Dancing Bees And Other Amazing Communicators

"A high-interest look at how a variety of animals communicate with one another, from clicks and rumblings to dancing and plumage displays"--

"A high-interest look at how a variety of animals communicate with one another, from clicks and rumblings to dancing and plumage displays"--

“A triumph of science writing, a well crafted, deeply researched story of politics, ethics, and the fascinating lives of humans and bees.” —Jonathan Eig, New York Times–bestselling author We think of bees as being among the busiest workers in the garden, admiring them for their productivity. But amid their buzzing, they are also great communicators—and unusual dancers. As Karl von Frisch (1886–1982) discovered during World War II, bees communicate the location of food sources to each other through complex circle and waggle dances. As Tania Munz shows in this exploration of von Frisch’s life and research, this important discovery came amid the tense circumstances of the Third Reich. The Dancing Bees draws on previously unexplored archival sources in order to reveal von Frisch’s full story, including how the Nazi government in 1940 determined that he was one-quarter Jewish, revoked his teaching privileges, and sought to prevent him from working altogether until circumstances intervened. In the 1940s, bee populations throughout Europe were facing the devastating effects of a plague (just as they are today), and because the bees were essential to the pollination of crops, von Frisch’s research was deemed critical to maintaining the food supply of a nation at war. The bees, as von Frisch put it years later, saved his life. Munz not only explores von Frisch’s complicated career in the Third Reich, she looks closely at the legacy of his work and the later debates about the significance of the bee language and the science of animal communication. “Will surely become a classic in the literature on the history of biology in the twentieth century.” —Thomas D. Seeley, author of Honeybee Democracy

Karl von Frisch, in January 1946, deciphered the dancing language of honeybees. Over the previous summer, he had discovered that the bees communicate the distance and direction of food sources by means of the dances they run upon returning from foraging flights. The news of the discovery, which led later to a Nobel Prize, quickly spread across Europe and beyond. The Dancing Bees is a dual biography on the one hand of von Frisch as one of the most innovative and successful scientists of the twentieth century and, on the other, of his honeybees as experimental and especially communicating animals that play a rich role in human culture."

A look at some animals who depend on camouflage to escape enemies.

When it gets colder during the winter, we can go inside and turn up the heat. But what do animals that live outside do? Some of them survive the winter by hibernating. These animals manage to stay alive by slowing down their heart rates, curling up tight in their shells, or even freezing themselves! Read this book to learn more about the amazing animals that hibernate.

"This book describes the amazing and uncommon ways in which animals defend themselves from predators, from playing dead to shooting blood from their eyes."--

Introduces readers to migratory animals who travel thousands of miles by flying, swimming, or even walking.