Publisher's Synopsis
This is Book 1 in the series. One reason for writing these books came from the need to gather together the hotchpotch array of facts dotted about in bits and pieces all over the Web, and then to add to them facts from my own knowledge and experience. I hope as a result that you'll find more of the facts you're looking for, more easily, in just one place. It also seemed to me in looking at information on the Internet, that articles about animals were often either very "scientific", with headings like "taxonomy" and "societal considerations" at the one extreme, or else over-simple picture books or articles for beginning readers at the other. Animals, like us, have personalities - and neither of these approaches gave them the "roundness" and depth of character they deserve. The books try to remedy this. Perhaps the best way to illustrate what they offer is to give just a very small sampling from the animal descriptions inside this book: ...the aardvark is like no other animal in Africa - or anywhere else, for that matter! It looks as if it was put together, like a Lego set, from bits and pieces of other animals - none of which, as it happens, are its relatives. Its nose looks a bit like that of a pig - which explains the name "Aardvark", which is Afrikaans for "Earth Pig"! Its ears are as big as a rabbit's. Its sticky tongue is longer than a chameleon's ... It has claws like a bear's.... on webbed feet like a duck's!... and a kangaroo would be proud of its tapering, muscular tail. Yet its closest (but very distant) living relative is the elephant.... ... Buffalos are fiercely protective of one another. Calves are pushed into the middle of a circle of adult buffalos when threatened, and injured animals are also sheltered by their companions in a similar way. Buffalos which have been blinded are protected by the herd, even while it is on the move Not content with simply defending weaker animals in the herd, buffalos have been known to seek out and destroy the cubs of lions which attack them to prevent the cubs from growing up and attacking in the future..... .... If you're a male baboon and want to be "king" of the troop you have to fight for the privilege! As a female, however, you can only be "queen" if your mother is queen before you. And if she isn't then as a little girl baboon, you have to be content to grow up with whatever rank your own mother has - presumably as a baboon duchess, if you're lucky; a serving wench if you're not!... ...For young children the sound produced at a rock concert is not a problem - but for their parents, it's positively painful! That's because for us humans (parents, anyway!) the level at which noise becomes painful is 120 "decibels"(which is the name scientists give to a measurement of noise!), and a good rock concert can reach around 115 decibels (which is the point where even scientists start to understand the measurements they use!). Bats can make sounds up to 140 decibels! That's louder than anything other than a fighter jet in the air, and also louder than any other mammal on the ground, either! But why does it need to be so loud?... ... Usain Bolt is the fastest human being on earth. His average speed over 100 metres is 37.58 km/h (23.35 mph) and his fastest recorded speed is 44.16 km/h (27.44 mph). But just how fast is that? Well, Usain would have to run at his TOP speed to outrun an elephant, which averages 40 km/h over a short distance, he would have difficulty catching his neighbour's domestic cat, with a top speed of over 48 km/h, and against his own pet cheetah (named "Lightning Bolt", would you believe!), he literally wouldn't even get out of the starting blocks! In fact, driving one of his Ferraris on the M1 in the UK (with a maximum speed limit of 112.7 km/h) Usain still wouldn't catch Lightning Bolt over 100 metres with the animal's top speed of around 115 km/h! These are just a sample of what the book offers. Get it now!
