In group-living animals, competitive and cooperative social interactions among individuals give rise to social structure. Understanding variation in social structure is fundamentally important since it captures the strategies adopted by individuals to maximize the benefits of group-living (e.g. cooperative predator defense, offspring care) while minimizing its costs (e.g. disease risk, resource competition). During the last
decade, social network analysis has revolutionized the way we understand social structure. Specifically, network approaches have improved on traditional methods by quantitatively describing higher-order aspects of social life from both direct interactions and secondary pathways that connect group members. Here I illustrate three major avenues in which social networks have been instrumental in animal behavioral and
socioecological research. First, I describe how studies of nonhuman primate social networks have added a fresh perspective to our current understanding of the evolutionary origins of their social styles. Specifically, comparative studies of macaque (Macaca sp.) dominance hierarchies and affiliative grooming social networks have shown that aspects of social style that were thought to be structurally linked in fact constitute a mosaic of unlinked, independently evolving traits. Second, I review how networks can be used to understand links between social life and health outcomes, specifically in epidemiological models that link heterogeneity in social contact patterns with disease risk. The majority of these studies have revealed that central or well-connected individuals maybe potential “superspreaders” of infectious agents, because they show higher parasite prevalence or diversity. Further, comparisons of social networks with microbial phylogenies and transmission networks maybe key in modeling potential transmission pathways of epidemics through animal populations. Third, I review a recent line of research that recognizes the utility of social network analysis in wildlife conservation and population management. Specifically, temporal changes in the structure or fragmentation of social networks of wild animal populations may indicate the impact of human perturbation of the natural environment on the destabilization (or resilience) of wildlife populations. Such structural changes to social networks may in turn impact animal health, reproductive success, and survival. I end by briefly elaborating on how bipartite and multimodal networks constitute a key future direction in our assessments of animal socioecological and human-wildlife systems. They add a level of complexity to social networks and by distinguishing two or more components within a system. I also highlight some caveats and potential pitfalls of network approaches that ought to be considered before their implementation in behavioral and ecological research.