SOME of the natural history nuggets Marty Crump has so carefully collated will be familiar to regular readers of New Scientist. No matter, her precise but jolly prose treats hummingbird nostril mites, blood-sharing vampire bats and bubble-hunting whales with such enthusiasm that it is like meeting long-lost friends.
Unusual animal relationships figure strongly in the new stuff. While mongooses use termite-mound chimneys as sleeping holes, young gobies and shrimps set up home in the same burrow. Then there are the philandering fairy wrens and gold-digging female oystercatchers that put even the most adventurous soap opera script to shame. Vastly…
