You’d Never Have Guessed What Every Creature’s Story Is

In this fast-paced, highly digitised world, we know too little about nature and her little creatures – this is why you need Janaki Lenin’s Every Creature Has a Story. Don’t believe us? See for yourself how much you truly know about the wonders nature has to offer:

 

(1) Did you know…

Female nightingales listen to candidates’ songs to gauge if they’d make good fathers.

Male nightingales are the most famous songsters in Europe, ranking No. 1 on the sophistication charts among forty-six bird species that scientists have investigated.

 

(2) Did you know…

Chameleons can look at two separate objects in different directions at the same time, with their brains controlling each eye separately. Once they decide which insect to eat, they lock both eyes on the chosen target before shooting out their tongues.

 

(3) Did you know…

The kiwi uses its sense of smell not only to find prey but also to communicate. The bird evacuates its pungent smelling excreta at prominent locations, such as logs and roots, to mark its territory. Should a neighbouring kiwi come upon its malodorous dropping, it waves its beak in the air and snorts before going its way.

 

(4) Did you know…

Amphibious mammals, like seals, can’t sniff underwater, where they spend most of their time. They filter big gulps of water for tiny shrimp-like krill and hunt fish by sight.

 

(5) Did you know…

Some female bearded dragons of Australia are actually males. They are not in drag; they are fully functional females that mate with males. These dragons even beat regular females at their own game by laying many more eggs. The expert sex-reassignment surgeon is temperature.

 

(6) Did you know…

Even when mating, octopuses don’t canoodle. That is because these solitary creatures are cannibals. The large females can easily overpower and eat their smaller suitors. One species is so petrified of being eaten, the males detach their sperm-laden arms and offer them to females.

 

(7) Did you know…

Seahorses, pipefishes, and seadragons are the only males in the animal kingdom to get pregnant.

Male seahorses have pouches in their abdomens.

When the time comes for mating, the male urges the female to float up to the surface with him by pointing his snout upwards. She signals her readiness by tilting her head up, and they drift to the ocean surface in tandem. The female presses her abdomen against his and spews eggs into his open pouch. The male releases sperm to fertilize the eggs as they enter.

In Every Creature Has a Story, Janaki Lenin draws us towards the wonders of the natural world in evocative and witty words. She uncovers the surprising, sometimes bizarre but always amazing ways in which creatures breed and survive, from spiders salivating during sex and snails entombing their parasites into their shells to elephants developing immunity to cancer. After reading this book, you’ll never look at nature in the same way again. Get your copy here!