Symposium on The Gambling Animal: replies to critics

The Gambling Animal synthesises material from multiple disciplines, which presents a challenge for any individual reviewer with a specific focus of disciplinary expertise. The critical analyses that have been produced for the symposium rise, at least as a set, to that challenge. In this article, we respond to our reviewers. Responding to them has led us to reflect more deeply on various aspects of our natural history of human risk management, with comparative attention to elephants. We hope that readers who cannot prioritise reading our book will gather a useful sense of what it aims to accomplish and how, and that other readers will be inspired by the symposium to turn attention to the book itself.