Book Reviews and Author Interviews from All-Creatures.org




Queer Ducks (and Other Animals) – The Natural World of Animal Sexuality By Eliot Schrefer

Interviewed by Marc Bekoff, Psychology Today / Animal Emotions

Publisher: Harper Collins

Queer Ducks
Queer Ducks (and Other Animals) – The Natural World of Animal Sexuality
Available at Harper Collins
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0063069490
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0063069497

About the Author:

Eliot Schrefer is a New York Times bestselling author, has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature, and has won the Green Earth Book Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award for Children’s Literature. His novels include the Lost Rainforest series, Endangered, Threatened, Rescued, Orphaned, and two books in the Spirit Animals series. He lives in New York City, is on the faculty of the Hamline University and Fairleigh Dickinson University MFA in creative writing programs, and reviews books for USA Today. Visit his website.

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I'm thrilled Eliot could take the time to answer a few questions about his riveting new book. Here's what he had to say.

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Queer Ducks (and Other Animals)?

Eliot Schrefer: I’m a part-time student in the Animal Studies M.A. program at NYU, and we’ve had a few scholars come through talking about same-sex sexual behavior in their species of study. I realized that I’ve always assumed that natural selection wouldn’t call for behaviors that didn’t cause genes to spread in subsequent generations—and yet an explosion of research in recent years has established that same-sex sexual behavior is widespread. A conundrum!

I began to look into theories of why same-sex sexual behavior would persist throughout the animal kingdom. I found compelling individual articles, and some terrific scholarly texts (like Bruce Bagemihl’s Biological Exuberance and Joan Roughgarden’s Evolution’s Rainbow), but not a public-facing book, and found myself getting that feeling of urgency that means I’m going to be writing a new book.

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Please read the ENTIRE INTERVIEW HERE.


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