Thursday, January 17, 2019

The Mating Game

By June Johns

Zoos are one of the places of last resort for the world's endangered animals. So breeding these animals to propagate the species is very much a part of many zoos today.
But breeding the different species is no easy task. So many animals, especially the most endangered, have a very specific set of requirements for successfully bearing and raising their young.
From monkeys and apes, to rhinos and hippos, bears, penguins, reptiles, snakes and even more, June Johns takes a look at the reproductive lives of the animals found in one particular zoo in England.
So, apparently, the love lives of animals of all sorts are fraught with danger and murder. Moms killing their babies, dads killing their offspring, the grown offspring killing their parents...who knew raising babies in a zoo setting was so brutal and bloody?
This book was written in the 1960s. Hopefully zoos have grown more learned in their dealings with their resident animals and are able to provide safer, more nurturing habitats for all the animals under their care.

This was an interesting read. It is not a book meant to amuse the reader, it is very factual in its descriptions but I found it quite engrossing.

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