Essential reading? Kruuk鈥檚 recent biography of animal behaviourist, Nobel prizewinner and friend Niko Tinbergen, Niko鈥檚 Nature (Oxford), left him 鈥渢remendously impressed鈥� once more by Tinbergen鈥檚 The Study of Instinct (Oxford, 1951): 鈥淚t provides such a lucid and enthusiastic rationale for studying the behaviour of animals. I feel every biologist should be aware of Tinbergen鈥檚 four different ways of asking the question 鈥榳hy?'鈥�
For the plane? For many years Kruuk lived and worked in Africa. On his last visit he took Paul Theroux鈥檚 Dark Star Safari (Houghton Mifflin, 2003). Theroux鈥檚 鈥渦tterly compelling account of the changes since the 1960s, of the horrific decline of life in Africa, and of the smiling or desperate resignation of its people is chillingly accurate鈥�, he says. 鈥淚t articulates a feeling of doom which no traveller to Africa can escape at the moment, even when, as a researcher, one concentrates on the continent鈥檚 fabulous wildlife.鈥�
He found an excellent background to these African scenes in Jared Diamond鈥檚 Guns, Germs and Steel (Vintage, 1998). Diamond 鈥減uts Africa鈥檚 disadvantages in a worldwide perspective, and argues that they are basically due to geography, as well as some historical accident.鈥�
Advertisement