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Poking the Squid

What We Can Learn from Animal Sex
By Perrin Roosevelt Ireland
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Brief Description
For too long, science has ignored and obscured the multiplicity of animal sexual behaviour. With vivid, often funny and always beautiful watercolour illustrations in a work of graphic nonfiction, artist Perrin Roosevelt Ireland examines how animals express and have sex. With the help of her cats... Read More
Format: Hardback
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A vast and delightfully diverse journey through the sex lives of animals

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

For too long, science has ignored and obscured the multiplicity of animal sexual behaviour. With vivid, often funny and always beautiful watercolour illustrations in a work of graphic nonfiction, artist Perrin Roosevelt Ireland examines how animals express and have sex.

With the help of her cats Ursula and Pudge, she takes us on a wild biodiversity ride from queerness, infidelity and divorce to consent, sexual cannibalism and sex change. Ireland interviews researchers at the edge of this new science and brings readers along as she learns the latest discoveries.

In vivid comics of seahorse dads, polygamous albatross, and gender-fluid barnacles, Poking the Squid illustrates for us a vibrant and erotic earth that we are just beginning to grasp. By illuminating and celebrating animal diversity, Poking the Squid asks us to embrace our own.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781324089049

Publisher: WW Norton & Co

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 16 June 2026

Country: United States

Imprint: WW Norton & Co

Illustration: Color illustrations throughout

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 178.0mm

Height: 229.0mm

Weight: 0g

Pages: 272

Collections

Education & Reference Graphic Novels LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction Perrin Roosevelt Ireland Science & Nature

About the Author

Perrin Roosevelt Ireland is an artist and environmentalist. For a decade, she worked at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), ultimately as deputy to the executive director. Her artwork has been published in Discover, Nature, Scientific American, and The Rumpus. She serves on the board of the Roosevelt Institute, was an inaugural Artist in Residence at the New York Aquarium, and is a Banff Graphic Novel Resident. Perrin lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her cats (and muses) Ursula and Pudge.

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