The Unexpected Truth About Animals
'Endlessly fascinating.' -Bill Bryson'Eye-opening, informative and very funny!' -Chris Packham 'Well-informed and downright funny' -Richard Dawkins
History is full of strange animal stories invented by the brightest and most influential, from Aristotle to Disney. But when it comes to understanding animals, weve got a long way to go.
Whether were watching a viral video of romping baby pandas or looking at a picture of penguins holding hands, we often project our own values innocence, abstinence, hard work onto animals. So youve probably never considered that moose get drunk and that penguins are notorious cheats.
InThe Unexpected Truth About AnimalsZoologist Lucy unravels many such myths that eels are born from sand, that swallows hibernate under water, and that bears gave birth to formless lumps that are licked into shape by their mothers to show that the stories we create reveal as much about us as they do about the animals.
Astonishing, illuminating and laugh-out-loud funny.
Lucy Cooke is an award-winning broadcaster and filmmaker with a Masters in zoology from Oxford university (where she was tutored by Richard Dawkins). She began her career working behind the scenes in television comedy but is now an increasingly familiar face on natural history TV, having presented prime time series for BBC, ITV and National Geographic. She writes for theTelegraphand theHuffington Post. Her only previous book (a picture book about sloths A Little Book of Sloth) was aNew York Timesbestseller.