Aesop’s Animals: The Science Behind the Fables

by Jo Wimpenny

A critical look at the beloved fables that investigates whether there is any scientific truth to Aesop's portrayal of his animals.

Despite being conceived over two-and-a-half thousand years ago, Aesop's Fables are still passed from parent to child today, and are embedded in our collective consciousness. The morals still inform our judgments, but have they influenced our views of the animal protagonists as well? And, if so, is there any truth behind the stereotypes? Are crows smart enough to reason? Are pigeons so dumb they cannot tell the difference between painting and reality? Are ants truly capable of looking ahead to the future and planning their actions?

In Aesop's Animals, zoologist Jo Wimpenny turns a critical eye to the fables and ask whether there is any scientific truth to Aesop's portrayal of his animals. She brings the tales into the twenty-first century, introducing the latest scientific research on some of the most fascinating topics in animal behavior. Each chapter focuses on a different fable and a different topic in ethology, including future planning, tool use, self-recognition, cooperation and deception. At the end of each chapter, the author pulls together the evidence to assess whether Aesop's portrayal of the animals holds true from a modern, scientific perspective.

Through interviews with leading researchers in the behavioral ecology, this book brings these famous tales back to life. People are always fascinated by animal behavior, especially studies that suggest the presence of intelligence and other 'human-like' characteristics that reveal how we may share more with these creatures than we ever imagined. Aesop's Animals builds on this, revealing cutting-edge research findings about animal abilities, as well as enabling the reader to explore and challenge their own preconceived notions about the animal kingdom.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Animals, Nature, Audiobook, Books About Books, Biology

368 pages, Hardcover

First published September 2, 2021

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The format of this appealed to me - testing Aesop's Fables against actual scientifically studied animal behaviour. I found it well written, perhaps a little repetitive where certain experiments were relevant to more than one fable, and perhaps 50 pages longer than my attention span (due to the repetition?)

The format is consistent - a paragraph long fable - usually an explanation about the evolution of the relevant animal (sometimes relative to the evolutionary branching from man, or another animal), a study on the behaviour relevant animals, usually some other animal relevant to the behaviour - a summary of whether the fable is fact or fiction (incorporating a suggestion for a better fitting animal where appropriate.

The Crow and the Pitcher - We learn a lot about corvids (ravens, crows, rooks, magpies, jays etc) and their ability to problem solve.

The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing - This chapter focuses on wolves, but also sidelines into primates. This one covers an animals abilities in deception.

The Dog and its Shadow - We learn about dogs, mostly focusing on the domestic dogs and the ability of self-recognition.

The Ass Carrying the Image - This chapter studies donkeys (and to a lesser degree other equids) generally focused on donkey intelligence and cognition.

The Fox and the Crow - Foxes take centre stage here, and this is largely a chapter on debunking fox myths!

The Lion and the Shepherd - We learn about Lions and experimentation into animals that act with reciprocation (or those that don't).

The Monkey and the Fisherman - Primates are one of the most studied of animals, so as well as being referenced in many of the other chapters they take centre stage here, with a study of which animals engage in mimicry or imitation.

The Ant and the Grasshopper - I am sure you are picking up on the theme... grasshoppers and ants feature here, where the ability to 'future-think' or prepare for the future is studied.

The Hare and the Tortoise - Surely the most famous of the fables, the hare vs the tortoise, slow and steady wins the race etc, this gives us lots of facts around hares and tortoises and how it all pans out in a race.

An enjoyable pop-science book, well presented, easy to read (although a level of concentration is required when some of the more complex experiments are stepped through), and it mostly achieves what is sets out to do. If I was be be very cynical, maybe the premise is just a way to arrange a lot of interesting animal experimentation into a framework. But realistically it worked pretty well.

There was loads of good information in the book, too much to replicate here, but worth the read of these sorts of things are of interest.

4.5 stars, rounded down.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s good to manage expectations early, so I want to be clear that this isn’t a book about Aesop. If you’re hoping to learn more about the man behind the fables, this probably isn’t the book for you. If, on the other hand, you have idly wondered whether foxes or crows are cleverer, if wolves really are deceptive or a tortoise could ever actually beat a hare in a race, then read on!

One of my favourite courses in my first year of university back in the 80’s was Ethology — as I remember it, it was a broad look at animal behaviours and how they mirrored or illuminated human behaviour — and to my delight, Aesop’s Animals: The Science Behind the Fables reads very much like an introductory textbook to that course. Zoologist Jo Wimpenny, prompted by the anthropomorphised characteristics attributed to the animals in eight of Aesop’s fables, examines, through the recounting of years of animal behaviour experiments, whether or not these are true characteristics (Is a fox a sly manipulator? Is a donkey stupid? Can a dog be fooled by its own reflection?). Filled with fascinating quotes, experiment results, and animal facts, I found myself an eager student once more; a thoroughly satisfying experience. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

How we represent animals in fictional stories reveals our attitudes towards them and our treatment of them.

And this is pretty much the point of this book: So many of the traits that Aesop attributed to his animal characters have endured, unexamined, through the millennia, and these traits influence how we value the animals around us. The idea that wolves are bloodthirsty deceivers (further maligned in the Middle Ages in the tale of Little Red Riding Hood) led to their extermination in most of Europe. The picture of donkeys as slow-witted plodders has seen their decline from a time when they were given royal burials alongside Egyptian pharaohs to their current status as overworked beasts of burden in (primarily) developing countries (and Wimpenny shares a saddening tale of donkey hides’ current use in a high-priced Chinese medicine, ejiao, that has prompted the opening of donkey abattoirs across Africa and the resultant thefts of these essential animals from families who can’t afford to replace them). On the flipside, the more positive idea that male lions are noble and majestic (and Wimpenny explains the huge metabolic cost a lion pays for a full, dark mane — the more impressive, the less he is able to move around in the hot sun, forcing the females to feed and care for him, which they are programmed to do for the promise of genetically superior cubs) has made such lions the ultimate test of human prowess, from gladiators to big game hunters. In order to confront the stereotypes, Wimpenny relates one of Aesop’s fables at the beginning of each chapter, explores how the featured animals display the traits attributed to them (often surprisingly accurate on the surface), tells the story of other animals that might better fit the stereotypes, and finishes each section with a “Fact or Fiction?” summary.

At its heart, this is the story of the history of animal behaviour study and in this regard Wimpenny states, “It’s only in the past 30 or so years that a concerted effort has gone into studying the cognitive abilities of animals other than primates.” It was only after the time that I was in university that the scientific community began to accept that there was anything deeper to learn from studying the behaviour of birds, insects, and non-primate mammals (in particular, there was a big pushback against studying domesticated animals like dogs and horses because they weren’t “natural”) because if they don’t look like us, they can’t tell us anything about us. Wimpenny stresses that every species is inherently valuable and worthy of study for its own sake, and although she shares many intriguing studies that demonstrate what looks like “intelligence” in various animals (novel tool use, future planning, self-consciousness), she also warns that behaviours that look like they demonstrate human intelligence need to be interpreted through each animal’s own “toolkit” of behaviours and the evolutionary pressures that created them. And on the flipside of that, it’s unfair to say an animal is not intelligent when they can’t perform particular tasks as well as humans do: In order to test whether animals have a “Theory of Mind”, the classic test involves a mirror and most primates can connect their reflection with their own bodies. Dogs, however, don’t pass this test and Wimpenny explains that that’s probably because dogs aren’t primarily visual animals; the results are more impressive when experimenters have developed tests that involve the dogs’ superior sense of smell. The results of all of these experiments seem to impact how we regard and treat the animals around us and the history of animal behaviour testing seems to have also been an ongoing, unwitting, test on humanity all along. A sampling of interesting animal facts:

• One in 10 of us can’t detect the almond-like smell of the highly poisonous gas, hydrogen cyanide; and it’s thought that as many as 60 percent of us are unable to detect the pungent, sweet, sulphur odour of metabolised asparagus in urine. *

• The Argentine ant is a species with the largest recorded societies of any multicellular organisms. The imaginatively named “large supercolony” (which may number over a trillion individuals in California alone!) covers 1,000km of the western United States, from San Francisco to the Mexican border, as well as 6,000km in Europe, 2,800km in Australia, 900km on New Zealand’s North Island and growing areas on Hawaii and Japan. Remarkably, even though it stretches over multiple continents, it is a single society. The evidence is in the chemical make-up of the hydrocarbons on their cuticle and the way in which ants from different sites behave towards other ants. Take an ant from the colony in California and drop it into the heart of the same colony in Japan, and the Japanese ants will rub antennae with it and treat it as if it is one of their own. But take an ant from a different colony in California and drop it into the large supercolony (in California, Japan, or anywhere else) and the unfortunate creature will be ripped apart in minutes.

• Larvae of the green lacewing show a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” strategy to live among their prey, the woolly alder aphid. Woolly aphids, as their name suggests, look like tiny sheep because they are covered in white “wool” (in reality, waxy strands produced by the aphids for protection) and they are usually fiercely guarded by ants.The lacewing larvae have taken the role of the wolf quite literally: they disguise themselves by stealing some of the woolly wax and covering their own bodies with it — and as a result they can walk straight past the ants and feast on the aphids. The lacewing larvae are manipulating the ants’ visual and olfactory systems in order to misrepresent the world to them, an incredible evolved strategy for sneaking an easy meal.

(*I often eat asparagus and just smile weakly when people joke about it making their pee smell funny. After reading this and polling my family, I can report that most of us can’t smell the “sweet, sulphur odour” but one daughter apparently developed the ability as an adult. Interesting to me anyway.)

I find myself wondering again what Aesop would think about all this — would he be surprised to learn the truth about his animals? Would he have chosen different characters if the science existed then? And how would more scientifically accurate portrayals have altered our world view? Stories are essential, powerful tools to entertain, inspire and teach, but to improve our understanding of our world, perhaps it’s time that we melded the facts with the fables.

Wimpenny shares a story from British news reports about patrons at a pub who were too terrorised by the presence of a fox in the parking lot to exit the premises, and while she suggests that this represents a kind of unfair conditioning from tales like Aesop’s (which I’m not sure about; unless it looked rabid, I don’t think I’d be scared of a fox), she also adds that this seems to be a symptom of people not having enough contact with nature and wildlife. Whether we are misinformed by popular culture or simple ignorance, if learning facts about animal life causes us to treat them better, books like this one go a long way toward improving the world. Just my kind of thing.

[Veronica Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book Aesops Animals: The science behind the fables by Jo Wimpenny is an amazing scientific book.
It is very thorough in studying can animals actually perform the trials like in Aesops beloved tales. Or is it something else entirely. With data collected from tests and research Jo Wimpenny goes through extensively well told with documents to match and commentaries ideals and tales. Her point of view and a comparative on others plus its studies and counterpoints. I really appreciate this book and its thoroughness plus I also loved Aesop Animals and what inspired the author to write this. It also tugged at some heartstrings at certain points.

Definitely worth picking up! Also what do you think animals can do?
This Arc was given to me by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[The Inquisitive Biologist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much more than just an entertaining book on the facts behind the fables, Aesop's Animals is a deeply informed and nuanced book on animal behaviour. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2021...

[Elise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aesop's Animals by Jo Wipenny

Who hasn't read Aesop's books as a child!
Have you ever wondered the background/story of what is fiction or not?!
The author gives factual info behind the stories.
Brings me back to my childhood and all the answers to your questions!

I received and Reviewed this book in exchange for my honest opinion and review on Netgalley, Goodreads Librarything Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Thank you to the author and publishers for allowing me to read this book!

[A.J. Sefton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Aesop's Fables as a child and still have a tatty old copy of the book on my shelf. Read often and then again to my own child, I believed in the morality stories and saw them as an ancient type of parable. I was aware, as I grew older, that the animals were personified in order to make the stories more appealing - but I also believed that this was the character of the animals as well. So the stereotype behaviour of the wily fox or the clever crow may well have borne from Aesop thousands of years ago, or are they actually true depictions of these beasts? That was the purpose of this book.

Jo Wimpenny is a zoologist and studied the behaviour of the animals in the fables, using known research and new studies. There are lots of psychological studies in there as well, such as Pavlov's Dog, to help explain behaviour and how scientists try to define intelligence. The book also covers tool use, self-recognition, imitation, planning, deception and co-operation and whether the scientific evidence backs the characteristics of the chosen animal for a selection of tales - or perhaps another animal would be better cast.

Although this is science heavy, it is written in a way that makes it a very accessible book to the layman. The various studies are fascinating even if sometimes they wander slightly off-topic, they are always interesting, lively and entertaining. Appealing to lovers of animals, mythology, science and particularly psychology, this is a great read. We can see that we share a lot with animals so maybe using them to explain our own behaviours isn't so odd after all.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terrific premise. Read the preface and the Crow & Pitcher chapter. Love the strict science; for example the note that a bird who has observed others performing a task should not surprise us when it can do so, too. (Although tbh I find that noteworthy, too.)

It is indeed a bit more sciency than I expected. Still perfectly accessible, but not a real fast 'pop' read.

As an aside, the book informs me that "in 2002 the terminology for brain regions was overhauled." So, some of the older books I've read, like Oliver Sacks maybe, might be hard to correlate with newer ones. Oh well.

"It's time to bust the entrenched myth that the mere presence of tool use in a spaces equates with intelligence. ... the little wasps that use pebbles to tamp down earth around their burrows are using tools in a very specific, stereotypical context - all evidence points to the behavior being under tight genetic control."

" fear, once implanted, is very difficult to remove."
(Not just of wolves, either; think about it next time you despair over other voters' choices.)

"... observations showed packs to be a family affair. The 'alpha' pair haven't fought their way to the top of the heap, they're dominant because most of the animals around them are their offspring. The breeding pair is the core of the pack and, since most mated pairs stay together for life, it's highly stable."

"Free-ranging dogs behave very differently towards each other than wolves do; for example, when sharing food. In a wolf pack all members get to eat and while there are spats between individuals around a carcass they tend to reconcile afterwards like chimpanzees, ravens and other highly social animals.... In a free-ranging dog pack, the most dominant individual monopolizes food and lower- ranking dogs avoid it to reduce conflict."

FACS, facial recognition coding, is cool. There's even one for horses.

Vixen used to mean "a spiteful, quarrelsome, shrewish woman."

" Modern canids are thought to have emerged some 12 to 10 million years ago and in the region of 6 million years ago they diverged into two tribes, with the wolf like species in one and the fox like species in the other. A tribe is an intermediate classification between the family and genus level. It's just another way of grouping the more related members of the family."

"Much of the erroneous belief for foxes being solitary animals came from the fact that they hunt alone. But a lot of social interaction happens during the day in 'rendezvous sites,' where the fox family group meets up."

Foxes can climb. "Vixens have even been known to have litters up on roofs, whereas they'd never have them up a tree in the wild."

In the Japanese macaque group under study, it's a particular female that is the most innovative. "Old males were the least likely to adopt the new behavior." Hmm....

The chapter on imitation is a mess. Wimpenny acknowledges that vague and/or conflicting definitions make it hard to evaluate the significance of the research findings to date, esp. when conflated with learning. But she doesn't do nearly enough to sort it out. Whereas, if she'd focused on learning instead of imitation, she might have had better luck making it clear.

The bottom line seems to be that non-human animals are being held to a different standard than humans. As parents and other educators know, there are lots of ways people learn, including via different modalities for example, and including more or less hands-on experiences being necessary... but why can't apes, corvids, etc. be applauded for learning something new, no matter how they accomplish it?

Well, anyway, it's a book I cannot quite recommend. It really doesn't break new ground, nor have a special appeal to a new audience. I have other recommendations; just ask.

[Tina Culbertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not a book about Aesop’s fables but rather examining animal behavior. As the author states in the preface, if you are reading for the fables this may not be the book for you. If you are interested in the science and animal behavior this will be enlightening.

Dr. Wimpenny starts with the story about a crow who drops pebbles into a container in order to raise the water level, thus allowing it to drink. Doing an experiment with crows and ravens provided different results. The crow did indeed grab the provided pebbles to change the water level. With another group of corvids, using larva as a treat, there were different outcomes. Initially the bird figured out the problem then enjoyed the treat. It declined to particpate the second time.
Are foxes as clever as the fable suggests? The tortoise and the hare is included and many other stories. The research is done in a lab as well as in the field.

The author is a British zoologist and writer with a background in animal behavior. She studied zoology at the University of Bristol and had her PhD at Oxford university. She writes for BBC wildlife and has previously presented at science festivals in Oxford and Glasgow.

Sharing with:

Shellyrae at Book'd Out for the 2022 Nonfiction Challenge - Category Wild Animals

Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday

[Audrey (Warped Shelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is based on an ARC of Aesop's Animals: The Science Behind the Fables, which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Bloomsbury USA/Sigma).

Science geeks, book nerds, animal lovers all gather 'round, Aesop's Animals is the science book we've been waiting for! In this book, the cunning fox, the determined turtle, and many more classic tropes are challenged by science.

With each chapter Jo Wimpenny presents one of Aesop's well-loved fables and poses the question: is this animal's behavior based on fact, or merely an example of creative liberty? Wimpenny presents oodles of facts and case studies relevant to each animal's behavior in question.

Though at times perhaps too extensive for casual reading, Aesop's Animals is a trove of scientific information to be enjoyed by researchers and laymen alike.

[Curt Bobbitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book summarizes numerous research studies about animals figuring in nine of Aesop's fables, particularly birds in the corvid family (ravens, crows, etc.), apes, lions, wolves, and donkeys. Most of the studies described seek to understand cognition in those animals. The book says little about the few fables covered, using them as the basis for covering features research has covered, for example "There are three key aspects to Aesop’s fictional wolf, along with the big bad wolf of Grimm’s fairytales and others. First, and most obviously, they are voracious killers; second, they are loners; and third, they cheat and deceive their hapless victims.”

Each chapter begins with a drawing by Hana Ayoob.

[Katie Mercer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I've mentioned, I'm an absolute sucker for books that weave science and mythology - in this case fables.

I also love books about animal behavior - way outside my scientific expertise area, but I love when people examines how we understand and appreciated animal intelligence, and then talks about how we all use stories to communicate. I also love when authors successfully make science interesting and accessible, and that's where Wimpenny shines - the writing is so strong, clear, and translates pretty complicated scientific concepts without being derailed by jargon and inaccessible terms. Using fables as a connection point I think is also a really smart way of making this area shine - how we think about animal vs human intelligence is a really fascinating concept, especially when contextualized within fables.

Completely well done, will widely recommend this for sure.

ARC from the publisher via NetGalley

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aesop's Animals by Jo Wimpenny brings current animal behavior research into conversation with the beloved fables we have all grown up with. Our animal friends and ourselves are far more similar than we once believed and, more importantly, studying these animals helps us to gain a better understanding and appreciation for different types of "intelligence."

I am a fan of any approach that makes science more accessible and interesting to the general public, and this book is an excellent example of just how to accomplish this. The science is detailed without being too jargon-loaded and the frame of using Aesop's fables helps the reader to think about how we think of animal intelligence in terms of human intelligence, for better or worse.

I would recommend this to anyone fascinated by animals and what they do. From those with a background to those simply curious, this book will satisfy each type of reader.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Foggygirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating educational read.

[Thomas Radigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by a British zoologist, the book covers a half-dozen Aesop fables, and whether real animals mentioned in the stories would act in that way. This is actually a scientific book and talks about animal research, mostly from the nineteenth century onward and how scientific knowledge and ideas, as well as fads, shaped the evolving ideas of what various animal species could do and what they could not do, such as if certain animals learn or resort to instinct, how they behave toward each other and toward other species, and if animals such as foxes really are capable of trickery.

The tales include those such as the sick lion and the wolf in sheep's clothing, and how real such animals work, and how they were seen in Aesop's time and place thousands of years ago, and what humans have learned about them since that time. Recommended, but for older readers.

[Krista J. Iris J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

(A big thank you to NetGalley for supplying a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!)

Most of the time, reading is a solitary activity. When I started reading Aesop’s Animals by Jo Wimpenny, I quickly realized my experience with this particular book would be a bit different. Namely, I couldn’t stop reading out animal facts to my husband as I learned them.

For example, did you know the lyrebird is so great at mimicking frequently heard sounds that it can actually replicate the sounds of chainsaws with astonishing accuracy? (Watch this BBC video and get ready to have your mind blown. These birds can also mimic the sounds of camera shutters!)

Did you also know that a fox can hear a mouse squeak from almost 150 feet away? Or that a donkey needs only around half the calories that a similarly sized horse needs?

These are just a few of the many fascinating facts Wimpenny shares from her ample research, carried out in an effort to discover whether the animal traits the renowned storyteller Aesop assigned to his classic fables were in fact scientifically accurate. For instance, are foxes actually tricksters as they are portrayed in the fables? Are wolves bloodthirsty beasts that should be feared? Do lions embody characteristics of noble leaders like Aesop suggests?

Of course, Aesop likely didn’t set out to spout scientific studies to his audience, but Wimpenny stresses how (accurate or not) the animals’ traits expressed in Aesop’s famous fables have become engrained in our culture. They’ve often shaped our own opinions about certain animals and our reactions to them.

If you’re looking for an in-depth analysis of Aesop or his fables, you’ll want to look elsewhere. Rather, this book provides just a brief summary of a fable in a few paragraphs at the beginning of each chapter. The rest of the chapter is dedicated to studies of the selected animal’s characteristics and behaviors both in the wild and in the lab.

While you might initially think reading about scientific studies is incredibly dry, Wimpenny does an excellent job of presenting the material in a manner that bypasses most of the technical jargon. I appreciated the in-depth research that went into the book, as well as the inclusion of the author’s own experiences with wild animals.

If you’re fascinated by cute, startling, or purely mystifying animal behavior, go out and buy this book! It’s a lot like reading an episode of Planet Earth. Just let your housemates know to expect animal fact updates every few minutes as you make your way through the book…

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Aesop’s Animals is an interesting layman accessible nonfiction look at the potential truth behind the fables written by zoologist Dr. Jo Wimpenny. Due out 2nd Nov 2021 from Bloomsbury on their Sigma imprint, it's 368 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats (ebook available now).

The author has selected 9 different fables and examined them through the lens of zoology and related science. Each of the tales is retold in an abbreviated form and then explored in the context of scientific relation and behavior. The author references current and past research and observation and relates it to each of the 9 stories. This is not an academic treatise. There are no chapter notes or footnotes. The language is layman accessible and more narrative than precise. The book does include an abbreviated and helpful bibliography and index.

Four stars. The author writes with style and humor and tries (and succeeds) to make the read minimally pedantic. I can well imagine that she's a talented and popular lecturer.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Sharyn Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a dream worker, I was attracted to this book due to its connections to Aesop's Fables. The book does reinforce the traits and behaviors that the various fables attribute to the animals (which our dream worlds would be aware of). As a scientist, however, the goal of the author is to ask us to reconsider which of these attributes are actually inaccurate for the associated animals. The text was a bit scientific for me at times (the details of how the various experiments are set up), but I did learn quite a few interesting things about various animals and came to appreciate the various challenges of studying them. This text about hares was fascinating to me (putting on the brakes): "Hares can accelerate at speeds of up to 4.4m/s^2, which allows them to establish a lead over their pursuer. In many cases, that will be enough to deter the predator, but if it can keep up and gets too close the hare has another trick. With a top deceleration of 5.2m/s^2, the hare can slam on the brakes even harder than it accelerated." The hare then rockets off in another direction. I was also intrigued by the hypothesis that foxes use the geomagnetic field to hunt (vs. navigate). Foxes can move their ears independent of each other and tilt their heads to create asymmetry, allowing them to pinpoint the source of a noise.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is as original as it is fascinating, taking a scientific look at Aesop’s fables. Every kid knows how slow and steady wins the race but, would a tortoise really be able to beat a hare in a race? The author really answers that question, based on decades of animal cognition studies. Are foxes really wily? Are wolves deceptive? Do ants really plan for the future or is there another species that would fit the ant and the grasshopper fable? Most of these questions can’t be answered, but Wimpenny presents her theories and backs them up with facts using biology, behavioral experiments and some theories that have not been proven yet. In the afterword, she says that she hopes readers will share some of the facts in the book with other people. I must say that my 8 year old niece simply loved all the facts about horses and started conducting little experiments during her riding lessons. This book is perfect for animal lovers.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/#Bloomsbury Sigma!

[Wilomina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the use of Aesop's fables as a device to structure this book was rather contrived. However, that can be overlooked and the book does contain a lot of interesting information about animal behaviour.
It draws heavily on scientific studies but is written in a very accessible way for the non-scientist. This would be an excellent book for anyone who hasn't really thought about animal behaviour. It addresses both how the science of animal behaviour progresses, revealing the challenges of addressing many of the most interesting questions, and provides lots of examples of interesting or impressive behaviours (various examples of tool use are quite well known now but this book covers much wider ground).
Because each chapter is based on a fable, this does not serve as a comprehensive or systematic study of animal behaviour. Rather it is an introduction to a wide range of interesting areas of study. It provides food for thought as well as answers and invites futher reading in evolution and philosophy as well as zoology and ethology.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this very much. Well written and clear. The premise is that there is more to the animals in Aesops fables than meets the eye. Going into studies on the various protagonists, the fox, the hare, tortoise, donkey and other players. The author posits: is there something of truth behind the actions of these animals and if so what has history and research said to prove or disprove these actions? How much is valid besides the obvious moral learning of the fables. What behavioural traits have been shown. Could the tortoise actually beat the hare? And if so how and why would that be possible? Are Donkeys really so slow of mind?
This book is a refreshing look into animal behaviour which provides us with a glimpse into the minds and cognitive possibilities of those we as humans have falsely put onto a lower rung of the chain of Earthly life of which we are only another cog in the wheel, not greater but equal.
Highly recommend it to those familiar with Aesops Fables and who have wondered why is behind it all.

[LA Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

2022 Book #42
Aesop’s Animals: The Science Behind the Fables (2021)
by Jo Wimpenny
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨(3.5/5)

I loved reading Aesop's fables in upper elementary school. The short, simple stories wrapped up a moral, but were extra appealing because they were accompanied by delightful illustrations of the animals. This book focuses on animal behavior - do the animals who inspired the fables actually act as they do in the stories? Research from the last 50 years is reviewed and often times, the answer is "No"! The zoologist author looks at nine fables to review research on crows, lions, foxes, monkeys, wolves, ants/ grasshoppers, tortoises/hares and donkeys. An interesting read that explores self awareness, theory of the mind, memory, tool making, and planning capabilities in animals.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an amazing book. I have often wondered how well the animals in Aesop's fables actually matched real life animal's behavior. Jo Wimpenny, a zoologist, has written a detailed account of the animals and how they fare in comparison and, due to studies over the past century or so, but especially the past 35 or so, how these animal's brains work. It' s nice to read more about studies I have encountered throught the years . Some of the science was beyond my ken, but interesting to read. I always knew animals were smarter that humans gve them credit for!
Great book!

I recieved a Kindle arc from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like to read about animal research so I really found this interesting. I was familiar with a few of the studies Wimpenny writes about, but most were new to me. Her premise is she takes a few of Aesop's most well-known fables (the tortise and the hare; the ants and the grasshopper; the dog and the crow, etc.) and tells us what we know about how these animals actually behave and how closely the fable reflects reality. I think you'll know from reading this description whether this book is for you. 5-stars from me.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thoroughly researched account of a handful of Aesop’s fables. The book breaks them down by animal and examines the stereotypes associated with each animal. I particularly enjoyed the section about wolves and their typical pack behaviour.

Very well written and relatively easy to read although it can get a little dry at times. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys biology or wants to look further into the actual biology behind Aesop’s fables.

Received in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.

[Jack Wallick]

Aesop's Animals is a deep dive into the animals found in Aesop's Fables, and whether the stories accurately depict those animals' actual characteristics. The author exhaustively delves into our cultural beliefs, scientific studies, anecdote, and other sources to validate or deny the likelihoood that the behaviors Aesop described. Crows, foxes, horses, monkeys, ants, and grasshoppers all take the stage as we learn about each species' skills and capabilities.

The author's style is easy to read, and the book is enjoyable and informative.

[Jente Ottenburghs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book presenting a scientific perspective on the fables of Aesop. Although some chapters were a bit long-winded (but that is of course a personal taste), I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. I was familiar with most animal facts, but I discovered many new ones. At times, I thought "now, she will probably mention X" and then she did. Reading the book was like having a conversation with the author. And that is a very good sign that it's a great book.

[Josephina Fornara · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a behavioral ecologist, I loved Wimpenny's deep dive into animal cognition. This was my first foray into learning about cognition experiments and how researchers test whether behaviors are instinctive or decided. Only giving three stars because the pace was a little slow at times, but that is only a minor drawback given how thoroughly Wimpenny covers each topic. A thoroughly enjoyable and engaging read overall!

[Linnea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of interesting studies and facts about crows, foxes, hares and more, this book intrigued me. However, it read just like a scientific study itself, for the most part. Some chapters were more fun to read, like the one on the fox and the crow.

[Ed Stoddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that is by turns fun and informative. Who knew that Charles Darwin and Steve Irwin cared for the same tortoise! I learned a lot from this book but alas am on vacation and headed for the Mozambique coast for some diving and fishing so this will suffice for a review for now ...

[Sarah Faulkner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at animal psychology and behavior. It gets a bit dry and academic at times, but it is written for a layperson. The Aesop fable frame provides good a good hook and organizing structure.