Introduction

1.
eel
2.
beaver
3.
sloth
4.
hyena
5.
eagle
6.
bat
7.
frog
8.
stork
9.
hippo
10.
moose
11.
panda
12.
penguin
13.
chimpanzee

Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Translator's Note

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From Aristotle to Walt Disney
The surprising truth about animals we never knew

For most of the 20th century, the giant panda was considered a mistake of evolution.
An incompetent being who cannot even perform the basic functions necessary for survival.
While she was loved around the world for her cute cartoon-like appearance, she was also ridiculed for her indifference to sex and unusual vegetarianism.
But the author says that this pitiful image of the panda is nothing more than a modern-day superstition.
Despite their docile and clumsy appearance, pandas are remarkable evolutionary survivors, having survived in their current form at least three times longer than humans, perfectly adapted to their unusual lifestyle.
Pandas have a highly developed sense of smell, so their extremely short ovulation period does not hinder their reproduction in the wild.
This may be an evolutionary adaptation to precisely control population size.


Hyenas, portrayed as pathetic fools in the animated film [The Lion King], notorious wild thugs and cowards who hide in the back alleys of the animal kingdom across history, culture, and continents, plotting to steal dinner from noble creatures, are actually incredibly efficient animals with brains that are much smarter than the average carnivore.
It is also a 'feminist' animal in a typical phallocentric animal world, where the female chooses who, when, and where to mate.

We have a habit of looking at the animal world through the narrow prism of humans.
For centuries, humans have looked at animals with an obsession with good and evil.
The beaver's diligence was used as a moral guide for pioneering the New World, and bats, which had physical characteristics different from those of birds, were given a demonic image.
The author seeks to dispel the various myths and superstitions attached to animals for political, social, and moral reasons and to look at each animal as it is.
It relieves the grievances of unfortunate creatures (hyenas, sloths, eagles, and moose) who have suffered humiliation and persecution for a long time due to negative images that were somehow imprinted on them, and exposes the true nature of animals (hippopotamuses, pandas, and penguins) that were especially loved for political and social reasons.
Eagles, which quickly appear in flocks at the scene of death, are very economical and environmentally friendly scavengers, and sloths are not nature's failures but evolutionary survivors who have outlived the woolly mammoth and saber-toothed tiger.
Furthermore, penguins, which have been considered models of proper social behavior that adhere to Christian family values, are an example of a promiscuous sexual life, not only of monogamy but also of cheating on their spouses and engaging in prostitution.


The author goes on all sorts of adventures, including applying hippopotamus sweat to his skin, drinking frog aphrodisiacs, jumping off cliffs with eagles, and chasing drunken moose, in search of the truth about animals we have been mistaken about.
And he tells the crazy, heartbreaking story in detail.


Humanity's persistent efforts to uncover the secrets of evolution
Or the scientific progress brought about by madness and obsession

Animals do not readily reveal the secrets of their lives.
For over 2,000 years, the greatest zoologist in the history of zoology, from Aristotle onward, has searched for the eel's testicles, and for animals like frogs and eels that lack visible reproductive organs or undergo incomprehensible metamorphosis, Aristotle's theory of spontaneous generation, that life magically arose from inorganic matter, has invariably been applied.
The fact that the Oriental stork flies 20,000 kilometers to Africa to find food during the winter is common knowledge to us today, but the disappearance of the Oriental stork, along with the migration of other migratory birds, has long been a topic that has been glossed over in the history of natural science.


The author takes us back to a time of wonder and ignorance, a time of misunderstanding and prejudice, when little was known about animals and anything was possible.
It unflinchingly reveals the arduous process of scientific discovery, through the superstitions and mistakes humans have created to fill the gaps in understanding and knowledge, and what humans have done to reach the truth.
The experiments humans conduct on animals to uncover the secrets of evolution or to satisfy their curiosity are sometimes outrageous and even cruel.


From the natural philosopher who fed ostriches all sorts of iron objects like scissors and nails to test popular beliefs, to the 17th-century doctor who followed ancient secrets of life creation by placing a duck on a pile of dung and waiting for a toad to hatch naturally, to the custom-made underwear made for frogs to reveal the secrets of fertilization, to the cuteness of burying live swallows in the snow to see if they hibernate.
There are biologists who have thrown sloths into countless rivers to see if they can swim, and there are scientists who have blinded bats, filled their eyeballs with wax, coated their entire bodies with varnish, cut off their ears, and pulled out their tongues to find the source of their ability to navigate in the dark.
The U.S. government conducted unethical experiments to create chimpanzee-human hybrids, and during World War II, experiments were conducted on bats to carry bombs.
There was even a crazy psychologist who tested the taboo on incest by raising a chimpanzee as his daughter.

Although these experiments may seem like madmen's work on the surface, it is difficult to deny that these mad obsessions have gradually revealed the secrets of evolution and advanced science.
The author acknowledges that the human-centered, selfish perspective that viewed all other animals as beings meant to satisfy human needs has led to the most misguided mistakes in history, but that this mistake is also an essential element in the advancement of science.


Created by human misunderstandings, prejudices, mistakes and superstitions
A History of Living Zoology

The most absurd beliefs about animals were most actively produced in the Middle Ages, when Christianity took control of the nascent natural sciences following the fall of the Roman Empire.
The animal fables popular during this period, full of colorful illustrations and detailed descriptions, were not written with in-depth research on animal life, but were mostly embellished versions of a 4th-century AD manuscript called the Physiologus.
Pysiologus, an adaptation of a folktale with a touch of fact, was the greatest medieval bestseller, aside from the Bible, and was translated into a dozen languages, spreading the absurd animal legends around the world from Ethiopia to Iceland.
Attempts to apply human characteristics and moral standards to the animal world persisted even in the Enlightenment, thanks in part to the 44-volume encyclopedia Natural History by Buffon, a French nobleman who, ironically, was a leader in the scientific revolution and who struggled to bring natural history out of the shadow of the Church.

The author presents a living history of zoology, drawing on extensive research and vivid interviews with field scientists, from the works of Aristotle to the modern internet.
In the Masai Mara, we meet researchers measuring the IQ of hyenas, in China, we meet panda porn traffickers, a British inventor who created a sloth butt speedometer, and a Scottish writer who compiled the world's first dictionary of chimpanzee language.
Thanks to the careful research and direct citation of various documents and historical materials from ancient times to the present, and the explanation of the basis, it maintains the dignity of a zoology book, while maintaining a humorous writing style throughout, making it even more enjoyable to read.
It's also fun to read little-known anecdotes about famous people, such as the fact that Freud's first research paper was on the reproductive organs of eels, that he personally applied for a rejuvenation treatment that involved sewing "monkey glands" directly into human testicles to extend human lifespan to 140 years, how a remote area in Colombia became a haven for hippos (the infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar appears here), and the relationship between Chilean dictator Pinochet and the African clawed frog.