Animal Oddballs

The six-volume “Astonishing Animals” series examines the physical and behavioral adaptations of a variety of animals which help them to survive. Each title is comprised of 13 chapters as well as a table of contents, a glossary, an index and a brief list of books and websites for further investigation. Animals featured in the series are representative of all of the major groups and range from the microscopic tardigrade to the seven-metre-long beaked whale. Some of the animals will be familiar to readers while others are quite rare and unique. Besides the main body of the text, there are Fact File boxes which, with the exception of the title about animal celebrities, tell where the animal is found, its habitat, size and diet. (In the case of Animal Celebrities, the Fact File box states the animal’s date of birth and death, where it lived, and its “hobbies”.) As well, smaller “Wow!” text boxes provide interesting trivia, some examples being that a 270-kg octopus can squeeze through a 2.5 cm opening and that chimpanzees’ nests contain lower levels of bacteria than human beds. An attractive layout and abundant, eye-catching colour photographs add to the series’ visual appeal.

Animal Oddballs contains a potpourri of weird animals, both in terms of their appearance and their unique abilities. Scaly pangolins, duck-billed platypuses, red-headed rock agamas (lizards) and translucent glass frogs represent the strange appearance category, while the remainder of the animals discussed in this title exhibit various behavioral traits which help them to survive. A few examples include the axolotl (Mexican walking fish) which can regrow a limb more than 100 times in its lifetime, a shoebill that can stay still and silent for days, and the North American water shrew that can run across the surface of water. Particularly interesting are the immortal jellyfish which reverts to a polyp and sinks to the bottom of the sea floor after having its young and then starts its life cycle over again, and only dies from disease or if it is eaten by a predator; and the mantis shrimp whose ability to spring its clubs out from its body at a speed of 80 kph makes it a rare find in an aquarium- it can break the glass. Naked mole rats, flic-flac spiders and red-lipped batfish are also featured.

Enjoyable and engaging, with just enough information to pique the reader’s interest, the “Astonishing Animals” series does a good job of introducing readers to some incredible animals.