Commensal bacterial sharing does not predict host social associations in kangaroos.

Social network analysis has been postulated as a tool to study potential pathogen transmission in wildlife but is resource-intensive to quantify. Networks based on bacterial genotypes have been proposed as a cost-effective method for estimating social or transmission network based on the assumption that individuals in close contact will share commensal bacteria. However, the use of network analysis to study wild populations requires critical evaluation of the assumptions and parameters these models are founded on.