Wild Sex: The Science Behind Mating in the Animal Kingdom

A brilliantly engaging guide to the reproductive habits of creatures great and small, based on the author’s popular webseries "Wild Sex," which has received over 14 million views

Birds do it, bees do it — every member of the animal kingdom does it, from fruit flies to blue whales. But if you think humans have a tough time dating, try having to do it while being hunted down by predators, against a backdrop of unpredictable and life-threatening conditions. The animal kingdom is a wild place – and it’s got mating habits to match. The sex lives of our animal cousins are fiendishly difficult, infinitely varied, often incredibly violent — and absolutely fascinating.

In Wild Sex, Dr. Carin Bondar takes readers on an enthralling tour of the animal kingdom as she explores the diverse world of sex in the wild. She looks at the evolution of sexual organs (and how they’ve shaped social hierarchies), tactics of seduction, and the mechanics of sex. She investigates a wide range of topics, from whether animals experience pleasure from sex to what happens when females hold the reproductive power. Along the way, she encounters razor-sharp penises, murderous carnal cannibals, and spontaneous chemical warfare in an epic battle between the sexes.

The resulting book is titillating, exhilarating, amusing, petrifying, alluring — and absolutely guaranteed to make you think about sex in a whole new way.

Dr. Carin Bondar received a PhD in population ecology from the University of British Columbia and has hosted a variety of online and television programs at Scientific American, PBS Digital Studios, and the Science Channel. She is also the author of Wild Sex and lives in British Columbia, Canada.