{"product_id":"headless-males-make-great-lovers-marty-crump-9780226122021","title":"Headless Males Make Great Lovers: And Other Unusual Natural Histories","description":"The natural world is filled with diverse--not to mention quirky and odd--animal behaviors. Consider the male praying mantis that continues to mate after being beheaded; the spiders, insects, and birds that offer gifts of food in return for sex; the male hip-pocket frog that carries his own tadpoles; the baby spiders that dine on their mother; the beetle that craves excrement; or the starfish that sheds an arm or two to escape a predator's grasp. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eHeadless Males Make Great Lovers and Other Unusual Natural Histories\u003c\/i\u003e celebrates the extraordinary world of animals with essays on curious creatures and their amazing behaviors. In five thematic chapters, Marty Crump--a tropical field biologist well known for her work with the reproductive behavior of amphibians--examines the bizarre conduct of animals as they mate, parent, feed, defend themselves, and communicate. Crump's enthusiasm for the unusual behaviors she describes-from sex change and free love in sponges to aphrodisiac concoctions in bats-is visible on every page, thanks to her skilled storytelling, which makes even sea slugs, dung beetles, ticks, and tapeworms fascinating and appealing. Steeped in biology, \u003ci\u003e Headless Males Make Great Lovers\u003c\/i\u003e points out that diverse and unrelated animals often share seemingly bizarre behaviors--evidence, Crump argues, that these natural histories, though outwardly weird, are successful ways of living. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIllustrated throughout, and filled with vignettes of personal and scientific interest, \u003ci\u003eHeadless Males Make Great Lovers\u003c\/i\u003e will enchant the general reader with its tales of blood-squirting horned lizards and intestine-ejecting sea cucumbers--all in the service of a greater appreciation of the diversity of the natural histories of animals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Marty Crump\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0226122026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780226122021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/01\/2007\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 216\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.66lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.94h x 6.36w x 0.52d","brand":"Marty Crump","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43946335633663,"sku":"9780226122021","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_94b68901-ce37-4658-93be-6a4d6482864b.jpg?v=1681512580","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/headless-males-make-great-lovers-marty-crump-9780226122021","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}