The unexpected truth about animals

History is littered with strange animal tales invented by the most brilliant and influential thinkers and entertainers, from Aristotle to Disney. But if we want to understand animals, we still have a long way to go. Once upon a time, it was thought that eels emerge from the mud and bears give birth to shapeless mounds of mud, from which they then lick their tongues to form bear cubs. We still believe that penguins are pretty creatures, lazy ones are lazy and vultures are dirty. The truth is quite different.

Zoologist Lucy Cooke takes us on a global adventure to discover, with the help of the best experts, how much truth there is in quirky tales of self-contained beavers and news stories of drunken reindeer. Lucy’s exploration reveals fascinating and totally unexpected animal facts alongside extraordinary stories of science and scientists of a bygone age – of mind-boggling experiments and theories that often tell us far more about ourselves and our relationship with nature than about the animals we study.