Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test

Evolutionary biologist Zuk (Paleofantasy) explores the complex basis of animal activity in this entertaining road show covering the sex lives of fruit flies, mental health disorders in dogs, and the intelligence of ravens, among other traits and behaviors. Zuk writes that the “question of whether nature or nurture is more important” to animal behavior “is impossible to answer,” and that “genes don’t single-handedly determine anything”—a creature’s environment is crucial to how they act, too. This thesis, though somewhat unsurprising, provides a nice basis for a wide range of examples: there’s the eccentric spider-tailed viper, a snake that attracts its prey with a tail that functions as a lure, and slime molds, which “can solve problems and predict the future even though they look like blobs of gulp.” Flying squirrels and sugar gliders, meanwhile, both look similarly “adorable” “not because of a mutual gliding ancestor, but because of convergent evolution,” and octopuses “illustrate the perils of reverse-engineering an explanation in evolution” when people measure their intelligence against humans’. Zuk has a knack for weaving in complex scientific theories without ever slowing down the pace, and her vivid descriptions render her wonder contagious: “Even a humble slug,” she writes, “is capable of feats that humans cannot achieve.” This one’s full of fun. (Aug.)