Solitary lifestyles can have some big advantages in the animal world. Can humans learn anything from them?

The Middle East blind mole rat is the ultimate introvert. Residing about a foot underground, it digs out its own tunnel systems where it stays for most of its life, gathering roots, tubers, and bulbs. Each mole rat has its own territory – for good reason; if one mole rat accidentally burrows into another one's tunnel, the rodents will bare their teeth or bite each other in violent, often deadly battles.

Blind mole rats generally only interact with others of their species during the mating season, but even then, they must proceed cautiously. The male digs through the soil towards a female but pauses before entering her tunnel. For several days, they send vibrational signals to each other by drumming on the tunnel ceiling with their heads. Only when the female expresses an interest to meet will the male advance, mate with her, and leave. After closing the tunnel behind him, he continues his reclusive way of life.

Solitary lifestyles such as this are remarkably widespread across the animal kingdom. Even among mammals – a generally sociable bunch – 22% of studied species are largely solitary, meaning that males and females sleep and forage or hunt alone for most of the time.

But solitary animals have received relatively little attention from scientists. Perhaps because we are social creatures ourselves, we've been more drawn to studying creatures that cooperate in groups for protection or to find food, breed and raise young. Experts say that for a long time, many scientists have tended to overlook the solitary life, deeming it a more primitive, basic state of existence, associated with anti-social behaviour and poor intelligence.

But researchers are now coming to recognise that some animals have evolved to be solitary precisely because it can be so beneficial to avoid the competition and stressful conditions of group living. To boot, many solitary animals are in fact highly intelligent and live diverse and complex social lives, despite their solitude. Though blind mole rats are an exception, many solitary animals do tolerate, learn from and occasionally even cooperate with others of their kind, allowing them to enjoy the best of both worlds.

As humans are increasingly spending more time alone, these animals remind us of the many benefits of solitude and that living alone does not equal lonely – a thought perhaps worth considering for people spending Valentine's Day alone.

"Maybe by studying solitary species and how they succeed with this tactic… we can also better identify for human society what is good about being alone," says behavioural ecologist Carsten Schradin of the Centre National de Recherche Scientifique in Strasbourg, France, and co-author of a 2024 review about solitary living in mammals.

Living in groups certainly has many benefits. Think of zebras that find safety in herds and lions that often hunt together to overcome prey larger and faster than themselves. Some birds collaborate to raise young and chimps that socialise by picking parasites off each other. But it also has downsides. In a group, "every shelter has to be shared, every bit of food has to be shared, every access to a mate has to be shared", says David Scheel, a behavioural ecologist at Alaska Pacific University. "Or if it's not shareable, only one of you can get it."

And while hunting together and sharing food makes sense for animals like lions that are often surrounded by abundant, large prey that can feed multiple individuals, this is less beneficial in situations where prey is smaller and less shareable. Nor is it as helpful when prey is scattered throughout the landscape where it takes more effort to find them.

This is probably why armadillos and anteaters forage alone for few-and-far-between insects, and why tigers – which roam far and wide to find relatively scarce prey – hunt by themselves, helping them to sneak up on their prey more easily. To further........

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