# The Unexpected Truth About Animals

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/lucy-cooke/the-unexpected-truth-about-animals

![The Unexpected Truth About Animals](https://quivercdn.com/covers/black-swan/lucy-cooke/the-unexpected-truth-about-animals_978-17-8416-190-3-6121b2cd.webp?v=2026-09-26%2002%3A36%3A13)

- Authors: [Lucy Cooke](https://www.bookquiver.com/lucy-cooke)
- Language: en_GB
- Published: 2017-10-19

## Description

Shortlisted for the 2018 Royal Society Investment Science Book Prize 'Endlessly fascinating.' - Bill Bryson 'Eye-opening, informative and very funny!' - Chris Packham 'Well-informed and downright funny' - Richard Dawkins History is full of strange animal stories invented by the brightest and most influential, from Aristotle to Disney. But when it comes to understanding animals, we’ve got a long way to go. Whether we’re watching a viral video of romping baby pandas or looking at a picture of penguins ‘holding hands’, we often project our own values – innocence, abstinence, hard work – onto animals. So you’ve probably never considered that moose get drunk and that penguins are notorious cheats. In The Unexpected Truth About Animals Zoologist Lucy unravels many such myths – that eels are born from sand, that swallows hibernate under water, and that bears gave birth to formless lumps that are licked into shape by their mothers – to show that the stories we create reveal as much about us as they do about the animals. Astonishing, illuminating and laugh-out-loud funny.

## Editions

### The Unexpected Truth About Animals

- Publisher: Black Swan
- ISBN: 978-17-8416-190-3
- Pages: 480
- Published: 2018-05-31
- Language: en_GB

### The Unexpected Truth About Animals

- Publisher: transworld_digital
- Medium: audio
- Length: 10 h 28 min
- Narrated by: Lucy Cooke
- ISBN: 978-14-7354-212-9
- Published: 2017-11-30
- Language: en_GB

### The Unexpected Truth About Animals

- Publisher: transworld_digital
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-14-7354-149-8
- Published: 2017-10-19
- Language: en_GB