How does a tiny bird, weighing no more than a matchbox, migrate 5000 miles a year with pinpoint accuracy? Is a dog being 'clever' when it learns to open a door? How does a honey bee tell her sisters where to find a nectar-rich flower? Like the BBC television series on which it is based, this is the story of how we have come to understand the often extraordinary ways in which animals behave as they do. Its subject is the entire animal kingdom, its themes embrace a tradition of nature study stretching back to the fabulous monsters of classical myth and the rituals of stone-age hunters.

It is a story that includes the migration of butterflies, the beautiful courtship rituals of birds, the fierce gladiatorial contests of the breeding season and the complex languages of signs and sounds by which animals communicate. And it brings together those who have sought to understand the mysteries of animal nature - medieval chroniclers, Renaissance botanists, explorers in South America, and pioneer scientists and naturalists like Darwin, Pavlov and Konrad Lorenz. Their lives and achievements, and the excitement of their discoveries, are brilliantly re-created. Karl von Fischer, for instance, finding that bees use the sun as a 'compass' by which to navigate, or Konrad Lorenz decoding the elaborate courtship ceremonies of his ducks and geese. Such studies have opened up the way to modern biological science.

The variety and sheer adaptability of the animal world produce wonder and awe. We are often amazed at the feats that animals can perform. With the help of more than 100 colour plates, John Sparks gives us a fascinating insight into a new and strange world - and he shows that we have more in common with the minds and manners of animals than we may ever have imagined. 

Language: English