From Booklist
Some of the most fantastic behaviors of real animals are explored in this beautifully illustrated companion volume to a BBC/Discovery Channel series. Downer, producer-director of the series, provides a scientific and up-to-date look at some of the odder ways that animals accomplish basic tasks. The book's six chapters mirror the series' six episodes. How animals move from one place to another is examined. And producing and caring for the next generation is achieved in a myriad of ways. Finding food can be as simple as an eagle dropping a tortoise on rocks to break the shell or as complex as an archerfish knocking down insects with a spat stream of water. Animals can defend themselves with spines, camouflage, claws, armor, or venom. Finally, animals are shown using various plants for their medicinal purposes, such as elephants inducing labor by eating tree leaves and black lemurs crushing millipedes for their natural insecticide.
Nancy BentCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Globe and Mail, May 25, 2002
A wonderful pairing of spectacular, and often entertaining, photos combined with a readable historical examination of this so-called weird behavior.
