Aesop's Animals: The Science Behind the Fables

Written by Jo Wimpenny

Narrated by Jennifer M. Dixon

Despite originating more than two-and-a-half thousand years ago, Aesop's Fables are still passed on from parent to child, and are embedded in our collective consciousness. The morals we have learned from these tales continue to inform our judgements, but have the stories also informed how we regard their animal protagonists? If so, is there any truth behind the stereotypes? Are wolves deceptive villains? Are crows insightful geniuses? And could a tortoise really beat a hare in a race?



In Aesop's Animals, zoologist Jo Wimpenny turns a critical eye to the fables to discover whether there is any scientific truth to Aesop's portrayal of the animal kingdom. She brings the tales into the twenty-first century, introducing the latest findings on some of the most fascinating branches of ethological research—the study of why animals do the things they do. In each chapter she interrogates a classic fable and a different topic—future planning, tool use, self-recognition, cooperation and deception—concluding with a verdict on the veracity of each fable's portrayal from a scientific perspective.



By sifting fact from fiction in one of the most beloved texts of our culture, Aesop's Animals explores and challenges our preconceived notions about animals, the way they behave, and the roles we both play in our shared world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Oct 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798765059920

Reviews for Aesop's Animals

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[pomo58 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.