Animal
Tragic
The history of natural history is absolutely littered with mistakes,
some embarrassing, some bizarre, some downright hilarious. Animal Tragic, by
wildlife writer Malcolm Tait, is a bevy of bestial booboos, natural
no-nos and artistic animal atrocities, which also provides the truth
itself behind each tall tale.
Highlights include:
The
belief that swallows hibernated under riverside mud, which explained
their winter absence
The
theory that lemmings hurl themselves over cliffs, a myth encouraged by
Walt Disney whose film about them faked their apparent suicide
The
fact that barnacle geese owe their name to a belief that they were the
offspring of, well, barnacles
The
many writings in medieval bestiaries about fantastic creatures that
could kill you with a glance, or a breath, or even their body odour
The shocking representations of wildlife in
art right up until the twentieth century, even though the artists had
creatures right in front of them
The misconceptions we use in everyday
speech: bats aren’t really blind; owls are actually a bit thick; March
hares are in reality just getting it on with each other
