Reviews with content warning for Animal death - The Truth about Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife

Definitely a fun read but felt a bit same-y after a while.

Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/2023/02/book-review-unexpected-truth-about.html

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shelleyrae's review against another edition

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funny informative medium-paced

5.0

Written with an irreverence tempered by passion, Cooke exposes the secrets of thirteen well known animals, drawing from historical sources, current research, and her own knowledge and experience.

Here are just a few of the unexpected truths I learned:

Despite billions of dollars and the best of modern technology, we still are not certain how or where the Anguilla anguilla (Eel) reproduce.
The sloth’s neck has more vertebrae than any other mammal’s, even the giraffe’s.
Vultures have been used to detect gas leaks in pipelines
To determine how bats are able to fly in the dark, Italian Catholic priest Lazzaro Spallanzani experimented by systematically removing their eyeballs, plugging their ears and noses, cutting off their tongues, and coating them in varnish.
From the 1940s through to the 1960s the world’s first reliable pregnancy test came courtesy of a small, bug-eyed frog. When injected with a pregnant woman’s urine, the amphibian squirted out eggs eight to twelve hours later to confirm a positive result.
Storks were exterminated in Britain because the church was offended by the ‘pagan’ belief that they played a part in bringing a couple a baby.
Hippopotamuses secrete a substance that is acts as sunscreen, fly repellent and antiseptic.
Pandas might look cute and harmless but the powerful muscles in the panda’s cheeks deliver a bite force almost equal to a lion’s.
Adélie penguins exchange sex for pebbles from single males to shore up their nests.

And so much more! I’ve shared some of the tamer revelations here because, among other things, the sex lives of desperate male penguins are a little disturbing. This is definitely not a book for prudes, or anyone who prefers the Disney version of animals.

Witty, informative and utterly fascinating, The Unexpected Truths About Animals is an engrossing read.

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