STRANGE THINGS ANIMALS DO: How Scientists Probe Their Secrets

by Gardner Soule ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1970

Animals and the men and women who ""watch 'em alive"" (the favorite catch-phrase in a book stoked with cheerful come-ons) arrayed according to nothing particular -- but forgivably, because this is an amiable introduction for people who wouldn't swallow the zoology any other way. Mr. Soule implements quotations freely, profiles his field-workers (purposefully detailing education to reveal the number of graduate students doing observation), and spouts lots of breathtaking incidentals along the way. For instance, in praise of spiders, ""The total weight of insects on the globe is infinitely greater than the weight of the men""; or, in 1967 there were 90,000,000 visitors to U.S. zoos -- ""more than the combined football and baseball attendance"" (""You Too Can Watch 'Em Alive""). The scientific tidbits overlap the coverage of many more serious books, but the virtue here is that no real commitment is required to breeze through the invitingly (deceptively) titled chapters and discover: the tailor-bird that sews!; a 'dictionary' of the vervet monkey's oral emissions; Prof. Martin Schein's view that polar bears are slowly evolving into sea mammals. Generous and sometimes remarkable photos, extensively captioned, suggest browsability; see the rhesus monkey peering nearsightedly at a picture of herself and the father penguin warming its chick -- and try to overlook the flagrant misplacements (bat-radar research illustrated in the bear section). Bibliographed, footnoted, and unenlighteningly indexed (a special misfortune since the Table of Contents is punchy instead of topical), the catalog entertains as much as it informs -- younger students and older dilettantes.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1970

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1970

Categories: NONFICTION