Contemporary Authors

• A Little Book of Sloth Margaret K. McElderry Books (New York, NY), 2013
• The Unexpected Truth about Animals: A Menagerie of the Misunderstood Doubleday (London, England), 2017
• Life in the Sloth Lane Workman (New York, NY), 2018

1. Life in the sloth lane LCCN 2018008697 Type of material Book Personal name Cooke, Lucy, 1970- author. Main title Life in the sloth lane / Lucy Cooke. Published/Produced New York : Workman Publishing, [2018] Description 140 pages : color illustrations ; 16 cm ISBN 9780761193227 (hbk. : alk. paper) CALL NUMBER RA785 .C657 2018 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms 2. The unexpected truth about animals : a menagerie of the misunderstood LCCN 2017479648 Type of material Book Personal name Cooke, Lucy, 1970- author. Main title The unexpected truth about animals : a menagerie of the misunderstood / Lucy Cooke. Published/Produced London : Doubleday, 2017. ©2017 Description 392 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm ISBN 9780857524119 (hbk.) 9780857524102 (pbk.) CALL NUMBER QL50 .C76 2017 CABIN BRANCH Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE 3. A little book of sloth LCCN 2012018737 Type of material Book Personal name Cooke, Lucy, 1970- Main title A little book of sloth / Lucy Cooke. Published/Created New York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, c2013. Description 1 v. unpaged : col. ill. ; 24 cm. ISBN 9781442445574 (hardcover) 9781442445581 (ebook) Shelf Location FLM2013 007022 CALL NUMBER QL737.E2 C66 2013 OVERFLOWA5S Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms (FLM1) Shelf Location FLM2013 002367 CALL NUMBER QL737.E2 C66 2013 OVERFLOWA5S Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms (FLM1)

• The Unexpected Truth About Animals - 19 Oct. 2017 Doubleday,

• Lucy Cooke - http://www.lucycooke.tv/about/

  A bit more about me
  I grew up in the Sussex countryside and was fascinated with nature from an early age. It’s in my blood. My dad was an old fashioned countryman with an intimate knowledge of the landscape he grew up in. He inherited this from his father, a shepherd on Romney Marsh and well-respected amateur ornithologist whose love of story-telling even led to a handful of appearances on BBC radio in the 1940s.

  My father encouraged me to explore and protect the countryside, but it was David Attenborough’s Life on Earth series that opened my eyes to the fantastic diversity of life and the creative power of natural selection. I have been obsessed ever since.

  At Oxford with Dawkins and into TV
  I was lucky to win a place to read zoology at New College, Oxford where I was taught evolution and animal behaviour by Dr Richard Dawkins.

  I also got into the comedy and drama scene at Oxford and when I left college, I fell into TV comedy. Jonathan Ross gave me my first job and the chance to work with great comics on iconic shows like The Fast Show and The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer (if you look closely you can spot me as a dancing raspberry with ping pong balls for eyes and other equally eclectic roles in both shows).

  I eventually moved into writing, producing and directing popular prime time science, history and travel documentaries presented by the likes of Monty Python Terry Jones, Alan Davies, Tony Robinson, Kevin McCloud, Robert Hughes and Bill Bailey. I travelled the world, filming in the remote corners of over 20 countries and meeting extraordinary people. I drank honey wine with the fiercest tribe in East Africa, politely ate dog with the opium growing mountain people of Laos, hung out with cave-dwelling Kurdish activists in Eastern Turkey and met a fearsome jaguar hunter in Brazil. Outside of TV I commissioned Sundance award-winning feature documentaries at BRITDOC and Webby award-winning online shorts during a year as head of UK content at Vice.

  On an Amphibian Awareness Raising Mission
  But my first love was natural history, and in 2009 I decided it was time for me to reconnect with my roots and my favourite animal, the frog.

  The world’s amphibians are in the grips of the worst extinction crisis since the dinosaurs were wiped off the planet. But their plight rarely hits the headlines like it does for A-list animals with fluffy faces.

  So I quit my job, bought a ticket to South America, and headed off on a solo adventure as the Amphibian Avenger. My goal was to find out what was killing the frogs and raise awareness by writing a popular blog about my adventure.

  I licked poison dart frogs in Colombia, visited fungus-infested frog farms in Uruguay, visited an amphibian refugee camp in a volcanic crater in Panama, and joined an expedition to look for a rare frog that burps up its babies in Patagonia. I visited eight countries in six months and loved every minute of it.

  My gonzo adventures ended up being widely-read and National Geographic offered me my own TV series. I wanted to tell stories about odd, unloved and misunderstood animals, and next thing I knew, I was off around the world filming Freaks and Creeps to meet proboscis monkeys in Borneo, fly with vultures in South Africa, and track down the Devil in Tasmania.

  In 2012, I was honoured to receive a prestigious National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award for my work in popularising a conservation message to a new audience. I’m now proud to be an affiliate of the Amphibian Survival Alliance, and have lectured on conservation issues for ZSL, IUCN, Synchronicity Earth and Oxford University.

  I’ve now pretty much migrated to the other side of the camera and had some amazing adventures presenting dozens of natural history shows for the BBC, ITV, National Geographic and Channel 4. These include learning to speak hippo in “Talk to the Animals”, tickling frogs eggs live on Channel 4 in “Easter Eggs Live”, becoming an unlikely animal midwife in “Amazing Animal Births”, teaching an orphan baby elephant to swim in “Natures Miracle Orphans”, dodging dive-bombing seagulls in “Britain’s Boldest Thieves”, connecting with some truly inspiring amateur naturalists on “Springwatch” and trying to outwit the encyclopaedic mind of Chris Packham, my rival team captain on the quiz show “Curious Creatures”.

  The rapid rise of the sloth
  In addition to frogs, there is another animal that I’ve become a very vocal champion of and that’s the sloth. I’ve produced dozens of viral videos, an award-winning series for Animal Planet, “Meet the Sloths”, and a New York Times best-selling picture book “A Little Book of Sloth” (published in the UK as “The Power of Sloth”). I think we have much to learn from this paragon of low-energy living. So I founded the Sloth Appreciation Society (our motto: being fast is over-rated) and have toured my irreverent lecture on why this much maligned creature is in fact the true King of the jungle around various schools and festivals (Glastonbury, Haye-on-Wye lit fest, Port Eliot, Wilderness, etc). Sloth fans can get their own SAS certificate and other sloth goodies like our best-selling wall calendar (a year of sleepy smiles) at Slothville, the SAS online HQ.

  Re-branding the animal Kingdom
  Sloths are one of the thirteen animals – my menagerie of the misunderstood – featured in my first long-form book, The Unexpected Truth About Animals. Published by Transworld in November 2017 it explores and explodes our biggest myths and misconceptions about animals from Aristotle to Disney. After reading, you’ll hopefully never think about hyenas, penguins or pandas in quite the same way again.

  Contact Lucy:

  Get in touch with Lucy Cooke via her agent Sophie Laurimore at Factual Management

• National Public Radio Online - https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=604121405

  QUOTED: "It was the sloth that really inspired me because I get asked a lot, how can sloths exist when they're such losers? And people think that because the animal is slow that it's somehow useless and redundant."
  "An actual fact—they are incredibly successful creatures. So the sloth is not the only animal that's been misunderstood in this way. And I thought it was time that we rebranded the animal kingdom according to fact and not sentimentality because we have a habit of viewing the animal kingdom through the prism of our own rather narrow existence and judging animals on our terms. So I thought there were quite a lot of wrongs that needed to be righted."
  "People think that being slow is second-rate, and we are obsessed with moving faster than nature intended. But actual fact—sloths are energy-saving icons. And they are incredibly successful because of their slothful nature."

  April 22, 20187:39 AM ET

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  LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

  Lucy Cooke is the founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society. Their motto - being fast is overrated. Of course, that's not her only claim to fame. Cooke is an Oxford-trained zoologist and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. And in her new book, "The Truth About Animals," she sets the record straight about sloths and other much misunderstood creatures. A warning to our listeners, we will be discussing animal sex a lot. She joins us now in the studio. Hello.

  LUCY COOKE: Hello there.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: So this book takes us deep into the history of not only animals but how humans have studied the animal kingdom. Why did you write this book?

  COOKE: It was the sloth that really inspired me because I get asked a lot, how can sloths exist when they're such losers? And people think that because the animal is slow that it's somehow useless and redundant. An actual fact - they are incredibly successful creatures. So the sloth is not the only animal that's been misunderstood in this way. And I thought it was time that we rebranded the animal kingdom according to fact and not sentimentality because we have a habit of viewing the animal kingdom through the prism of our own rather narrow existence and judging animals on our terms. So I thought there were quite a lot of wrongs that needed to be righted.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: And, you know, we are going to talk about quite a few of them because you have a lot of interesting things to say about a lot of these animals. But I want to start with the sloth. I lived and worked in Latin America, where the sloth obviously lives. And they get a bad rap. What should people know that they don't?

  COOKE: Well, people think that being slow is second-rate, and we are obsessed with moving faster than nature intended. But actual fact - sloths are energy-saving icons. And they are incredibly successful because of their slothful nature. The sloth is an inverted quadruped, so it hangs from the trees. To hang like that is an incredibly energy-saving existence because, you know, if you're an upright existence, you need much more muscles to hold yourself upright. And the sloth actually only has 50 percent of the muscle mass of a comparable mammal that lives in upright existence. But the problem is when you turn the sloth the other way up...

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: They look slow. They look like they're not really doing much. And so we're not looking at them in the right way.

  COOKE: Yeah, gravity removes their dignity, basically. So they sort of sprawl like a pancake on the ground. And that's how the first explorers would have seen them because they would have been taken out of the trees. Do you know what I mean? And they're crawling helplessly along the ground.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: But you do note - and I have to say this - that they are drug addicts.

  (LAUGHTER)

  COOKE: Yeah, there's an island off the coast of Panama that is home to a species of sloth that is a dwarf sloth. It's the pygmy sloth. And those sloths live in the mangrove swamps, where they graze off an algae that has alkaloids in it with a similar property to valium. So they don't just look stoned. They are stoned.

  (LAUGHTER)

  COOKE: It's an island of pygmy baked sloths...

  (LAUGHTER)

  COOKE: ...Which you might think is something of an evolutionary cul-de-sac. But there's no natural predators on the island. And by slowing down their metabolism so much, they're saving even more energy.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: All right. Now we're going to get to the nitty-gritty. I want to talk about penguin sex.

  (LAUGHTER)

  COOKE: Be warned. Be warned, listeners. Yeah. Well, I mean, penguins are one of those creatures that have been totally misunderstood. We always think of them as being great parents, monogamous...

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: Right.

  COOKE: ...Fantastically faithful. The movie "March Of The Penguins" has much to blame, actually, because the thing about penguins is these are birds with tiny brains. They live in a very harsh environment. It's brutal living in the Antarctic. And so they are flooded with hormones that make them basically have sex with anything that moves and quite a few things that don't move, like dead penguins, for instance. So, you know, they...

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: Right. I didn't see that in the "March of the Penguins" or in the many other penguin movies I've seen. Why is it? That seems so strange to me.

  COOKE: Yeah, they left out the pathologically unpleasant necrophiliacs from the lineup. So the males are basically having sex with anything that moves. And the females are one of the only animals on the planet that we know of, other than ourselves, that engages in prostitution. So the females will make use of these randy males by coercing sad singletons into having sex with them in exchange for pebbles.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: Wow.

  COOKE: Yeah.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's amazing.

  COOKE: Yeah.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: And I was also happy to read that hyena colonies are run by women.

  COOKE: So this is an interesting thing. The other day I was reading - I think it was the New York Times, even - described Harvey Weinstein as a hyena. And I thought to myself, that is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read because hyenas - they come from a matriarchal society. Most people think they're all scavengers. They're not. They are highly successful predators, really, really intelligent.

  So the amazing thing about hyenas is that they - in the ancient bestiaries, they thought that they were hermaphrodites. And that's fair enough that they made that mistake because the female hyena's genitalia is a perfect facsimile of the males. She has what's described in polite zoological circles as a pseudo-penis. And she also has a fake scrotum. So I think it's really interesting to trace back where a lot of these myths came from and to find that some of the mistakes and the preconceptions we have - they date all the way back to Greek, Roman and Medieval times.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: I just have to bring this up because no conversation is complete without pandas. You know, you write that humans are preprogrammed to want to nurture anything with baby-like features, hence our obsession with pandas. What do we get wrong about them?

  COOKE: Well, the thing about pandas is that they look like wobbly, little toddlers. They've got these sorts of baby-like features. So they trigger the reward centers in our brain to wanting to nurture them. And because of that, we don't think of them as bad. We think of them as helpless evolutionary mishaps that can't survive without our help. And so a lot of the conservation has been centered around captive breeding efforts in China and sort of micromanaging the bear's lives. And the insinuation is that they can't survive in the wild without us. And this is complete rubbish. What we need to do is the reverse. We need to leave them alone but just leave them with enough bamboo forest because pandas - we think of them as being - very famously, they're rubbish at sex. You know, papers love to scream headlines - oh, zoo panda failed to do it again.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah, they don't want to breed in captivity. But you make the point - and I think it's a really valid point - who wants to have sex in a concrete enclosure surrounded by glass (laughter)?

  COOKE: Exactly. The panda needs the equivalent of a nice glass of wine and a bit of Barry White in order to get in the mood.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter).

  COOKE: And they - pandas are just as choosy as humans are. And so it's very difficult breeding in captivity because you have to understand what these complex behavioral environmental cues are in order to get the animals to do it.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: I guess in one way, what you're saying is that we're loving them to death. But isn't the other argument that if we anthropomorphize animals, it's a way of sort of valuing them, and it is a way of increasing our consciousness about conservation and about other issues? Getting children involved in going to zoos and really understanding these animals. Isn't there an argument to be made for that?

  COOKE: Yeah, but I think we're choosy about what we like and we don't like. You know, so vultures for instance - vulture populations have crashed in India of late by 99 percent. And that has cost the government billions, billions in an increase in disease and rabies and stray dogs. But vulture conservationists - they can't get anybody to donate money to them because nobody likes them because they look like the Grim Reaper, and they eat dead things for a living. You know, but we need them, just as much as we need the pandas. So, you know, I'm trying to sort of stop people from projecting ourselves and our values onto animals and to see them for what they are and what they do and not choose favorites.

  GARCIA-NAVARRO: Lucy Cooke's new book is "The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, And Other Tales From The Wild Side Of Wildlife." Thank you so much.

  COOKE: My pleasure. Thank you.

  (SOUNDBITE OF MICHAEL GIACCHINO'S "SUITE FROM ZOOTOPIA")

• London Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/apr/22/lucy-cooke-i-loved-to-drink-smoke-and-have-a-good-time-getting-cancer-at-45-marked-an-end-to-that

  QUOTED: "My job is so varied. I am a presenter, filmmaker and a writer. I tell stories about animals. Animals are in my blood—my father was a keen amateur naturalist and so was his father."

  Juliana Piskorz
  April 22, 2018

  Lucy Cooke: ‘I loved to drink, smoke and have a good time. Getting cancer at 45 marked an end to that’
  The zoologist talks about how breast cancer was a positive experience for her, and how she’s now a lot healthier thanks to the joys of gardening
  Interview by Juliana Piskorz
  Sun 22 Apr 2018 01.00 EDT Last modified on Sun 22 Apr 2018 08.30 EDT

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  Lucy Cooke
  Lucy Cooke: ‘Being around animals a lot of the time definitely releases oxytocin and relaxes you.’ Photograph: ITV/Rex/Shutterstock
  My job is so varied. I am a presenter, filmmaker and a writer. I tell stories about animals. Animals are in my blood – my father was a keen amateur naturalist and so was his father.

  If I feel stressed and go for a walk in the woods or by the sea and immerse myself in nature it has the ability to really calm me down.

  I found out I had cancer while shooting a nature series around England. I was essentially an animal midwife, watching animals give birth on camera – it was life happening before my eyes. It was a really positive thing to be working on alongside something that was a stark reminder of my own mortality.

  My doctor told me that for some women having breast cancer could be a positive experience in some ways. I remember looking at him and thinking: ‘How on earth could that be true?’ But I came to understand that he was right: it forces a shift in your behaviour. In my 20s and 30s, I loved to party. I loved to drink, smoke and have a good time. Getting cancer at 45 marked an end to that. Three years later I run every day, I meditate and I do yoga. I’m a lot healthier than I was in my later 30s.

  I spent most of my time worrying. When I became ill, it became clear you don’t have to. I could see these two paths and I was determined to be as positive as I could and, to be honest, it wasn’t as hard as that sounds.

  Being around animals a lot of the time definitely releases oxytocin and relaxes you. Gardening has also helped me. It’s the connection with nature that I find meditative – tending and looking after my vegetables. I’ve just bought a cottage in Hastings. There are allotments nearby with a sea view and that for me is the ultimate of happiness.

  The National Garden Scheme and Macmillan Cancer Support are encouraging people living with cancer to get active through gardening (macmillan.org.uk)

• Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2018/04/19/these-5-memes-get-animals-all-wrong/?utm_term=.8ba89f1aa3eb

  QUOTED: "In medieval natural history books, ostriches would be depicted quite often with a key coming out of their mouth. ... Over the centuries, ostriches were forced in the name of science and curiosity to drink a whole glass of iron filings and eat everything from nails to scissors."
  "He thought hippos, when they became overweight, would go down to the riverbanks and find a sharp stone to lean on to pierce their skin."

  These 5 memes get animals all wrong
  By Sadie Dingfelder
  April 19
  Email the author

  In her new book, “The Truth About Animals,” Lucy Cooke debunks animal myths from the past and present.
  Zoologist and documentarian Lucy Cooke is a self-appointed publicist for misunderstood and maligned animals. In her 2012 National Geographic television series “Freaks and Creeps,” she tried to rehabilitate the reputations of ugly and reviled creatures — animals like vultures, which, in addition to their love of dead things, defecate on their own legs to cool off. In her new book, “The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales From the Wild Side of Wildlife,” which she’ll discuss Saturday at Politics and Prose, Cooke debunks myths — current and ancient — about cute and charismatic critters. “The truth about animals is even more extraordinary than even the craziest things that we have dreamt up about them,” she says.

  Drawing from her book, we asked Cooke to explain what’s wrong with certain animal memes — three from our modern-day internet, and two slightly older examples.

  (Christian Mehlführer/Express Illustration)
  The ‘lazy‘ sloth
  Yes, they move slowly, but sloths are not lazy losers, Cooke says. “Their slow digestive system actually allows them to digest leaves that would be poisonous if broken down more quickly,” she says. This, along with its chill nature, has allowed the sloth to become one of the most successful jungle mammals, Cooke says. They don’t need many calories to survive, and their ability to stay still for long periods of time helps them hide and avoid predators. “They also have a habit of snoozing in the nooks of tree branches, so they look like termite mounds.” Adding to the camouflage: Their fur is covered in fungi and algae, giving it a greenish hue.

  (Mia Bruksman/Express Illustration)
  The ‘drunken’ moose
  Every fall, newspapers run stories of drunken moose rampages, where a moose eats fermented apples and then gets stuck in a tree or terrorizes townspeople. The stories are funny, but not accurate, Cooke says. “The moose is a big mammal and they could not consume enough apples to have enough alcohol in their system to get drunk,” she says. We may be reacting to their droopy-looking muzzles and weird joints, which rotate outward and make them look unsteady, Cooke says. If a moose does act funny after eating fermented apples, it may be suffering from acidosis, a severe stomachache brought on by too much sugar-rich food.

  (Courtesy Knoxville Zoo/Express Illustration)
  The ‘happy’ chimp
  If a chimpanzee smiles at you, watch out! “The chimpanzee grin actually is a nervous response. It’s not a sign of happiness — it’s actually a sign of anxiety,” Cooke says. Since anxiety can turn to aggression, you’ll want to avoid showing your teeth to chimps as well, she adds. This is just one example of the elaborate system of gestures that chimps have developed to communicate complex ideas to one another without uttering a word. While the smile doesn’t mean what you think, a handshake does: “A handshake between chimps is a seal of approval, just as it would be for businessmen closing a deal,” Cooke says.

  (Illustration from the 13th century Italian encyclopedia by Brunetta Latini)
  The ‘indestructible’ ostrich
  From the Middle Ages to as recently as the 18th century, people believed ostriches could digest absolutely anything, Cooke says. “In medieval natural history books, ostriches would be depicted quite often with a key coming out of their mouth,” she says. “Over the centuries, ostriches were forced in the name of science and curiosity to drink a whole glass of iron filings and eat everything from nails to scissors.” Turns out the large birds cannot digest these sundry objects. The misunderstanding, Cooke says, stems from the fact that ostriches do appear to swallow rocks on occasion. The stones land in the toothless animals’ gizzards and help break down fibrous plants.

  (Illustration from 1650 re-edition of Italian surgeon Tarduccio Salvi da Macerata’s bloodletting manual)
  The ‘bloody’ hippo
  Hippos secrete a clear fluid that turns pink or red in the sun, and many observers have mistaken it for blood. Ancient Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder, for example, believed that hippos invented bloodletting, a common medical practice in his day for all kinds of ailments. “He thought hippos, when they became overweight, would go down to the riverbanks and find a sharp stone to lean on to pierce their skin,” Cooke says. In reality, hippos’ secretions act as a sunscreen, have antibiotic properties and may even repel insects, she says. “It sounds crazy, but the fact is that hippos are their own pharmacists, just not in the way the ancient Romans thought.”

  Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW; Sat., 1 p.m., free.

• Indiewire - https://www.indiewire.com/2012/10/how-lucy-cooke-became-the-steven-spielberg-of-cute-sloth-filmmaking-and-helped-save-ugly-animals-43815/

  QUOTED: "It just went on fire. ... It was featured in newspapers in Poland and Entertainment Weekly in the United States. It was quite extraordinary. Most filmmakers are control freaks, and going viral is an unsettling experience in some ways."
  "It’s been an enormous pleasure to me that sloths and frogs are getting attention."

  How Lucy Cooke Became The ‘Steven Spielberg of [Cute] Sloth Filmmaking’ and Helped Save Ugly Animals
  How Lucy Cooke Became The 'Steven Spielberg of [Cute] Sloth Filmmaking' and Helped Save Ugly Animals

  Bryce J. Renninger
  Oct 30, 2012 12:31 pm
  @feelingsoblahg

  Recently, when talking about a video she produced for VICE Magazine, the Atlantic called Lucy Cooke the Steven Spielberg of sloth filmmaking.” This was not necessarily the title London-based Cooke, a zoologist and filmmaker with a knack for comedy, was aspiring for.

  Cooke started her filmmaking career as a gun-for-hire making big nonfiction television series for the BBC and Channel 4. When she set out to make films about animals, it was with the intent of helping ugly animals survive and thrive. Elephants, giraffes, giant pandas — what the animal marketing experts might call “charismatic megafauna” — have no problem getting people on their side. They’re cute and cuddly, after all.

  While Cooke was busy working on a blog where she traveled to South America to document the amphibian extinction crisis, she made a stop over at the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica, where she put together a 90-second video and posted it on Vimeo. “It just went on fire,” Cooke told Indiewire. “It was featured in newspapers in Poland and Entertainment Weekly in the United States. It was quite extraordinary. Most filmmakers are control freaks, and going viral is an unsettling experience in some ways.”

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  Luckily for her, Cooke signed an exclusive deal with the Sanctuary. Eventually Discovery called up Cooke and started talking to her about producing a one-hour documentary called “Too Cute! Baby Sloths” in the US on Animal Planet and “Meet the Sloths” in the UK. “My BAFTA Award-winning editor got a kick out of cutting a film that was eventually called “Too Cute! Baby Sloths.”

  Cooke felt that Animal Planet turned the film around too quickly in the US and that it didn’t get the attention it deserved, so she cut together a 90 second video of the sloths, and that video again went viral.

  “After that video went up,” Cooke explained, “I ended up on Fox News in the states, and when the film was released in the UK, the publicist did a comprehensive publicity campaign. I was on the BBC’s widely watched morning show. My clip on the show was the BBC website’s most viewed video of the day. It just proves that these sloth videos are like ‘cute crack.'”

  Since “Meet the Sloths,” Cooke was given a book deal for a sloth children’s book, she’s got a show, “Freaks and Creeps,” on National Geographic focusing exclusively on ugly animals, and she manages a sloth-themed Tumblr site at Slothville.com.

  The success of “Meet the Sloths” continues. It just won an award at the Wildscreen Festival in Bristol. The sloth films have not only allowed Cooke to make more content around animals she cares about, they’ve also made real change in the lives of the animals she covers.

  Cooke explained, “It’s been an enormous pleasure to me that sloths and frogs are getting attention (Everytime I got early press for the sloths, I’d mention my frog blog.) The sanctuary has been able to raise about $40,000 off the back of the US documentary airing. They will never want for another volunteer. They had to close down their application process.”

  For now, Cooke is getting calls from various wildlife organizations and she’s working with many of them. “Three years ago, I couldn’t get anyone to commission my films. Now, thanks to the sloth videos, broadcasters will talk to me.”

QUOTED: "charming forays into the world of natural history and the ways of animal behavior."
"a pleasure for the budding naturalist in the family—or fans of Gerald Durrell and other animals."

Print Marked Items
Cooke, Lucy: THE TRUTH ABOUT ANIMALS
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text: 
Cooke, Lucy THE TRUTH ABOUT ANIMALS Basic (Adult Nonfiction) $28.00 4, 17 ISBN: 978-0-465-09464-6
Charming forays into the world of natural history and the ways of animal behavior.
"Much of zoology is little more than educated guesswork," writes Cooke (A Little Bit of Sloth, 2013), a London-based filmmaker and former
student of biologist Richard Dawkins. Thus, even in the recent past, well-meaning people could aver that eels spontaneously generate out of mud
and hyenas change sexes at will, and we imagine today that animals lack consciousness or emotion. All of this, writes the author, traces back to
our "habit of viewing the animal kingdom through our own, rather narrow, existence." Is the sloth lazy? Through that narrow lens, yes, but the
sloth moves at a speed that evolution has suggested is most appropriate to it. Does the beaver gnaw off its testicles and hurl them at would-be
attackers, stunning them so that it can escape? We laugh at the thought; however, as Cooke's lighthearted but scientifically rigorous exploration
reveals, there is a biological basis for the myth, and it is instructive as to the nature of the "cognitive toolbox" the beaver employs. The cognitive
and biological toolboxes of the animal kingdom are overstuffed and full of surprises--e.g., one reason we find vultures to be unpleasant is that
they practice urohidrosis, "a scientific euphemism for crapping on your legs to keep cool." That's the kind of behavior that can get a bird a dodgy
reputation, but the resulting ammoniac tang bespeaks a solution to a problem that definitely needed one. Along the way, Cooke touches on
theories about bird migration (Aristotle conjectured that some species might transmute into others and thus disappear seasonally), the habit of
some animals of dipping into fermented fruit for a little recreation, and our misguided efforts at species-driven animal conservation rather than
the preservation of whole habitats.
A pleasure for the budding naturalist in the family--or fans of Gerald Durrell and other animals.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Cooke, Lucy: THE TRUTH ABOUT ANIMALS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528959695/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5d9f49a8. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A528959695

QUOTED: "Readers keen on animals and natural history in general should find Cooke's discussion fascinating and educational."

The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn
Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife
Publishers Weekly.
265.8 (Feb. 19, 2018): p68.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text: 
The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife
Lucy Cooke. Basic, $28 (352p) ISBN 978-0465-09464-6
Zoologist and documentarian Cooke (A Little Book of Sloth) reveals hidden truths and little-known facts about a "menagerie of the
misunderstood" in this peculiar and intriguing volume. She sheds significant light on beavers, for instance, whose unique physical attributes help
them to thrive. Their "ever-growing, self-sharpening teeth, eyelids that act as swimming goggles, [and] ears and nostrils that shut automatically
underwater" allow them to gnaw wood below the surface without drowning. Cooke, founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society, pays particular
attention to sloths, "one of natural selection's quirkiest creations, and fabulously successful to boot." Often and historically maligned for their lack
of speed, sloths have nonetheless survived "in one shape or another for around sixty-four million years" and have outlived both the sabertoothed
tiger and the woolly mammoth. Other sections deal with hyenas, frogs, storks, and hippopotamuses. Especially enlightening chapters on pandas
(who eat exclusively bamboo) and penguins (whose "stiff feet, so ill at ease on land, act as a rudder underwater") round out the narrative. Readers
keen on animals and natural history in general should find Cooke's discussion fascinating and educational. (Apr.)
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife." Publishers Weekly, 19 Feb. 2018,
p. 68. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A529357564/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e554d043. Accessed 15 July
2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A529357564

QUOTED: "Lucy Cooke, in The Unexpected Truth About Animals, examines the way in which humans have looked to animals for moral lessons, often framing them as creatures to despise, thereby failing to perceive countless things worthy of wonder and admiration. And though she is very sound on the ancient notion that a beaver will escape capture by biting off its own testicles and offering them to his pursuers, she is still better on sloths."
"Cooke reveals the conceptual beauty of the sloth and the way that it is exquisitely engineered for a low-energy lifestyle. She shows that a sloth is a survival machine every bit as elegant as a cheetah or, for that matter, a human. Not inferior: different."

Into the wild: Why we refuse our place in the animal
kingdom
Simon Barnes
New Statesman.
147.5400 (Jan. 5, 2018): p36+.
COPYRIGHT 2018 New Statesman, Ltd.
http://www.newstatesman.com/
Full Text: 
Animals Strike
Curious Poses
Elena Passarello
Jonathan Cape, 256pp. 12.99 [pounds sterling]
The Inner Life of Animals: Surprising
Observations of a Hidden World
Peter Wohlleben
Bodley Head, z88pp, 16.99 [pounds sterling]
The Unexpected Truth About Animals: a Menagerie of the Misunderstood
Lucy Cooke
Doubleday, 400 pp, 16.99 [pounds sterling]
Ludwig Wittgenstein once observed, "If a lion could speak, we could not understand him." But Ludo, mind if I ask how much time you've
actually spent with lions? Thought not. Because that's rubbish, at least in the sense that humans and lions couldn't possibly have common ground
for a conversation. Wittgenstein can beat me in any logico-philosophical contest of his or anyone else's choosing, but he hasn't spent as much time
as I have hanging out in the bush with lions.
It was a few weeks ago in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia. Six lionesses had just slain an antelope and were avidly devouring it. From where I
was, a quarter of a mile off, all I could see of this meal was a companionable rosette of tawny fur. Near me, a lone nomad male lion was also
watching. He had picked up an injury and had been unable to hunt for a few days. He was very hungry; you could count the ribs. He had no pride
of his own; he wasn't yet big enough, or strong enough, or confident enough to attempt a takeover. He had to kill for himself and he couldn't.
He was watching a vision of everything he wanted in the world: food, the blessed intimacies of pride life and the company of those six sexy
lionesses. He wanted more than anything to join them. But something very powerful stopped him from doing so. They wouldn't have welcomed
him. They would have chased him off; it would have ended in violence; it was no good. But he couldn't stop himself watching. He made a series
of retreats, each time stopping and staring back longingly.
Eventually, like Andrew Lincoln fighting the pangs of his unrequited love for Keira Knightley in Love Actually, he pulled himself together and
forced himself to leave the world of longing and get back to reality. He walked into the river and swam decisively across: enough! Had he
stopped to talk about that experience, I would have understood. So would we all. Loneliness, longing, hunger, despair, desire: are these things so
remote from our own experience?
But this is dangerous ground. Most of our science, philosophy and religion starts from the assumption that there are humans and there are
animals--and there could never at any point be any common ground between them. To call someone an animal is as bad an insult as you can offer,
and yet we're all mammals. For centuries, the notion of human uniqueness was the most fundamental orthodoxy. Now it is being challenged.
Book after book ventures into the no-man's-land--the no-animal's-land that lies between our species and the other ten million or so in the animal
kingdom. As often as not, they reveal more of ourselves than of our fellow animals.
With every page we turn, we can feel the resistance to any suggestion that nonhuman animals are even remotely like ourselves. Of course animals
can't think, can't feel, can't talk. We resist this not because such things are impossible but because they are unthinkable. Our lives would be
horribly compromised if we accepted that we humans were just one more species of animal.
Lucy Cooke, in The Unexpected Truth About Animals, examines the way in which humans have looked to animals for moral lessons, often
framing them as creatures to despise, thereby failing to perceive countless things worthy of wonder and admiration. And though she is very sound
on the ancient notion that a beaver will escape capture by biting off its own testicles and offering them to his pursuers, she is still better on sloths.
This is an animal named for one of the seven deadly sins--it's hard to write off a creature more completely. "I have never seen such an ugly animal
or one that is more useless," wrote Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes in his 50-volume encyclopaedia, published in 1526. Cooke reveals the
conceptual beauty of the sloth and the way that it is exquisitely engineered for a low-energy lifestyle. She shows that a sloth is a survival machine
every bit as elegant as a cheetah or, for that matter, a human.
Not inferior: different. But that's a concept that humans have struggled with across the centuries, probably since before language began. "One
scientific survey from the 1970s found that sloths 'are the most numerically abundant large mammal', accounting for almost a quarter of the
mammalian biomass," writes Cooke, "which is a sophisticated biological way of saying you can take your patronising looks and direct them at
some other animal."
For years, it was accepted that the issue was binary. You could be objective, or you could be sentimental. Scientific orthodoxy stated that animals
had no emotions or personalities: even to consider such a matter was a sin. This was not something to be investigated or put to the test. It was an
error that could be corrected with a single word: anthropomorphism.
Mary Midgley, the ethical philosopher, wrote about mahouts, elephant riders, and how, if they failed to take into account "the basic everyday
feelings--about whether their elephant is pleased, annoyed, frightened, excited, tired, sore, suspicious or angry --they would not only be out of
business, they would often simply be dead". Anthropomorphise or die. Anyone who works with horses knows that.
Peter Wohlleben had a hit with his book The Hidden Life of Trees. In this, he described the fungal connections between tree and tree, which he
interpreted as highways of communication and wittily called "the wood-wide web". He made trees the sort of living thing that we humans can
empathise with, rather than pieces of rural furniture.
His new book, The Inner Life of Animals, is less assured. He mixes science with his love of a nice story, knowing that nothing upsets scientists as
much as anecdotal evidence. So when he writes about Barry, a rescue dog --a cocker spaniel--that had been through many homes before joining
Wohlleben's family, and asks if Barry felt gratitude, we're back in that dangerous border country:
For the rest of his life he worried that
there might be yet another handover, but
other than that Barry was always happy
and friendly. He was grateful. It was as
simple as that--or was it?
Wohlleben also tells a story about two deer running from the dog he used in his forestry work. The fawn left its mother's side and turned around
to run straight at the dog, forcing it to run away. Had that fawn been human, we would have called it courage. We humans know what we're
supposed to do in dangerous circumstances, but we have no idea if we're actually going to do it. Some do, some don't. Those who do the right
thing we call brave: so if the human is brave, is the fawn also brave?
These are not areas that have often been explored. That's true in literature, as well as in science and philosophy. But in an odd, altogether
unexpected book, Animals Strike Curious Poses, Elena Passarello writes of human-animal relationships with all the weight of mighty literature
that she can bring to bear. That she attempts so bold a feat shows that this border country can be explored in unapologetically literary terms and it
is worthy of deep seriousness of purpose.
In this series of essays, she includes a kind of love letter to Charles Darwin, ostensibly from a tortoise he collected on the Galapagos Islands, and
thickens the mixture by writing it in the second person. "He will shortly thereafter name you 'Harry', but don't doubt that some part of him knows
that you're all woman."
She also writes with some elan about Mozart's starling, a bird for whom he held a solemn funeral, one of those curious Mozartian episodes in
which he seemed unable to decide where the joke began and ended. And that prompts me to ask: when a nightingale sings--with a vocabulary of
600 sound units put together into 250 phrases--is he merely responding to his annual urge to make more nightingales? Or is he (it's always the
cock that sings) lost in the music? It's always the hen that makes the decision on the quality of the singer--so is she responding to mere biology?
Or is she making some kind of aesthetic judgement? Your call, dear reader: but perhaps the question points us at an understanding of life that does
not take human uniqueness as a compulsory starting point.
Does the real answer lie in objective science? No doubt it should. But traditional scientists don't start with the hypothesis that a non-human
animal has nothing in common with us humans: instead, they start from the stone-cold certainty that it couldn't possibly have anything of the
kind.
Carl Safina, a professor of nature and humanity at Stony Brook University, New York, wrote:
Suggesting that other animals can feel
anything wasn't just a conversation
stopper; it was a career killer. In 1992,
readers of the exclusive journal Science
were warned by one academic writer
that studying animal perceptions 'isn't
a project I'd recommend to anyone
without tenure'.
It is odd that scientists, who claim to work only from data, and philosophers, who, like Wittgenstein, might speculate without anything as sordid
as data but still love a good bit of logic, operate on the certainty that, while all placental mammals are put together in the same way
physiologically, one of them is somehow completely different from all the other 4,000-odd--so different that we don't even need evidence to
prove it. Are we talking about the soul here? I ask only for information.
Throughout the years, people have sought to isolate and identify humanity's USP, and every time they have done so, they discover that some
animal--some nonhuman animal--has it, too. All the barriers we have erected between ourselves and other animals turn out to be frail and porous:
emotion, thought, problem-solving, tool use, culture, an understanding of death, an awareness of the self, consciousness, language, syntax, sport,
mercy, magnanimity, individuality, names, personality, reason, planning, insight, foresight, imagination, moral choice ... even art, religion and
jokes.
It's all in Darwin, but we have spent getting on for two centuries ignoring or distorting the stuff he taught us. In The Descent of Man, he wrote:
"The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind." If you accept evolution by
means of natural selection, that must be true.
Why, then, are humans so resistant to the idea? We can find the answer in human history. For many years it was important to uphold the notion of
the moral and mental inferiority of non-white people, because without such a certainty colonialism and slavery would be immoral. And that
would never do: they were so convenient.
To change our views on the uniqueness of human beings would require recalibrating 5,000 years or so of human thought, which would in turn
require revolutionary changes in the way we live our lives and manage the planet we all live on.
And that would be highly inconvenient.
Simon Barnes's most recent book is "The Meaning of Birds" (Head of Zeus) John Burnside on nature, page 55
Caption: Animal instincts: science has long maintained an arbitrary separation between man and beast
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Barnes, Simon. "Into the wild: Why we refuse our place in the animal kingdom." New Statesman, 5 Jan. 2018, p. 36+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A524738992/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5925c480. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A524738992
A Little Book of Sloth
Publishers Weekly.
261 (Spring 2014): p57+.
COPYRIGHT 2014 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text: 
A Little Book of Sloth
Lucy Cooke. S&S/McElderry, $16.99 ISBN 978-1-4424-4557-4
Cooke, whose YouTube videos and 2011 Animal Planet documentary, Too Cute! Baby Sloths, set off a minor sloth-loving craze, offers an
encyclopedic look at these permanently smiling, adorably snub-nosed "masters of mellow" by way of a photo-tour of their now famous sanctuary
in Costa Rica. There are sloths in pajamas (which are actually necessary because they can't control their body temperature), sloths in a "cuddle
puddle," sloths hugging stuffed animals, sloths gazing into the camera with small but trusting eyes (even when they're upside down)--all proof
that life in the fast lane is vastly overrated (it probably helps that these sloths aren't covered in algae and insects, as they are in the wild). An
Oxford-trained zoologist, photographer, and documentaran, Cooke writes with a firm sense of authority and a loving irreverence ("Since their top
speed is fifteen feet a minute, running from danger is simply not an option"; "Baby sloths are Jedi masters of the hug") that lifts these pages far
above most real-life animal books and should make the inevitable umpteenth readaloud easy to bear. Ages 5-up.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"A Little Book of Sloth." Publishers Weekly, Spring 2014, p. 57+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A375948802/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=897e43bd. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A375948802

QUOTED: "a fine read."

The Bilingual Shelf
Children's Bookwatch.
(May 2013):
COPYRIGHT 2013 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/cbw/index.htm
Full Text: 
The Adventures of Lisbeth
Liesel F. Daisley, author
Illustrated by Omni Illustrations
AuthorHouse
1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200
Bloomington, IN 47403-5161
c/o KSB Promotions (publicity)
55 Honey Creek Ave NE
Ada, MI 49301-9768
www.ksblinks.com
9781463441470 $13.54 www.authorhouse.com
Winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, The Adventures of Lisbeth is a bilingual English/Spanish softcover picturebook about a young
South American girl who moved with her family to the English-speaking Caribbean. The story takes place during a family vacation to a sunny
beach full of fascinating things, such as a scuttling baby snow crab; Lisbeth also has the opportunity to play with her friend Mark from school and
his enthusiastic puppy. They happen across stones shaped like letters, and after a fun-filled day, the letters spell out "Thank you" - just the right
message to present their parents for a truly great day! Lovely and playful, yet with an important message about expressing gratitude for joyful
occasions, The Adventures of Lisbeth is a delightful read-aloud story, and the first book in a prospective series.
Canta, Rana, Canta/ Sing, Froggie, Sing
Carolyn Dee Flores, illustrator
Pinata Books/ Arte Publico Press
University of Houston
4902 Gulf Fwy., Bldg. 19, Rm. 100
Houston, TX 77204
9781558857643 $16.95 www.artepublicopress.com
"Canta, Rana, Canta" is a charming, color illustrated bilingual version of a famous folk song about a little singing frog who is hushed by a
delicious looking fly, who was hushed by a spider, who was hushed by a mouse, who is hushed by a cat, who is hushed by a dog, who is hushed
by a baby, who is hushed by his mother, who is hushed by the Daddy, who is hushed by the Grandma. Guess who hushes the Grandma? The little
singing frog, of course. And again, and again, and so on ... Every full page color illustration tells the amusing tale and shows the Spanish lyrics
first and the English translation second. "Canta, Rana, Canta" includes the music notation for the song at the end of the book, along with the full
Spanish song lyrics. "Canta, Rana, Canta" is ideal for a bilingual cultural arts curriculum for children ages 3-7.
The Patchwork Garden
Diane De Anda, author
Oksana Kemarskaya, illustrator
Arte Publico Press
University of Houston
4902 Gulf Fwy, Bldg 19, Rm 100
Houston, TX 77204-2004
9781558857636, $16.95, www.artepublicopress.com
Many gardens can come together for something beautiful. "The Patchwork Garden" is a bilingual children's picturebook from Diane DeAnda and
illustrator Oksana Kemarskaya, as they tell a story of Tona and her desire to build a fancy and charming garden in her school, but learns to work
with the other students to make a diverse and interesting garden for everyone. "The Patchwork Garden" is a must for children's picturebook
collections with a focus on English/Spanish selections, highly recommended.
My First Book of Chinese Words
Faye-Lynn Wu
Tuttle Publishing
364 Innovation Drive
North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436
9780804843676 $12.95 www.tuttlepublishing.com
My First Book of Chinese Words: An ABC Rhyming Book provides a basic primer for preschool children who want to learn Chinese, using the
familiar ABC structure to present everyday words that hold special meaning to Chinese culture. Each word is presented in Chinese characters and
in Romanized form, with easy cultural and language notes accompanying the story of a Chinese family who helps youngsters learn. An
accompanying website page helps kids actually listen to the Chinese words in the book. Lucy Cooke's A LITTLE BOOK OF SLOTH
(9781442445574, $16.99) tells of baby sloths and provides an excellent primer packed with full-page color photos. Basic reading skills will help
grades 3-4 appreciate this survey of baby sloths in Costa Rica and the evolution of a sloth sanctuary to protect them. It's so appealing that many
an adult will find it a fine read - especially since few books focus on sloth natural history alone.
Parents Help in Lots of Ways!
Steve Lonning, author
Diana Ladmirault, photographer
Jose Martinez, translator
Brain Child Press, Inc.
13324 Beckenham Dr. Ste 100
Little Rock, Arkansas 72212-3710
9780977101092 $6.99 www.brainchildpress.com
Featuring full-color photographs of families (who belong to a diversity of races), Parents Help in Lots of Ways! / Los Padres Ayudan de Muchas
Maneras! is a bilingual English/Spanish children's picturebook with a strong theme about how parents help their children learn and do better in
school. Simple sentences such as "The library has computers we can use. / La biblioteca tiene computadoras que podemos usar." are paired with
multiple images of parents and children having fun reading, studying, or just being together in everyday life. Parents Help in Lots of Ways! is
highly recommended for parents to share with their children. Its brevity and positive messages are also ideally suited to places such as dentist or
medical clinic waiting rooms - anywhere that parents and children need something to browse together while they pass a little time!
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Bilingual Shelf." Children's Bookwatch, May 2013. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A331005673/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d1640d1e. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A331005673

QUOTED: "While Cooke's intentions are commendable, the main message she unintentionally conveys is that too much cuteness can be cloying—and counterproductive."

Cooke, Lucy: A LITTLE BOOK OF SLOTH
Kirkus Reviews.
(Jan. 15, 2013):
COPYRIGHT 2013 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text: 
Cooke, Lucy A LITTLE BOOK OF SLOTH McElderry (Children's Picture Books) $16.99 3, 5 ISBN: 978-1-4424-4557-4
Children might enjoy the myriad pictures of cute critters in this photo essay set at the Aviarios del Caribe sloth sanctuary, but it's not likely they'll
sit still long enough to listen to the text. Zoologist and videographer Cooke has already successfully expressed her support for sloths in several
media. An online video she created was well-received and has spawned a film documentary, which will be expanded into an eight-part series next
year. Unfortunately, what works well online--or even on the (big or small) screen--isn't as successful on the page. The photos are crisp and clear,
but they feature too many repetitive images. After the first few pages, it's hard to tell one cute sloth clutching a tree, cuddling or snoozing, from
another, despite the fact that Cooke informs readers that sloths belong to two different families (the Bradypus family and the Choloepus),
distinguished by the number of claws they have and differences in color and size. The episodic text, overly precious descriptions and selfconsciously
humorous, adultcentric tone do nothing to strengthen the child appeal. Occasional Briticisms ("pop down to the shops") and popculture
references ("Baby sloths are Jedi masters of the hug"--irritatingly, Wookiee is misspelled) run the risk of further distancing young
(American) listeners. While Cooke's intentions are commendable, the main message she unintentionally conveys is that too much cuteness can be
cloying--and counterproductive. (Informational picture book. 6-8)
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Cooke, Lucy: A LITTLE BOOK OF SLOTH." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2013. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A314620832/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=dda0b7c2. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A314620832
A Little Book of Sloth
Publishers Weekly.
260.1 (Jan. 7, 2013): p63.
COPYRIGHT 2013 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text: 
* A Little Book of Sloth
Lucy Cooke. S&S/McElderry, $16.99 (64p) ISBN 978-1-4424-4557-4
Cooke, whose YouTube videos and 2011 Animal Planet documentary, Too Cute! Baby Sloths, set off a minor sloth-loving craze, offers an
encyclopedic look at these permanently smiling, adorably snubnosed "masters of mellow" by way of a photo-tour of their now famous sanctuary
in Costa Rica. There are sloths in pajamas (which are actually necessary because they can't control their body temperature), sloths in a "cuddle
puddle," sloths hugging stuffed animals, sloths gazing into the camera with small but trusting eyes (even when they're upside down)--all proof
that life in the fast lane is vastly overrated (it probably helps that these sloths aren't covered in algae and insects, as they are in the wild). An
Oxford-trained zoologist, photographer, and documentarian, Cooke writes with a firm sense of authority and a loving irreverence ("Since their top
speed is fifteen feet a minute, running from danger is simply not an option"; "Baby sloths are Jedi masters of the hug") that lifts these pages far
above most real-life animal books and should make the inevitable umpteenth readaloud easy to bear. Ages 5-up. (Mar.)
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"A Little Book of Sloth." Publishers Weekly, 7 Jan. 2013, p. 63. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A314563501/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=890ecaae. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A314563501

QUOTED: "Cooke writes with a firm sense of authority and a loving irreverence ... that lifts these pages."

A Little Book of Sloth
Publishers Weekly.
(Annual 2013): p57+.
COPYRIGHT 2013 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text: 
A Little Book of Sloth
Lucy Cooke. S&S/McElderry, $16.99 ISBN 978-1-4424-4557-4
Cooke, Whose YouTube videos and 2011 Animal Planet documentary, Too Cute! Baby Sloths, set off a minor sloth-loving craze, offers an
encyclopedic look at these permanently smiling, adorably snub-nosed "masters of mellow" by way of a photo-tour of their now famous sanctuary
in Costa Rica. There are sloths in pajamas (which are actually necessary because they can't control their body temperature), sloths in a "cuddle
puddle," sloths hugging stuffed animals, sloths gazing into the camera with small but trusting eyes (even when they're upside down)--all proof
that life in the fast lane is vastly overrated (it probably helps that these sloths aren't covered in algae and insects, as they are in the wild). An
Oxford-trained zoologist, photographer, and documentarian, Cooke writes with a firm sense of authority and a loving irreverence ("Since their top
speed is fifteen feet a minute, running from danger is simply not an option"; "Baby sloths are Jedi masters of the hug") that lifts these pages far
above most real-life animal books and should make the inevitable umpteenth readaloud easy to bear. Ages 5-up.
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
"A Little Book of Sloth." Publishers Weekly, Annual 2013, p. 57+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A351612250/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=d4e127bc. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A351612250

QUOTED: "Kids are going to have a new favorite animal when they get their hands on this."

A Little Book of Sloth
Ann Kelley
Booklist.
109.8 (Dec. 15, 2012): p39.
COPYRIGHT 2012 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text: 
A Little Book of Sloth. By Lucy Cooke. Illus. by the author. Mar. 2013.64p. Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry, $16.99
(9781442445574). 599.3. Gr. 2-4.
Kids, you can't possibly imagine the level of cuteness at work in this book. Here's a visual: a baby sloth hugs a teddy bear, and he's smaller than
the bear. There are sloths in pjs, sloths gnawing on green beans, and even a pile o' sloths in a bucket. Of course, in addition to the huggable
pictures and handsome book design, there's a story here, too. Cooke, photographer, zoologist, and founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society,
introduces a rehabilitation sanctuary in "a sleepy corner of Costa Rica," home to approximately 150 slow-moving residents. Judy Arroyo is
"morn" to each of these creatures, from Buttercup, the first tiny orphan that landed on her doorstep, to Sunshine and Sammy, rescued from
poachers. Cooke points out in her lively text that there are two families of sloth: the three-fingered Bradypus and the two-fingered Choloepus ("a
cross between a Wookie and a pig"). Fascinating facts about sloths abound. Move over puppies, kittens, and piglets--kids are going to have a new
favorite animal when they get their hands on this, especially given the unofficial sloth motto: "Just chill."
Kelley, Ann
Source Citation   (MLA 8th
Edition)
Kelley, Ann. "A Little Book of Sloth." Booklist, 15 Dec. 2012, p. 39. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A313011372/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=fb7204a4. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A313011372

"Cooke, Lucy: THE TRUTH ABOUT ANIMALS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A528959695/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018. "The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife." Publishers Weekly, 19 Feb. 2018, p. 68. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A529357564/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018. Barnes, Simon. "Into the wild: Why we refuse our place in the animal kingdom." New Statesman, 5 Jan. 2018, p. 36+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A524738992/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018. "A Little Book of Sloth." Publishers Weekly, Spring 2014, p. 57+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A375948802/ITOF? u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018. "The Bilingual Shelf." Children's Bookwatch, May 2013. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A331005673/ITOF? u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018. "Cooke, Lucy: A LITTLE BOOK OF SLOTH." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Jan. 2013. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A314620832/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018. "A Little Book of Sloth." Publishers Weekly, 7 Jan. 2013, p. 63. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A314563501/ITOF? u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018. "A Little Book of Sloth." Publishers Weekly, Annual 2013, p. 57+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A351612250/ITOF? u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018. Kelley, Ann. "A Little Book of Sloth." Booklist, 15 Dec. 2012, p. 39. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A313011372/ITOF? u=schlager&sid=ITOF. Accessed 15 July 2018.

• Bedlam Farm
  http://www.bedlamfarm.com/2018/04/20/book-review-the-truth-about-animals-by-lucy-cooke-wonderful/
  Word count: 1136

  QUOTED: "Cooke has the advantage not only of being especially knowledgeable. but a gifted and very funny writer. Her essays on beavers and their defensive testicles is a classic. But the wonders never cease in her writing."

  April 20, 2018
  As we rush to transform pets and animals into human-like creatures with our intelligence, emotions and values, we are losing sight of what animals are really like. We shroud them in our myths and needs, we seek to turn them into varying versions of us.

  It's not enough for dogs to be smart, they must be brilliant, wiser than we ever imagined. Animals must now foresee death, spot cancer, check blood sugar, give us 24/7 emotional support, on the ground, in the air, on vacation. We want them to possess unrecognized depths of emotion and consciousness.

  It is not enough that we accept them as the wonderful creatures they are, they must be like us, the most conflicted and tormented and violent species on the earth. Do we hate them this much?

  I love animals because they are so different from us, but more and more people are insisting that animals are just like us.

  Lucky Cooke doesn't think they are just like us, and unlike millions of people running their mouths on social media, she knows something about them

  Cooke is a filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer with a masters degree in zoology from The University of Oxford. She is also the founder and President of the Sloth Appreciation Society, which now has about 10,000. Once they receive my check, there will be 10,001.

  She has written the most wonderful book,

  it's called "The Truth About Animals: A Menagerie Of The Misunderstood." I believe it is not an exaggeration to say that for me, this book may be one the best animal books, if not the best, ever written.

  Cooke has gathered together the biggest misconceptions, mistakes and myths we have created about animals, from Aristotle to Walt Disney to your Uncle Harry, and created her own "menagerie of the misunderstood." Don't look for sappy rescue stories here, you will learn an awful lot about animals, and you will learn a lot about how much you don't know.

  We are losing track of what animals are actually like, seeing them instead as we need to see them. We project all of our fantasies and needs onto them. We cling to our myths about them, even as we drift farther and farther from the truth about them. Cooke is profoundly knowledgeable, her book is as refreshing as it is urgently necessary.

  In our urbanized and over-developed world, very few people actually get to see the animals Lucky Cooke is writing about any longer, we have driven them out of our habitats and out of our lives. Rather than learn about animals, we increasingly exploit them, increasingly their only work and purpose is to make us feel good about ourselves.

  The animals the poachers and developers and greedy corporatists and animal rights myopics don't get will soon fall prey to climate change and the animal rights movement, which is spending millions of donated dollars to take animals away from people and drive them into oblivion.

  Most animal books are either sappy or pandering. How Spot rescued me, and I rescued him. Or How My Border Collie learned to speak French and quote the Encyclopedia Brittanica. (And why he was almost certainly abused.)

  Cooke is a myth popper, she takes an exhaustive knowledge of medieval animal writing to trace or common views of animals from the silly myths about them to why these myths continue to foster great ignorance about what they are actually like.

  It turns out sloths are not lazy, but quite efficient. Penguins are not loyal symbols of family structure, they are quite often unfaithful prostitutes. Hyenas are not cowardly, bats are not vampires in general and vultures are noble and necessary creatures.

  Cooke has the advantage not only of being especially knowledgeable. but a gifted and very funny writer. Her essays on beavers and their defensive testicles is a classic. But the wonders never cease in her writing.

  We humans may be intolerant and resistant to change, but Penguins have been embracing same-sex partnerships forever. And Moose, who have a tendency to get drunk on certain plants and go on hallucinogenic drug trips.

  "When seeking to understand animals," writes Cooke, "context is key. We have a habit of viewing the animal kingdom through the prism of our own experiences, our own rather narrow existence. The sloths arboreal lifestyle is sufficiently extraterrestrial to make it one of the world's most misunderstood creatures, but it is by no means along in this category. Life takes a glorious myriad of alien forms, and even the simplest require complex understanding.."

  She challenges us to open our minds to the true stories of real animals and discover the truth about them. You will never look at Penguins in the same way when you read about their sex lives and penchant for prostitution.

  This is a promise on which Luce Cooke delivers, again and again, from the Eel to the Beaver to the Sloth, Hyena, Vulture, Bat, Frog, Hippo, Moose, Panda, Penguin, Chimpanzee. Each animal has its own myth, each has its own true. And she is funny, there is nothing hectoring or pompous in the book.

  The New York Carriage Horses are, to me the most timely argument for Cooke's message (OK, mine too).

  Many animal lovers would rather see these wonderful horses dead or imprisoned in preserves than do their light work amongst people who love them. The reason for this is that the people arguing that work for these animals is cruel know nothing about them.

  Work for carriage horses is essential to their health and survival, and they love doing it. The truth might just save their lives.

  It is important that we animal lover stop trying to turn out pets and all the animals of the world into us. Look what a mess we have made of the world? Do we really want them to be like us? And get greedy and arrogant and violent and unhappy?

  Truth doesn't matter to a lot of people these days, and we are losing a grip on what it even means, but it is out there if we are willing to go and find it. That is what Cooke has done. I doubt there is a single person reading this review who would not love reading The Truth About Animals.

• Waking Brain Cells
  https://wakingbraincells.com/2013/03/19/review-a-little-book-of-sloth-by-lucy-cooke/
  Word count: 371

  QUOTED: "A great addition to library collections, this book has a great charm about it just like the sloths themselves. Warm and welcoming, this book is all about being more chill."

  REVIEW: A LITTLE BOOK OF SLOTH BY LUCY COOKE
  MARCH 19, 2013 | TASHA
  little book of sloth

  A Little Book of Sloth by Lucy Cooke

  Welcome to the world of the Avarios Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica, the world’s only sloth orphanage. Here you will meet the residents like the queen of the sanctuary, Buttercup, who started the entire thing. Now over 20 years old, she is the oldest sloth living in captivity. She was soon joined at the sanctuary by many others. There are tiny baby twins and others who are so small they have to have clothes made for them out of socks to keep them warm. There are injured sloths who give incredible hugs. The book describes the different kinds of sloths, how they live such chill lives, and the remarkable ways they survive in the wild moving that slowly. This is a book that will enchant you with the fuzzy warmth of sloths.

  Cooke writes in a frank and direct way, describing the sanctuary and its residents with plenty of humor. After all, there is lots of to laugh at in a poo pole all on its own, add in confused little sloths and you have pure stinky magic. She also makes sure that readers understand how special the sanctuary and these animals are. It is a book of appreciation with a tone of wonder at times.

  The illustrations are photographs of the sloths and their lives in the sanctuary. You get to meet all sorts of personalities and ages throughout the book and their stories are told quickly but effectively. The images help a lot, showing the place rather than having lengthy explanations slow things down.

  A great addition to library collections, this book has a great charm about it just like the sloths themselves. Warm and welcoming, this book is all about being more chill. Appropriate for ages 5-9.

  Reviewed from copy received from Margaret K. McElderry Book

• Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
  http://lookingglassreview.com/books/a-little-book-of-sloth/
  Word count: 421

  A little Book of Sloth

  Lucy Cooke
  Nonfiction Picture Book
  For ages 7 and up
  Simon and Schuster, 2013 ISBN: 978-1442445574
  It all began when a baby three-toed sloth was left on Judy Arroyo’s doorstep. Judy called the sloth, Buttercup and for twenty years Buttercup has ruled over “Slothville” from her own hanging wicker chair. Word got out that Judy was willing to take in sick, injured, or orphaned sloths and soon her home was full of sloths of all ages, both three-toed sloths and two-toed ones. Now Judy runs the world first and only sloth sanctuary

  Both sloth species live in the jungles of South and Central America where they spend most of their time hanging upside down. Their long claws help them to stay securely hooked to tree branches, and they are so well adapted to this way of life that they cannot really walk on the ground properly.

  Hanging upside down, these animals spend most of their time sleeping and when they do move about they do so very slowly. In fact, sloths could be said to be the “absolute masters of mellow.” Not much bothers them. They just hang out, chill, and enjoy the ride.

  When baby sloths arrives at Judy’s house they are issued a warm sloth “onesie” because sloths, like reptiles, have a hard time regulating their temperature. They are also given something to hug. Baby sloths stay attached to their mothers from the moment they are born, so having something warm and cozy to hold onto is essential for their wellbeing.

  Though wild sloths are solitary creatures, the sloths in Judy’s sanctuary often form close bonds. Two of the sloths, Sunshine and Sammy, were brought to the sanctuary at around the same time and they “have been having a hugging marathon ever since.” Others form close bonds with their stuffie. Mateo took a while to choose his stuffie, but now he and Mr. Moo are inseparable.

  In this wonderful book Lucy Cooke pairs an amusing and informative text with her wonderful photographs and she takes us into the lives of the sloths that live in the sloth sanctuary in Costa Rica. In addition to telling us about the sloths in the sanctuary, she tells us about sloth behavior and we learn a little about wild sloths. Anyone interested is seeing the sanctuary sloths should visit the Slothville website.

  Review Written by Marya Jansen-Gruber

• London Express Online
  https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/871880/The-Unexpected-Truth-About-Animals-book-review-Lucy-Cooke
  Word count: 905

  QUOTED: "Beautifully written, meticulously researched, with the science often couched in outrageous asides, this is a splendid read."

  The Unexpected Truth About Animals review: A splendid read about misunderstood creatures

  5 / 5 stars
  The Unexpected Truth About Animals
  I have long admired Lucy Cooke for her extraordinary achievement of making the world love the finest of all creatures, the sloth.

  By WILLIAM HARTSTON
  PUBLISHED: 11:46, Fri, Oct 27, 2017 | UPDATED: 12:25, Fri, Oct 27, 2017

  0
  Lucy Cooke PH/ITV
  Lucy Cooke's, pictured right, new book The Unexpected Truth About Animals
  Not only is she a TV producer with an amazing sloth documentary to her credit but her baby sloth YouTube videos from Costa Rica are a revelation to many. She is also the founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society which now has about 10,000 members.

  This new book, however, which is subtitled A Menagerie Of The Misunderstood, shows that her enthusiasm and expertise extends far beyond the world of sloths.

  She treats us to chapters on eels, beavers, hyenas, vultures, bats, frogs, storks, hippos, moose, pandas, penguins and chimpanzees, with all of whom she seems to have had personal experiences that are unfailingly informative and uproariously funny.

  Using her extensive knowledge of medieval bestiaries to good effect, she traces our views of each of these creatures from absurd myths to modern science and it is extraordinary how long many of the myths have survived, giving a lingering, wrong-headed view of the animal.

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  I cannot remember when I last enjoyed a non-fiction work so much
  She cites a recent case of a German couple who attended a family planning clinic and had to be told that in order to conceive babies, it was not enough to have a stork’s nest on the roof. Having sex would also be useful, they were told.

  Other examples of animals we have misunderstood include penguins, which are a long way from being the perfect advert for family values suggested by the film March Of The Penguins.

  In fact, they are among the worst examples of infidelity and even prostitution known in the animal kingdom. Hyenas are not at all cowardly. Bats, mostly, are not vampires and vultures are actually quite noble and useful birds.

  Lucy Cooke’s irrepressible humour, as well as her audaciousness, comes through most strongly when she recounts her own experiences.

  PenguinsGETTY
  Cooke suggests we have all misunderstood penguins
  Investigating whether sniffing beaver testicles really is a good treatment for hysterical women, she writes: “Feeling a tad hysterical myself, I decided to try and get my hands on the beaver’s phoney gonads and take a sniff for myself.

  “I wrote a series of surreal emails to hunters I found by searching online, politely introducing myself and then asking them to post me their beaver gland booty. None of them replied.”

  She persevered, however, and eventually managed to find what she was looking for. It was very smelly “but not at all unpleasant”, she reports.

  On a similar theme, when she gets to bats, she tells us: “I was quite taken aback the first time I saw a bat’s penis,” and there is a picture of Lucy holding a full-frontal bat.

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  A two-headed snake was saved from certain death after being found by a kind hearted animal lover. The unique looking snake was found by retiree Josip Vranic in his garden in Kravarsko, Croatia, a small town just outside Zagreb.
  These are the adorable images of Foxie the chimp who carries a toy troll with her wherever she goes
  To judge from her big grin, however, it looks as though the bat was more perturbed. You must also read the book to form your own opinions of what a hippo might have thought about her smearing its own sweat on her arms, for good scientific reasons, of course.

  Beautifully written, meticulously researched, with the science often couched in outrageous asides, this is a splendid read.

  In fact, I cannot remember when I last enjoyed a non-fiction work so much.

• New York Times Online
  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/25/books/review/the-truth-about-animals-lucy-cooke.html
  Word count: 850

  QUOTED: "Her pace is quick, her touch is light, and through her wealth of research we can reach new heights of wonder."

  What We Get Wrong About Animals
  Image
  Lucy CookeCreditDavid Dunkerley
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  By Zoë Lescaze
  May 25, 2018

  THE TRUTH ABOUT ANIMALS
  Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales From the Wild Side of Wildlife
  By Lucy Cooke
  Illustrated. 336 pp. Basic Books. $28.

  Humans have long trapped animals in cages, nets and snares, but the tangled webs of vanity, curiosity, cruelty and fear we cast over other creatures may be even more perilous. We see our virtues and vices reflected in animals — hardworking beavers, indolent sloths, innocent lambs, greedy vultures — through a glass darkly. But these well-worn clichés blind us to a world far more dazzling and varied, according to Lucy Cooke, the acclaimed zoology-trained author and documentary filmmaker, in her new book, “The Truth About Animals.” As she writes, “Painting the animal kingdom with our artificial ethical brush denies us the astonishing diversity of life, in all of its blood-drinking, sibling-eating, corpse-shagging glory.” (Yes, corpse shagging. The penguin portion is not for the faint of heart.)

  In 13 breezy chapters, each devoted to a misunderstood creature, Cooke collects some of our most crackpot notions (and the equally startling truths) about animals. She nimbly pings between arcane, medieval and modern sources, assembling a cast of characters that includes unhinged aristocrats, ill-fated adventurers, Thomas Jefferson, Julius Caesar, Sigmund Freud, the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and more than a few mad scientists.

  Image
  Aristotle believed the courage of animals corresponds to the heat of their blood; European scientists contended that frogs hatch from wet clay, caterpillars from cabbage and eels from drops of dew. Others theorized that migrating swallows spend winters underwater or on the moon. The real animal behavior Cooke reports is often even more extraordinary. Researchers have recently observed chimpanzees dancing in the rain, fashioning spears to hunt bush babies and playing with sticks they cradle and put to bed like dolls.
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  Cooke unearths old beliefs and debunks modern-day myths with humor and panache. Pandas, we learn, are not bumbling fluff balls too busy being cute to breed in captivity. Elaborate matchmaking efforts at zoos say more about us and our obsessive meddling than the bears, which are known to mate more than 40 times in a single afternoon in the wild. And bats — popularly believed to be blind, bloodsucking, disease-bearing rats with wings — are more “Buddha than Beelzebub.” They see perfectly well, are very rarely rabid and share more DNA with us than they do with rodents, and only three species are vampiric. They are also among the few animals to engage in oral sex, a fact Cooke presents as one of their “porn-star credentials.”

  The book is big on bawdy humor, and while it’s not that weird mating habits and giant genitalia aren’t funny, Cooke describes the “ins and outs” of animal sex with a glee normally found among middle schoolers. (Gonads inspire some of the most blindingly painful puns and rhymes; a debate over beaver testicles becomes the “fluster over the beaver’s cluster.”)

  Cooke’s appetite for the salacious sometimes overwhelms her sensitivity, as it does in her account of Maurice K. Temerlin, an American psychology professor who reared a chimpanzee named Lucy in his suburban home. At first Lucy is a model “daughter” who uses silverware and raises a kitten. Temerlin, disturbingly, then begins to fix her cocktails. Soon Lucy is fixing herself cocktails. When she takes to masturbating with the vacuum cleaner, Temerlin responds by buying her Playgirl and even participating in one of these sessions to “see what would happen.” (Nothing, mercifully.) When Lucy eventually grows too unruly, Temerlin offloads her in Gambia, where she is flayed and butchered by poachers. A story like this is worth analyzing for what it might reveal about anthropomorphism at the edge. Cooke, however, plays it for laughs.

  The fraught history of humans and animals has lately been the focus of expanding scholarship, insightful meditations such as John Berger’s influential essay “Why Look at Animals?” and environmentalist critiques. Cooke, however, attempts neither to probe its complexities nor to sound apocalyptic alarms (though she does, dutifully, note the impact of human carelessness and mass consumption on other species). She is not plumbing the depths; she is riding the thermals. Her pace is quick, her touch is light, and through her wealth of research we can reach new heights of wonder.
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  Zoë Lescaze is the author of “Paleoart: Visions of the Prehistoric Past” and the editor of the environmental magazine The Tortoise.

• London Guardian Online
  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/29/the-unexpected-truth-about-animals-by-lucy-cooke-digested-read
  Word count: 879

  The Unexpected Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke – digested read
  ‘Penguins? A bunch of pathological narcissists. Pandas? Addicted to three-way sex. Toads? Complete bastards’
  John Crace
  John Crace
  @JohnJCrace
  Sun 29 Oct 2017 13.00 EDT Last modified on Thu 22 Feb 2018 07.36 EST

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  FU Pingu. Digested Read. The Unexpected Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke
  Illustration: Matthew Blease
  Scientists have been misunderstanding animals for centuries. We viewthe animal kingdom through the prism of our own rather narrow existence. This has got to stop. It is driving many creatures into therapy. Bats are literally going bats. We need to open our minds – and let them tell their own stories.

  Beaver My name is Beaver and I’m a beaver. If I hear one more story about how I like to chew off my own gonads and throw them at people, I’m going to shoot myself. My reproductive organs are just configured differently. I can’t help it if my balls smell so great that Givenchy use them in their perfumes. But do stop bigging up my achievements. Basically, we beavers are a bit thick. It’s pure luck we don’t get squashed by more trees. Play us the sound of running water and we’ll start building you a dam.

  Sloth As president of the sloth appreciation society, I’ve spent many a thrilling hour watching sloths move, and I can confirm that their average cruising speed is a leisurely 0.3 kilometres an hour. But rather than thinking of sloths as slow, a characterisation imposed on them by French naturalist Le Comte de Buffon, we should see things from their point of view. Walking slowly and deliberately, like a tai chi master, enables them to silently sneak up on foliage unnoticed so they can pounce before it has a chance to escape. Also, why bother to walk any quicker when you only need to have one poo every eight days?

  The Unexpected Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke (Doubleday, £16.99)
  The Unexpected Truth About Animals by Lucy Cooke (Doubleday, £16.99)
  Frog They come in three sizes: small, medium and large. They are also among the fittest amphibians on the planet. Even when stuck at the bottom of Lake Titicaca, the Telmatobius culeus never misses a daily workout of 50 press-ups followed by three sets of 10 bench presses. What has mesmerised humans about the frog is its reproductive cycle. Aristotle was of the impression that frogs emerged spontaneously out of mud, but thanks to French scientist Réaumur, we now know that is not true. Réaumur attached a pair of underpants – fastened with braces to make sure they didn’t fall off – to a male frog then showed it lewd photographs of a female. Never confuse a frog with a toad. Toads are complete bastards.

  Hippopotamus Since the days of the Roman empire, the hippo has been portrayed as a monstrous, fire-vomiting “river horse”. In fact, it is much more like a whale, apart from the fact that it has feet and doesn’t eat plankton. It was originally thought that the red liquid it expelled was blood, which led Pliny to advocate blood-letting as a medical cure, but research has now proved that it is in fact a sophisticated factor-50 suncream. Interesting fact: there are now cartels of coke-dealing hippos in Colombia after several broke out of Pablo Escobar’s zoo in the early 1990s.

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  Panda An endangered species, thanks to having targets on their eyes, pandas have undeservedly gained the reputation for being a bit shy and uptight about sex. Far from being retiring types who can have sex only with the lights off, pandas are among nature’s most enthusiastic shaggers. So much so that they can usuallyget aroused only if there is a threesome. Were Edinburgh zoo to get hold of another panda to spice things up for Tian Tian and Yang Guang, they might get the baby panda cub they so dearly want.

  Penguin No animal has been more wilfully misrepresented. The thing you’ve got to remember about penguins is that they are a bunch of pathological narcissists. Stick David Attenborough in front of them, or sign them up for a March of the Penguins movie, and they’ll come over all cute and cuddly. Oh look at us! Aren’t we so noble because we band together against the cold? And no, I couldn’t possibly sleep with you because I’m already married. I’m monogamous, me. Take away the cameras, though, and it’s a scene of utter degradation. Worse than The Jeremy Kyle Show. Not only will you get penguins tripping one another up so they get eaten by whales, they will quite happily spend the afternoon lobbing stones at one another and shooting smack. And don’t get me started on sex! A penguin will quite literally shag anything. Male, female, children. Even a dead penguin. Disgusting. Take it from me. Penguins are evil.

  Digested read, digested: We need to talk about Penguin.

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