whiz” facts without any connecting thread. Indeed, it can be hard to keep track of the researchers that pop up across chapters. Yet, on the whole, he manages to balance scientific specificity with linguistic flourishes and descriptive details that kept me immersed. He describes molting elephant seals as more like “gentle-giant plush toys than power-hungry gladiators.” He writes of a “fairy tale” landscape under the baobab trees in Madagascar where “Malagasy giant rats, nocturnal and rarely seen, amaze and terrify humans who are lucky enough to encounter them.” In Wisconsin, a “tremolo call, which seems to waver and tremble in the air like a strange laugh, echoes across the shore.”

Dugatkin’s respect for the researchers behind the science also keeps the story moving. The book is as much a profile of them and their endeavors as the animals they study. He describes light-bulb moments, funding frustrations, and logistical challenges working with animals that don’t take kindly to human interference. A personal favorite is the biologist who designed a hyena-sized robot capable of mimicking the animal’s subtle social gestures.

One of the real joys of the book, though, is Dugatkin’s enthusiasm about the subject. “Science and tales of adventure and wonder are a potent cocktail,” he explains about the joy of writing such a transportive book in the midst of a pandemic. He sees the behaviors he’s describing as “astonishing and informative,” offering an “evolutionary window” into interpersonal dynamics in any social species, including our own. Nevertheless, he stresses that this isn’t a metaphor for power dynamics in humans. In his words, “It’s a standalone tribute to the complexity, the depth, and, dare I say, the beauty of power in animal societies.”

A reader may struggle to tease out all that complexity, but there’s certainly no shortage of depth, beauty, and, yes, power in all his stories.