Headless Males Make Great Lovers: And Other Unusual Natural Histories

The natural world is full of interesting, diverse, and sometimes bizarre methods that the world's species use for dealing with life. Marty Crump, author of In Search of the Golden Frog (2000) and a field biologist who works with amphibians, has brought together what she calls "gee whiz" stories for a general audience. The reader learns of red kangaroos, the females of which are often simultaneously pregnant, nursing a young joey in the pouch, and also nursing a large joey from a different nipple (with different milk). Egyptian vultures break into ostrich eggs by throwing stones at them, a behavior that is taught, not instinctive. And, in the titular story, the author explains why female praying mantises bite the heads off their mates (and what canny males do to avoid decapitation). Illustrated throughout with line drawings, and bolstered with a chapter-by-chapter list of references, this marvelous introduction to the whys and wherefores of animal behavior will find an audience in all libraries. Nancy Bent