Books Reviews

Bats Sing, Mice Giggle – Book Review

By Angela Youngman Oct 20, 2010, 17:24 GMT

"Amazing, moving and enlightening. Bats Sing, Mice Giggle presents the latest findings on the intimate lives of animals with great elegance. I recommend it wholeheartedly." Larry King"Did you know that spiders taste with their feet, that a decapitated cockroach can live for two weeks, that a certain type of parrotfish wraps itself in a sort of foul-smelling snot before taking a nap, and that ants play? I didn\'t until I ...more

Subtitled the Surprising Science of Animals Inner Lives, this is no ordinary book about animal behavior.  Based on scientific research it reveals lots of insights into the life of animals. 

Researchers have discovered that bats can actually compose their own songs, and birds can dance. There is a frog which manages to freeze himself into an ice-cube during winter months, then restarts his heart and thaws out limbs when spring arrives. 

Moles have invented an 'underground telephone' to speak to each other.  I am not a scientist, but even I found aspects of this book interesting and informative. 

At times it was necessary to skim read over the scientific bits, but it does reveal a lot about animals that most people would never have expected.  For anyone interested in animals, this makes fascinating reading.