A Study Of Animals

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31007, 12 March 1966, Page 4

A Study Of Animals

Wild Heritage. By Sally Carrighar. Hamish Hamilton. 276 pp.

What makes this book about animal behaviour any different from a number of others published in the past, we may well ask ourselves. It is actually a popularisation of the discoveries of a new science—ethology. This is the scientific study of animals in their own environment, with all the. technical assistance that the computer age can provide. Miss Carrighar has written, as Peter Scott notes in his foreword, “an accurate and entertaining guide.” Entertaining it certainly is, with numerous anecdotes about many fields of animal behaviour, among which are mother-child relationships, the survival of the young, sexlife, aggressiveness, “racial” problems, and play. One engrossing section deals with the effect on various animals of overcrowding—a problem highly relevant to our society. The result of overcrowding was irritability and tension, and finally fighting broke out among animals which lacked nothing except space. Another especially interesting chapter discusses the play of animals. Miss Carrighar says that many animals and birds and fish frolic from sheer exuberance, that they have a sense of fun and of humour. This is the equivalent in the lower orders of man’s creative spirit.

The book makes very stimulating and delightful reading.