New book reveals what we can learn from animal sex

“Poke the squid: What we can learn from animal sexual behavior.”
perrin roosevelt ireland
Around 2026, WW Norton
$29.99 241 pages

Birds do it.

Cole Porter says the same goes for bees, but it’s not quite what he imagined. Wild animals, domesticated animals, birds, insects, and mammals all have sex. However, we don’t always have sex the way we’re told or for the reasons you think. Even educated fleas do it, as a new book says. “Peck the squid” By Perrin Roosevelt Ireland, humans can learn from them all.

If you read scientific papers about animal reproduction, you might notice something unusual. To scientists, the word “sex” can mean many different things.

Ireland says, “It is used to describe behavior, biology, life history, etc.”

This may be because animals are not a simple dualism.

Let’s take the hyena as an example. Due to stereotypes in anatomy, casual observers can easily mistake a male hyena for a female, or vice versa. Mating in hyenas requires subordination to the male and nifty tricks of the female’s body parts to accomplish it.

Our feathered friends aren’t bird-brained either. Black-browed albatrosses were once thought to be monogamous, but global warming may change their nesting habits. Male flamingos have sex with each other as a territorial act. Other birds and animals form same-sex pairs for other reasons.

Chinese praying mantises eat their mates after fertilization. Female snakes, alpacas, guinea pigs, and monkeys are anatomically capable of enjoying sex. Reproductive organs vary considerably between species. In fact, duck vaginas are “very complex.” Lionesses mate up to 100 times during the heat season. Female damselflies turn into a “third sex” to avoid overly aggressive mating males. Bearded dragons can also change sex if necessary, and so can yellow gobies. And the seahorse’s pregnancy and birth led to the book being banned in Tennessee.

So, Ireland asks, if the ecology and lives of animals, including ours, are so different? “Why do we use the word sex as if it means something, anything, consistent?!”

If you pick up a copy of “Poke the Squid” and flip through the pages for a few seconds, you’ll see that most of the information here is told through a combination of cartoon-like pictures and captions. It looks like it’s on the lighter side, but don’t let the artwork fool you.

Author Perrin Roosevelt Ireland provides readers with solid academic information, including quotes from hard science, philosophy, feminism, and supporting researchers, to deepen the story and get straight to the point. If you’re looking at this art and expecting something hilarious, comical, and chat-worthy, you might be disappointed.

On the other hand, if you want some solid, ironically serious facts, you’re in for a treat.

There’s a lot to learn here, and some whimsical, winking elements to emphasize the absurdity of wrong thinking. This makes the reader feel like they know the joke well, and the playfulness balances out the seriousness of the information well.

So if you read a book like this, you’ll know what you’re looking for, whether it’s serious, academic, or a little silly, none of which is negative. For the right reader, that is, someone in a good mood, “Peck the Squid” is wild.

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