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Lonesome George, the last of the tortoises on the island of Pinta, died in 2012, leaving no offspring. His loneliness implied the rest of the spices that killed the rest of them, and carried the goats to his island in Galapagos, destroying habitat. But Lonesome George probably didn’t care to be on her own. The tortoises are lonely, uniting each other. The same is true of most reptiles as well as many mammals, including bears, tigers, slogans, platypus, rhinos and pangolines.
Social creatures like ourselves, it is natural that we are fascinated by animal society Wolf packages to Ant colonies. But in order to understand sociality, we need to look alternately: why don’t they prefer to go to some animals? It’s amazing, researchers pay little attention to this question. “People are interested only in living groups with complex societies,” he says Carsten Schradin Strasbourg, in the French Hubert Curien Institute. “But if you don’t understand why, in many cases, a lonely life is a better solution, you also lack the complete understanding of the living team.”
Now, Schradin and a pioneering biologist make a handful of overseeing. Already, their research reveals that lonely is not a lifestyle of mammal ancestors, an evolved strategy, specialized way of life, in its favor and against. Moreover, animals considered to be lonely do not necessarily have antisocial: many of them have structured social networks, although most of the time passed on their own. These creatures give us a new approach …
