Series: Animal

Sloths are perhaps the most recognised and loved Central and South American animals. Despite their renown and popularity as cartoon characters, toys, and memes, they are not well understood. This book offers a colourful, richly illustrated, and wide-ranging account of the biological and cultural history of these fascinating mammals. Alan Rauch explores sloths' gigantic prehistoric ancestors and their evolution into...

This book traces the many ways humans have thought about and pictured squids. In myths and legends, squids are portrayed as fearsome sea-monsters, lurking in the watery deeps waiting to devour humans. Even as modern science has tried to turn those monsters of the deep into unremarkable calamari, squids continue to dominate the nightmares of the Western imagination. Taking inspiration...

A natural and cultural history of the hedgehog, an animal that has had a close connection with people since the dawn of civilisation. This book explores the symbolism of the animal, from Romans who regarded it as a weather prophet, to Sonic the Hedgehog and children's books today. Hedgehog also describes the evolution, behaviour, habitat, and diet of this beautiful,...

What does it mean to be human? And what, if anything, does it have to do with being a member of the animal species Homo sapiens? This dazzling book gets to the very heart of our rather unscientific motivations and prejudices, showing how they are of great use in resolving the world's biggest problems. From beasts to aliens, widespread but...

In almost every culture, hyenas are regarded as nasty, scheming charlatans, skulking in the back alleyways of the animal kingdom. Scorned as little more than scavenging carrion-eaters, vandals and thieves, since the earliest times hyenas have been both mistreated and misunderstood. In her new account, Mikita Brottman offers an alternative view, showing that the hyena is, in fact, a complex,...

Kingfishers are a sight to behold. The dash and verve of this cosmopolitan bird have been admired for millennia, appearing in creation myths, imperial regalia, and cultural iconography, and they were once valued as highly as gold. Artists used their iridescent feathers in Tian-tsui, an iconic style of Chinese fine art, for more than 2,400 years. The magnificent temples at...

Majestic, noble, brave lions, with their tawny coats and luminous eyes, have inspired countless stories, traditions, and beliefs. Whether we are seduced by their beauty or drawn to danger, we want to be near them. No other animal has had such an enduring symbolic resonance; lions have been painted on wood and canvas, chiselled in stone, cast in metal, and...

Though moles are rarely seen, they live in close proximity to humans around the world. Gardeners and farmers go to great lengths to remove molehills from their fields and gardens; mole-catching has been a profession for the past two millennia. Moles are also close to our imagination, appearing in myths, fairy tales and comic books as either wealthy, undesirable grooms...

Unlike their gaudy day-flying relations, moths are thought to reside in the shadows, as denizens of the night, circling around street lights or caught momentarily in the glare of car headlights on a country lane. There are, however, many more species of day-flying moths than there are of butterflies. As for colours and patterns, many moths rival or even exceed...

The nightingale holds a unique place in cultural history: the most prized of songbirds, it has inspired more poems than any other creature and is also the most mythologised of birds. Nightingale juxtaposes the bird of poetry, music, myth, and lore with the living bird of wood and scrubland, unpicking the entangled relationship between them. Covering a vast range of...

'The owls are not what they seem'. From ancient Babylon, to Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussycat and the grandiloquent, absent-minded Owl from Winnie the Pooh, to David Lynch's Twin Peaks, owls have woven themselves into the fabric of human culture from earliest times. Beautiful, silent, pitiless predators of the night, possessing contradictory qualities of good and evil, they...

Parrot by Paul Carter is a fascinating natural and cultural history of parrots. It covers three broad areas: Parrotics — the historical, cultural and scientific classifications of parrots; Parroternalia — the association of parrots with the different languages, ages, tastes, and dreams of society; and Parrotology — the mimicry of parrots and what that can tell us about our own...

Pig looks at the long, complicated relationship between humans and these highly intelligent, sociable animals. In his insightful book, Brett Mizelle traces the natural and cultural history of the pig, focusing on the contradictions between our imaginative representation of pigs and the ways in which pigs are actually used as meat, experimental material, and the source of hundreds of consumer...

Polar bears are truly majestic animals: the largest land-dwelling carnivore on earth, they can measure up to 3 metres in length and weigh up to 700 kilograms. They are also iconic in other ways—a symbol of the climate change debate, with their survival now threatened by the loss of Arctic ice. Their images decorate fountains and the cornices of buildings...

In this richly illustrated book, Victoria Dickenson explores the natural and cultural history of this most familiar creature, from the giant extinct rabbits of Minorca to the tiny endangered Volcano rabbits of Mexico. The rabbit is prey, chased by enemies from eagles to foxes to domestic cats. But it is also a trickster who outwits all rivals and escapes every...

From the dawn of civilisation, scorpions have captured the human imagination. Yet the scorpion is a misunderstood animal with a bad reputation that overshadows its many exceptional qualities. Older than dinosaurs, these small arthropods have survived for hundreds of millions of years with very few changes to their form, populating every continent—except Antarctica. Although humans and scorpions have coexisted for...

Innocent. Invader. Lover. Thief. Sparrows are everywhere, in many guises. They are cherished pets, the subject of elegies by Catullus and John Skelton, and listed as 'pretty things' in Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book. They're grimy, urban vermin with shocking manners, so reviled that during the 1950s, Mao placed them on the list of 'Four Pests' and ordered the Chinese people...

The spider has a rich symbolic presence in the human imagination. Spider analyses the arachnid's appearance in literature and art. Horror stories, science fiction, folklore, and children's tales are reviewed, as well as the affliction of arachnophobia and the procedures used in curing the condition. A thorough, wide-ranging account of the natural and cultural history of the spider, this book...

A celebration of the ancient, unassuming yet exceptional turtle As ancient creatures that once shared the Earth with dinosaurs, turtles have played a crucial role in maintaining healthy terrestrial and marine ecosystems for more than one hundred million years. While it may not set records for speed on land, the turtle is exceptional at distance swimming and deep diving, and...

Fear and fascination set wasps apart from other insects. Despite their iconic form and distinctive colours, they are surrounded by myth and misunderstanding. Often portrayed in cartoon-like stereotypes bordering on sad parody, wasps have an unwelcome and undeserved reputation for aggressiveness bordering on vindictive spite. This mistrust is deep-seated in a human history that has awarded commercial and spiritual value...

Highly regarded woodpecker expert Gerard Gorman presents a unique natural, social, and cultural history of woodpeckers. Woodpeckers are among the most remarkable birds in the avian world, having evolved a unique anatomy that enables them to peck and bore into solid timber both to find food and to create nesting cavities. They have been considered symbols of fertility, security, strength,...

Common and exotic, glamorous and ferocious, sociable and sullen: zebras mean many things to many people. The extraordinary beauty of their striped coats makes them one of the world's most recognisable animals. They have been immortalised in paint by artists including George Stubbs and Lucian Freud, and zebra-print designs permeate contemporary society – on beanbags and bikinis, from car seats...

Beaver by Rachel Poliquin explores the storied history of this small, often forgotten animal. Poliquin examines why the beaver has been hunted throughout the years, from its fur to the scent produced by its musk gland, as well as looking at the unique way in which beavers form their societies. She also discusses how beavers are not only builders but...

Chicken introduces us to the surprisingly complex world of the chicken, tracing the evolution of jungle fowl and the domestication of chickens by humans. Annie Potts describes the ways in which chickens experience the world, form families and friendships, communicate with each other, and play, bond and grieve. The author also explores practices such as egg-rolling, the cockfight, wishbone-pulling and...

An entertaining and wide-ranging romp through the cultural history of a peculiar bird. The common cuckoo is a peculiar bird, one that has lent its name to the otherworldly 'Cloud Cuckoo Land' in Aristophanes' play The Birds, and lent its two-note song to the classic cuckoo clock. Even while the cuckoo has long symbolised exuberance or foolishness, at the same...

The Celts called them 'fairy cattle' and the Greeks associated them with the hunter-goddess Artemis, but for most people today, deer are seen as cute, like Bambi, or noble, like the Monarch of the Glen. Deer appear on coats of arms, in fine art, and in literature. In Deer, veterinarian and deer farmer John Fletcher brings together the cultural and...

From Flipper to SeaWorld, dolphins have long captured our hearts. In this book, Alan Rauch draws on his years of experience working with and studying dolphins. Dolphins are extremely social and recognised as highly intelligent. For centuries, they were believed to protect sailors and became emblematic of safe travel, kindness, and charity. As the rise in popularity of dolphin-centric media...

From giving rides to children at the British seaside to pulling a plough in the poorest of countries, donkeys have served humans faithfully since the time of their domestication more than 10,000 years ago. Despite the critical role that they have played throughout human history, however, donkeys have often received little respect. Donkey follows the story of this incredibly hard-working...

For centuries, flies have been seen as mankind's enemy, blamed for plagues, subject to public excommunication in the Middle Ages and campaigns of extermination during the early years of the twentieth century. Fly tracks the representation of the fly in myth, literature, poetry, film, painting, theology, and biology. There are chapters on artificial flies, the demonic fly, the erotics of...

Adaptable, resilient, yet often overlooked, the goat—sometimes called the 'poor man's cow'—is found in nearly every part of the world where humans live. But our relationship with this strange yet familiar animal is oddly ambivalent. In Goat, Joy Hinson explores the reasons behind this unease, from our interaction with the endangered wild goat species of remote mountainous regions to the...

This book traces the history of the camel from its origins millions of years ago through to the present day, discussing such matters of current concern as the plight of camel herders in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, the alarming increase in the population of feral camels in Australia, and the endangered status of the wild Bactrian in Mongolia and China....

Jellyfish are, like the mythical Medusa, both beautiful and potentially dangerous. Found from pole to tropic, these mesmeric creatures form an important part of the sea's plankton and vary in size from the gigantic to the minute. Perceived as alien creatures and seen as best avoided, jellyfish nevertheless have the power to fascinate: with the sheer beauty of their translucent...

From swimming alongside our kayaks, canoes, coracles and boats to lurking alone in the shadowy waters of remote seas, seals have long interacted with humans and played a part in our history. Seal by Victoria Dickenson explores the natural and cultural history of an animal that has piqued and delighted human interest since ancient times, from their role in Roman...

A richly illustrated celebration of the mysterious world of worms in science and culture. This book celebrates the mysterious world of worms from gardens to toothaches and beyond. Worm by Kevin Butt introduces all manner of worms, including many that bear only superficial resemblance to our limbless, sinuous friends in the dirt. To trace the intimate history between worms and...

Whales are the largest animals ever to have lived on the earth: the longest ever recorded was over 33 metres (110 feet) long, the heaviest more than 171,000 kgs (190 tons); a large Blue Whale's tongue alone can weigh more than an elephant. Whales can stay underwater for more than an hour, live to 200 years, and are among the...

The leopard is the ultimate cat. It makes the lion and the tiger appear overblown, and all the other members of the cat family look puny. Whereas lions hunt in the open and then share their kill, the leopard is solitary, stealthy, and selfish. This cat ambushes its prey and then carries it high into a tree where it can...