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318 reviews for:
Die erstaunliche Wahrheit über Tiere: Was Mythen und Irrtümer über uns verraten
Lucy Cooke
4.23 AVERAGE
318 reviews for:
Die erstaunliche Wahrheit über Tiere: Was Mythen und Irrtümer über uns verraten
Lucy Cooke
4.23 AVERAGE
funny
informative
slow-paced
Have you ever wondered about the poop habits of sloths? Eel sex? If yes, this is the book for you. a must read for animal lovers with a sense of humor.
*I did receive a digital version of this title from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.*
Humorous or comedic nonfiction is a very underrated genre that has some absolute gems in it. Lucy Cooke's The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife is certainly among these gems. This book is a close-up examination of some of the most bizarre traits and behaviors of some of our friends in the animal kingdom. With each animal profile, the author looks at both our past and current understanding of that species and we our predecessors got it completely wrong and where we are still in the dark on why some animals do the things they do. And let me tell you, it cannot be overstated how hilarious some of the early naturalists' thought and musing were, especially on creatures they had no actual contact with!
It's honestly hard to pick out any real flaws with this book. Perhaps the author refers back to the antics and writings of the 18th century naturalists of Lazzaro Spallanzani and Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon too often. However, it would be a shame to have not included how crazy some of these earlier scientists thought and performed their experiments. Spallazani was an Italian biologist/physiologist with some... unorthodox ways of setting up experiments. It should be noted that many of these experiments would be considered animal abuse now, so keep that in consideration. The Comte de Buffon on the other hand was a French naturalist and writer who authored a thirty-six volume encyclopedia of Natural History, many of the volumes dealing with the animal world that include some insanely comical anecdotes and assumptions.
The Truth About Animals isn't all just fluff though. It has an excellent balance of the comedic and hard science. There are many appearances of dedicated scientists both past and present making serious headway into furthering our understanding of the natural world. These vignettes of current scientists in the field add a nice dimension to the work by demonstrating that even crazy sounding science (such as biologists having to castrate wild hippos in Columbia!) is serious work with important implications. Lastly, this book leaves you wanting more despite how jam packed the book is with information on the animals covered in the book. Some of this information will be permanently burned into your brain such as the sloth version of Tinder... I particularly enjoyed the chapter on moose as they are an animal that I see somewhat frequently where I live. Many myths about moose are busted and I certainly learned new things about these northern giants, particularly when it comes to whether or not they can get drunk off all the apples they eat.
Overall, The Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke was a blast to read and was a lot of fun. Not too many science books can claim that. The humorous references and anecdotes are spot on and show both the folly of our predecessors as well as how much further we still need to go ourselves. I highly recommend this book if you want an enjoyable book about the animal kingdom and you don't mind some laughter with your learning.
5 out of 5 stars.
Humorous or comedic nonfiction is a very underrated genre that has some absolute gems in it. Lucy Cooke's The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife is certainly among these gems. This book is a close-up examination of some of the most bizarre traits and behaviors of some of our friends in the animal kingdom. With each animal profile, the author looks at both our past and current understanding of that species and we our predecessors got it completely wrong and where we are still in the dark on why some animals do the things they do. And let me tell you, it cannot be overstated how hilarious some of the early naturalists' thought and musing were, especially on creatures they had no actual contact with!
It's honestly hard to pick out any real flaws with this book. Perhaps the author refers back to the antics and writings of the 18th century naturalists of Lazzaro Spallanzani and Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon too often. However, it would be a shame to have not included how crazy some of these earlier scientists thought and performed their experiments. Spallazani was an Italian biologist/physiologist with some... unorthodox ways of setting up experiments. It should be noted that many of these experiments would be considered animal abuse now, so keep that in consideration. The Comte de Buffon on the other hand was a French naturalist and writer who authored a thirty-six volume encyclopedia of Natural History, many of the volumes dealing with the animal world that include some insanely comical anecdotes and assumptions.
The Truth About Animals isn't all just fluff though. It has an excellent balance of the comedic and hard science. There are many appearances of dedicated scientists both past and present making serious headway into furthering our understanding of the natural world. These vignettes of current scientists in the field add a nice dimension to the work by demonstrating that even crazy sounding science (such as biologists having to castrate wild hippos in Columbia!) is serious work with important implications. Lastly, this book leaves you wanting more despite how jam packed the book is with information on the animals covered in the book. Some of this information will be permanently burned into your brain such as the sloth version of Tinder... I particularly enjoyed the chapter on moose as they are an animal that I see somewhat frequently where I live. Many myths about moose are busted and I certainly learned new things about these northern giants, particularly when it comes to whether or not they can get drunk off all the apples they eat.
Overall, The Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke was a blast to read and was a lot of fun. Not too many science books can claim that. The humorous references and anecdotes are spot on and show both the folly of our predecessors as well as how much further we still need to go ourselves. I highly recommend this book if you want an enjoyable book about the animal kingdom and you don't mind some laughter with your learning.
5 out of 5 stars.
Such a fun and informative read! I didn’t expect to find the chapters on eels and vultures and such to be so interesting. And yet I found myself searching for videos of vultures flying and pooping, and telling multiple people about the sloth’s ability to do a pretty decent backstroke. Definitely recommend this book if you want to learn a lot, and laugh along the way.
informative
medium-paced
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
Relentlessly interesting and very enjoyable. I'm already looking forward to reading this again
Fascinating stories about animals and how humans came to understand them (or not) all supporting the ideas that our tendencies to anthropomorphize animals and think of ourselves as above them have long prevented us from truly understanding the natural world.
THE TRUTH ABOUT ANIMALS is one of those random nonfiction books I saw at the library that peaked my interest, as I love animals and still harbor a childhood dream of being a zooologist studying animals in the wild. Author Lucy Cooke, a National Geographic explorer (another dream job) and zoologist sets out to show us about history's (and in some cases, the modern world's) misconceptions about nature.
Which each chapter being dedicated to a differnent animal, I learned about how some animals have perfectly adapted to their unusual environments, how sometimes convservation efforts can backfire, but mostly I learned how obsessed humans are with the reproductive cycles and organs of these animals. I get how knowing how an animal reproduces helps us understand the species, but there were a few too many segments dedicated to animal genitalia than I cared for. Honestly, the accounts of some of the experiments on these animals was difficult to read through as an animal lover. I would be interested to read more from Cooke. Her accounts of work she has done in her field were particulary interesting, and I would love to read more about the work she has done for National Geographic. Overall 3 stars out of 5 from me
Which each chapter being dedicated to a differnent animal, I learned about how some animals have perfectly adapted to their unusual environments, how sometimes convservation efforts can backfire, but mostly I learned how obsessed humans are with the reproductive cycles and organs of these animals. I get how knowing how an animal reproduces helps us understand the species, but there were a few too many segments dedicated to animal genitalia than I cared for. Honestly, the accounts of some of the experiments on these animals was difficult to read through as an animal lover. I would be interested to read more from Cooke. Her accounts of work she has done in her field were particulary interesting, and I would love to read more about the work she has done for National Geographic. Overall 3 stars out of 5 from me