Outsider Animals | Cherishing Shunned Creatures

About this event

Challenge everything you knew about animal cognition and behaviour - What can unpopular creatures teach us about belonging? This is an in-person event at the Linnean Society. After the lecture, there will be a drinks reception in our library . When we think of animals that provide the greatest insights into animal cognition and behavior, primates and honeybees come to mind, or perhaps whales or octopus. What about the raccoons that plunder our rubbish at night, the rats that roam our alleys, or the gulls that divebomb for snacks at the beach? This lecture challenges everything you thought you knew about the overlooked animals that live in proximity to humans. Our feelings can be mixed – cockroaches infest our kitchens, but they teach us about the evolution of pregnancy. Raccoons do get into the trash, but Linnaeus himself had one as a pet. It turns out that these unpopular creatures have something special to teach us not only about the ways we deal with other species but about our own place in nature and what it means for an animal to belong somewhere. Marlene Zuk is a newly-retired Regents Professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota. Her research and teaching have centered on animal behavior and evolution, mostly studying insects, and she is interested in how we see animal behavior as reflecting our own – and vice versa. She has written several books for the public as well as articles for The New York Times , the Los Angeles Times , and New Scientist .