Bitch: On the Female of the Species

A "playful, enlightening," and "effervescent exposé" (Scientific American) on the queens of the animal kingdom

Studying zoology made Lucy Cooke feel like a sad freak. Not because she loved spiders or would root around in animal feces: all her friends shared the same curious kinks. The problem was her sex. Being female meant she was, by nature, a loser.

Since Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologists have been convinced that the males of the animal kingdom are the interesting ones--dominating and promiscuous, while females are dull, passive, and devoted.

In Bitch, Cooke tells a new story. Whether investigating same-sex female albatross couples that raise chicks, murderous mother meerkats, or the titanic battle of the sexes waged by ducks, Cooke shows us a new evolutionary biology, one where females can be as dynamic as any male. This isn't your grandfather's evolutionary biology. It's more inclusive, truer to life, and, simply, more fun.

ISBN-13: 9781541674912

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Basic Books

Publication Date: 10-17-2023

Pages: 400

Product Dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)

Lucy Cooke is the author of The Truth About Animals, which was short-listed for the Royal Society Prize, and the New York Times bestselling A Little Book of Sloth. She is a National Geographic explorer, TED talker, and award-winning documentary filmmaker with a master’s degree in zoology from Oxford University. She lives in Hastings, England.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

1 The Anarchy of Sex 1

2 The Mysteries of Mate Choice 28

3 The Monogamy Myth 44

4 Fifty Ways to Eat Your Lover 77

5 Love Is a Battlefield 99

6 Madonna No More 122

7 Bitch Eat Bitch 156

8 Primate Politics 182

9 Matriarchs and Menopause 215

10 Sisters Are Doing it for Themselves 237

11 Beyond the Binary 262

Conclusion: A Natural World Without Prejudice 281

Acknowledgements 289

Notes 291

Selected Bibliography 347

Index 353

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