All my life, I've had a love for animals and all the ingenious ways they have of surviving and fighting for the future. Yet, I've never had the opportunity to fully compare their behaviour to our own, and also to find out about us as a species. Well, The Book of Humans, by the British biologist Dr Adam Rutherford, was a great book for finding out more.
The book is divided into a few simple parts: Tools; Sex; and The Paragon of Animals. The first part compares our use of tools with those of differing species of animal. I knew about chimpanzees using tools to get termites or ants out of holes, but I didn't realise that some birds even use fire to help them hunt, and will start fires to do so! It was fascinating!
The second part was also interesting, especially when it talked about different aspects of sexuality in animals...for example bears performing fellatio, and the ever promiscuous bonobos! This is the chapter where Rutherford's humour most stood out for me.
The final part is more about the genetics and evolution of our species and, from that perspective helped to understand how we evolved art and speech, among our many attributes.
We our not as unique as you think, that's the overall message of this book, and I would return that this book, although itself not unique, is a very good popular science book. It is well written, easy to read and very engaging. Rutherford's humour shines brightly throughout, yet doesn't outshine the very nature of...well, nature!
Star rating: 5/5
This book will be published on 19th March 2019
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