Evolutionary Wars: The Battle of the Species on Land, Sea, and Air

From School Library Journal YA-This book explores the "extraordinary technologies" species have devised to ensure their survival. This Darwinian struggle has produced strategies, tactics, and weaponry that rival or surpass even the most sophisticated efforts produced by humans. Levy's evocation of military terminology will be familiar to generations raised with television, movies, and video games. Discussions of early warning and navigation systems, echolocation, and "primary target acquisition systems" pepper the text. The author pays special attention to the weapons technology that abounds in nature-claws, talons, teeth, suffocation (constrictors), toxic injection (scorpions), and electricity (eels). He points out offensive and defensive strategies practiced by a range of species, such as the schooling strategies of fish, the cooperative hunting exhibited by wolves and other carnivores, and the recruitment of mercenaries, evidenced by the relationship between thorn acacia trees and ants. Although Levy limits his focus to "familiar organisms," he includes an impressive array of species, from the microbial world to the largest vertebrates, past and present. The exquisite drawings provide the crowning touch.