Wild Health: How Animals Keep Themselves Well and What We Can Learn from Them

Wild Health: How Animals Keep Themselves Well and What We Can Learn from Them

by Cindy Engel (Author)

Synopsis

How do animals keep themselves well in the wild? Folklore and traditional medicine have long laid claim to feats of self-medication by animals but, until recently, scientists have dismissed such stories as romantic anthropomorphism. This is now changing as more and more scientists uncover examples of insects, birds and mammals self- medicating their ills. Chimpanzees carefully select bitter-tasting anti- parasitic plant 'medicines' that counter intestinal parasites and elephants roam miles to find the clay which counters dietary toxins. This book explores the behavioural strategies animals use to maintain health. Many of these methods can be exploited to improve the health of animals in our care. By observing wild health we may even discover (or rediscover) ways to benefit our own health.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Edition: New
Publisher: Phoenix
Published: 02 Jan 2003

ISBN 10: 0753816768
ISBN 13: 9780753816769
Book Overview: The first general overview of the emerging science of 'zoopharmacognosy' Widespread public interest in animals and how they behave Cindy Engel is an expert in the field of animal behaviour and environmental science 'A fascinating new book' Guardian 'A sensuous, rigorous analysis of how animals stay healthy in the wild...Replete with fresh ideas, Wild Health also explains phenomena we have experienced but never understood...her writing [is] accessible and amusing.The book furnishes the reader with interesting nuggets of information beyond its main narrative' Financial Times

Media Reviews
Cindy has been very active in both the UK and the US writing features on hernew paperback including an article on Wild Aromatherapists in Massage & Health Review, Spring 2003 and another 2000 word feature in the Times Higher Educational Supplement which will appear on April 4. And we are waiting fora confirmed date for her interview on Channel 4's RICHARD AND JUDY. Reviews are now coming in: Engel's book collates the most recent research on the subj
Author Bio
Cindy Engel earned a PhD in animal behaviour from the University of East Anglia. Her fieldwork has followed the habits of rabbits in England and the movements of jaguars in the jungles of southern Mexico. She is an assistant lecturer in the Faculty of Environmental Science at the Open University, and is currently also a consultant in animal behaviour for various commercial organic farms. A freelance radio and television science advisor, she has recently worked on a wildlife series for the National Geographic Channel, and a BBC radio series on the natural history of medicine. Cindy is also a practitioner of holistic medicine, and lives on a smallholding in rural Suffolk with her two children.