Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex

by Perrin Roosevelt Ireland

The secret sex lives of animals are not so secret anymore, thanks to this brilliant, punchy illustrated guide to how the other 99% get it on.

In delightful watercolor comics of pregnant seahorse dads, spider oral sex, and the four-headed echidna penis, Perrin Roosevelt Ireland takes us on a wild biodiversity ride through queerness, infidelity, consent, divorce, sex change, and even sexual cannibalism in the animal world. Poking the Squid illustrates the splendid diversity of nature’s eroticism. For too long, science has prudishly obscured the wildly creative kinkiness of animal sexual behavior. But Poking the Squid celebrates how assumptions about sex are shifting.

Ireland interviews researchers probing the leading edge of animal reproductive biology and, with the help of her cats Ursula and Pudge, brings readers along as she learns the latest discoveries that implode traditional notions of sex roles, relationships, and just who is mounting whom. These researchers are making dolphin vaginal popsicles, retrieving sperm packets from male squid mouths, and documenting dolphin orgies. From the externalized clitoris of the spotted hyena to mating-by-fusion in anglerfish, Poking the Squid draws on decades of feminist and queer theory to show that sexual diversity is biodiversity, and boisterous boinking is only natural.

Ireland reminds us that we humans, from habitat destruction to climate change, impact all of animal life, including their private lives. Yet Earth’s sexual ecosystem is filled with joy, resilience, and vitality―a balm to climate grief and a reason to protect all forms of nature’s pleasure. And by illuminating and celebrating animal diversity, Poking the Squid invites us to embrace our own.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Animals, Nature, Graphic Novels, Comics

272 pages, Hardcover

First published June 16, 2026

Reviews

[Heather Olins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t know that I needed an illustrated guide to animal sex, but I did! This book celebrates and revels in biological diversity. It digs into why scientists have overlooked, misinterpreted, or ignored much of sexual diversity, and how that is starting to change. In exploring what we know about animal sex and how we know what we know, it touches on the intersections of science, culture, and politics. It is deeply serious and highly entertaining, eye-opening and thought-provoking. Delightfully nerdy… and sexy!

[Enna Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book from a goodreads giveaway. When the description said watercolor illustrations I was not expecting a full on graphic non-fiction and was delightfully surprised. That in combination with feminist science, looking at sex (in all the variations of the word) and providing alternate perspectives to how life is interpreted was fascinating (and at times horrifying when looking at the past and not so recent past). I would definitely recommend this to any of my fellow science needs and look forward to the resulting discussions.

[K8 O. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a beautifully water colored, scientific, and yet sometimes comedic, study of animal sex, relationships, and reproduction that you MUST read. It's a comic book for the curious adult, who might want to join the Society to Save Slap and Tickle.

[Aish · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book relies on interviews with 65 top researchers and features the author's inquisitive cats, Ursula and Pudge, who guide the reader through biology's most fascinating and unconventional love stories. Key takeaways include:

[Destiny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the humor and the references, but the text and graphics were very hard on my eyeballs.