Unexpected Truth About Animals eBook

Shortlisted for the 2018 Royal Society Investment Science Book Prize
''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, we’ve got a long way to go.

Whether we’re 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 you’ve probably never considered that moose get drunk and that penguins are notorious cheats.

In The Unexpected Truth About Animals Zoologist 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.