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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