Review"Ambitious...compelling...concerned with the tension between our biology and our culture...in power, sex, status, and war games." -- The New York TimesProduct DescriptionHow does city life change the way we act? What accounts for the increasing prevalence of violence and anxiety in our world? In this new edition of his controversial 1969 bestseller, The Human Zoo, renowned zoologist Desmond Morris argues that many of the social instabilities we face are largely a product of the artificial, impersonal confines of our urban surroundings. Indeed, our behavior often startlingly resembles that of captive animals, and our developed and urbane environment seems not so much a concrete jungle as it does a human zoo. Animals do not normally exhibit stress, random violence, and erratic behavioruntil they are confined. Similarly, the human propensity toward antisocial and sociopathic behavior is intensified in todays cities. Morris argues that we are biologically still tribal and ill-equipped to thrive in the impersonal urban sprawl. As important and meaningful today as it was a quarter-century ago, The Human Zoo sounds an urgent warning and provides startling insight into our increasingly complex lives.

Desmond Morris is a professional zoologist and studied animal behaviour with the famous Dutch ethologist Niko Tinbergen at Oxford University.He then moved on to become Curator of Mammals at London Zoo, where he established his own behaviour research group. Although for the past twenty years he has in his books (from The Naked Ape to Bodywatching) concentrated on the human species, his professional eye has constantly been focused on animals and their fascinating behaviour. The most recent fruits of this interest are the bestselling Catwatching ('No cat lover should be without it." – Doris Lessing, New Scientist) where he answers the following questions and many more:Why does a cat purr?Why does a cat like being stroked?Why does a cat tear at the fabric of your favourite chair?Why does a cat roll over to lie on its back when it sees you?Why does a cat rub up against your leg when it greets you?Why do some cats hop up on their hind legs when greeting you?Published by Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1986 This disk version of 'Catwatching' has a hard page break before each new question. Your computer's search facility should enable you to find the title of a question. From Library JournalIn each of these books by the author of Bodywatching an introductory essay is followed by a question-and-answer section (items one to four pages in length). The questions include ones about mating, hunting behavior, and physical characteristics. Morris writes very well, and his answers are often witty as well as informed. Nearly any reader would find these books interesting. Unfortunately, all of Morris's information is available from such other sources as encyclopedias and general dog and cat books, so a purchasing library is getting little new for its money. If your budget permits "extra" buying in the pet area, do acquire these books. Your readers will like them. But if the budget is tight, they are marginal purchases. Susan Matusak, Wilson Coll. Lib., Chambersburg, Pa.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. Product DescriptionThis book, the first in the popular Watching series, explains everything from why cats purr to why we say it's raining cats and dogs. 26 black-and-white photographs.

From Edward Lear's "The Owl and the Pussycat" to David Lynch's Twin Peaks, owls have been woven into the fabric of popular culture. At times they are depicted as dignified, wise old scholars and at other times as foreboding voyeurs who see all and interrogate with an accusatory, "Who? Who?" In Owl best-selling author Desmond Morris explores the natural and cultural history of these predators of the night who embody both good and evil in turn.In this fascinating book, Morris describes the evolution, the many species, and the wide spread of owls across the globe. Owls are found on every land mass around the world, with the exception of Antarctica; and as a result of their wide distribution, owls appear in the folktales, myths, and legends of many native peoples—in addition to popular art, film, and literature worldwide. Featuring over 100 telling illustrations from nature and culture, Owl will appeal to the numerous fans of this enigmatic bird, from the friendly Mr. Owls...

Here is the Naked Ape at his most primal - in love, at work, at war. Meet man as he really is: relative to the apes, stripped of his veneer as we see him courting, making love, sleeping, socialising, grooming, playing. Zoologist Desmond Morris's classic takes its place alongside Darwin's Origin of the Species, presenting man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape, remarkable in his resilience, energy and imagination, yet an animal nonetheless, in danger of forgetting his origins.With its penetrating insights on man's beginnings, sex life, habits and our astonishing bonds to the animal kingdom, The Naked Ape is a landmark, at once provocative, compelling and timeless.