Aesop’s animals

Despite being conceived over two and a half thousand years ago, Aesop’s Fables are still passed from parent to child today, and are embedded in our collective consciousness. The morals we learnt from these tales still inform our judgements, but have they influenced our views of the animal protagonists as well? And if so, is there any truth behind the stereotypes? In ‘Aesop’s Animals’, zoologist Jo Wimpenny turns a critical eye to the fables and ask whether there is any scientific truth to Aesop’s portrayal of his animals. She brings the tales into the twenty-first century, introducing the latest scientific research on some of the most fascinating topics in animal behaviour. Each chapter focuses on a different fable and a different topic in ethology, including future planning, tool use, self-recognition, cooperation and deception.