Dancing Cockatoos And The Dead Man Test Av Marlene (University Of Minnesota) Zuk

For centuries, people have been returning to the same tired nature-versus-nurture debate, trying to determine what we learn and what we inherit. In Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test, biologist Marlene Zuk goes beyond the binary and instead focuses on interaction, or the way that genes and environment work together. Driving her investigation is a simple but essential question: How does behaviour evolve? Drawing from a wealth of research, including her own on insects, Zuk answers this question by turning to a wide range of animals and animal behaviour. There are stories of cockatoos that dance to rock music, ants that heal their injured companions, dogs that exhibit signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder and so much more. For insights into animal intelligence, mating behaviour and an organism’s ability to fight disease, she explores the behaviour of smart spiders, silent crickets and crafty crows. In each example, she clearly demonstrates how these traits were produced by the