Animal Behavior

"Birds, men and other animals react much the same way when they are urged ahead by anger but at the same time held back by fear or other emotions. A starling, facing a rival, may preen its feathers instead of fighting; a man faced with a similar situation might scratch his head in frustration...."

With many such fascinating examples, author Niko Tinbergen explains how he and other noted naturalists have found striking similarities between man's behavior and that of animals. In this book, children will also discover some of the amazing paradoxes of this young and important science: how "blind" bats are guided by the echoes of their own ultrasonic shrieks; how geese can be trained to regard a man as their "mother"; and how even barnacles communicate with each other.

Different animals sometimes survive by cooperating. As an example, Tinbergen cites the case of baboons and impalas, which are often seen together on the African veldt. Baboons have keen eyesight; impalas, a highly developed sense of smell. Both animals profit from these complementary abilities to avoid enemies. By studying how such animals deal with the problems of living together, the author concludes, we may learn much about ourselves.

Start now to build the 12-volume LIFE Young Readers Nature Library, a fascinating and informative series of books: The Birds, The Mammals, The Sea, The Desert, The Fishes, The Reptiles, Animal Behavior, The Universe, The Primates, Early Man, The Earth and Evolution, Each book consists of 128 pages, 20,000 words of text and over 130 photographs, drawings and charts in color and black and white.