Sex on Earth: A Celebration of Animal Reproduction
Jules Howard
Birdlife's Spoon-billed Sandpiper campaign
This book is a veritable romp (as it were) through the world of sex. Not, however, that of our own species but that of animals. What Alfred Kinsey and Desmond Morris did for humans, Jules Howard has now done for the rest of our planet’s fellow inhabitants.
This, though, is not a journey for the squeamish. Indeed, dear reader, prepare to be shocked. In the book’s fourteen chapters we encounter not just asexual bdelloid rotifers, sexually restrained pandas and monogamous Jackdaws but homosexual, and of course appropriately pink, flamingos (called ‘Carlos’ and ‘Fernando’ if you were wondering), masturbating iguanas, necrophiliac penguins and, perhaps best of all, exploding duck penises.
It is of course hard not to snigger at such obvious entertainment but fortunately we are encouraged in our sniggering by the author’s relentlessly lively, upbeat and engaging approach. This is a real roller-coaster ride through some fascinating and often surprising territory.
Despite the easy laughs, however, Howard’s quest is rooted in genuine scientific curiosity and asks some big and difficult questions. Why are a few species monogamous? Do animals really fall in love? How did dinosaurs have sex? With a cast of ducks, dolphins and dragonflies, slugs, snakes and spiders, the author explores and celebrates all the intricacies, intimacies and peculiarities (the ‘ins and outs’, if you will) of animal reproduction.
The author’s research is thorough, based not just on the published literature but on a whole series of encounters and interviews with the country’s leading experts on the sex lives of, for example, hedgehogs, glow-worms and fen raft spiders. And there is more. I was consistently struck by the quality of the writing. Describing the Jackdaw roost at Madingley Hall, Howard notes: “They spend an hour or so spiralling, spinning, surfing the twilight... In the fading light their dark shapes become like black bulbs yet to be lit.”
This is therefore a disarmingly informal book, an entertaining and irreverent read full of cringeworthy detail and splendid naughtiness but also an informative and authoritative insight into aspects of natural history where many might have feared to tread. Now, thanks to the author’s efforts, you can read all about humping dogs, race-horse sex and slug copulation safe in the knowledge that you are not a pervert but that you are ‘learning about science’. An ideal Christmas gift therefore, but probably not for your mum.
Andy Stoddart
02 December 2014
Published: Oct 2014 Bloomsbury
Pages: 272
ISBN: 9781408193419
RRP: hardback £16.99
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