Having studied a large swath of reproductive organs while working towards my PhD in biology, I was very excited to see a book dealing with the crazy diversity of reproductive traits across animals. Honestly, there is so much that could be said that it is almost shocking that the author was able to limit herself to under 200 pages!

This book, translated from French, dives into specific examples of strange reproductive organs and behaviors in small vignettes. Each small chapter focuses on a different animal and what makes them unique with an illustration, usually of the male appendage, following the section. The illustrations were lovely and harkened back to the era of scientific illustrations that documented findings and helped classify organisms (since penes are commonly a distinguishing trait). The organisms and their physiology were varied in their functions and covered a very wide variety of reproductive organs and behaviors. My favorite examples were covered through several sections of the book (ducks, barnacles, and even spiders!) and I longed for a references section at the end.

My only complaint is that I wanted more. But then again, that's why I work on this topic for a living! This book was a great summary of the wild and crazy (and sometimes terrifying) biology.

*I would like to thank the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead.

I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings.

Anything requested and approved will be read and a decent quality review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

This book is a varied and plainly explained listing of all the different ways that the members of the animal kingdom have evolved over time to procreate and enjoy (for the most part) the experience.
Pouydebat does a great job of throwing all the very sciency terms at readers without getting too complicated for us poor fools who struggled through middle-school biology. I sometimes ran into terms and words that might as well have been random letters, but everything around them was easy to understand and in the plainest terms possible. It made for an enjoyable read full of fascinating facts.
I also appreciate the author taking every possible opportunity to express dismay at the fact that so much is known and has been studied about male appendages while the females keep getting the short end of the stick. And they're right. Science knows the measurement and peculiarities of even the smallest male but barely knows anything about the females of the same species. You can't know everything if you ignore half the population you're studying.

Happy thanks to NetGalley and The MIT Press for the educational read!

There is truly nothing unnatural in nature and the book Sexus Animalis shows that. The author Emmanuelle Pouydebat covers a variety of animals and their mating rituals which was really interesting. Also helps to have illustrations to guide a lot of biological details.

Sexus Animalis by Emmanuelle Pouydebat is a delightfully entertaining and surprisingly informative read. The information is thorough in its scope, with a vocabulary that's easily accessible for those of us outside the scientific world.

This is a wonderful primer on variety of morphologies in the natural world. It's written in such a way, that laypeople as well as scientists can learn a tremendous amount. The author's tone is one of good humor, respect, and wonder, and her students are lucky to have her as a teacher.

Sexus Animalis: There Is Nothing Unnatural in Nature by Emmanuelle Pouydebat is an illustrated guide to the amazingly multifarious sex lives of animals, from elephants and bonobos to butterflies and bedbugs.It is currently scheduled for release on March 8 2022.

There may be nothing unnatural in nature, but nature still encompasses much that seems fantastically strange—the amazingly multifarious sex lives of animals, for example. Sexus Animalis tells us everything we never dreamed we wanted to know about the reproductive systems, genital organs, and sexual practices of animals, from elephants (who masturbate with their trunks) to fruit flies (who produce spermatozoa twenty times their size). In the animal kingdom we find heterosexual, lesbian, gay, and bisexual behavior, as well as monogamy, polygamy, and polyandry, not to mention fellatio and many varieties of erections and orgasms. Emmanuelle Pouydebat, a natural history researcher, tells us about gutter penises, double penises, detachable penises, and corkscrew-shaped penises, as well as vaginas built for storage and clitorises with thorns. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s more data about animal penises than animal vaginas and clitorises.) She explains how the ostrich achieves an erection, describes the courtship of pygmy chameleons, and recounts how the female short-beaked echidna chooses a partner. She reports on sexual assault among animals—there’s evidence that half of female mallards are sexually assaulted—and explains how masturbation helps squirrels avoid sexually transmitted diseases. It seems that animals have been composing their own Kama Sutra throughout the ages. Striking color illustrations accompany the text.

Sexus Animalis is a book that offers exactly what is promises, fascinated information that I never knew I wanted to know about the anatomy and mechanisms of sex for a wide variety of animals and how evolution and natural selection could play their part in all of it. I found the writing style to be accessible with some humor and straight forward information that I never thought about exploring previously. I thought the information included was well researched and organized, and pointed out the gaps in our understanding and how much work there is still to do. I thought the frank and honest explanations were peppered with a nice dose of humor and wit to add another level of interest and entertainment to the read without lessening the credibility of the text. I thought that the illustrations were tasteful and very well done, and helped give readers a more informed awareness of the size and particularities of what is being described in text. I was very interested in the implications of how evolution and other factors have made so many variations on the sex lives of creatures of all shapes and sizes. I never thought much about it, and think there are many people that likewise never considered the complexity and sometimes straight up strangeness of the world around us. This read entertained, informed, and got me thinking a little more about the complexities of the world around us.

I have a shameful secret: I’m fascinated by the mating habits of animals. It’s hard to understand how not everyone is interested in such a subject so the fact that this book exists, and that there are scientists who research this, made me instantly pick it up. The author writes in an approachable and funny manner, which makes this a delightful read. She includes all kinds of creatures from the whole animal kingdom, and the facts that she discusses are surprising and fascinating. She makes even the most dry biology sound fun. Beginning with why nature evolved in a way that made mating necessary, she explains what’s known about the subject and even includes theories and facts that have not yet been explained. The content leans heavily on male biology, since she explains how the females have not been researched as much, but includes everything, from reproduction to pleasure. It’s a short read and I wish it would have been much longer. This book may not provide normal people with dinner conversation, but I wildly enjoyed it and learned from it.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#The MIT Press!

2 stars

**Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.**

Pros
+ topic: interesting sex practices and reproductive organs of animals
+ rep: hetero, lesbian, gay, and bisexual behavior in the animal kingdom

Cons
- The writing style was informative but unfortunately dry, which made it entirely forgettable.
- As a precaution against the dry writing, the author includes jokes which I found cringey. The jokes personify the animals and are about their sex lives so it just felt weird.
- At the end of each animal's section, the author would mention many other animals who have similar/equally bizarre sex lives/organs which I found confusing and a bit overwhelming. Why not just keep each section for 1 animal and create other sections if needed?
- Each animal has an accompanying genital illustration. It was unneeded. I really wish it had just been of the animals, maybe during sex. But the zoomed-in dick pics really weren't it.

TW: rape

Vastly informative and fascinating topic. My biggest problem was I did not understand all the vocabulary and terminology used. It was kind of like talking to an expert in a field who is explaining the basics, they use all the terms that they understand while a newbie is left scratching their head.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Sexus Animalis uses illustrations to show animals with non-standard reproductive systems and processes using short entries and large, beautiful illustrations. The book was an easy read and would be comprehensible to non-biology majors and could be a good source for getting teens interested in biology. The illustrations were fantastic.

And oh my, is it fun. It’s so weird, so bizarre, so alien…you just can’t put it down. And, the good news is, you don’t have to, the book is slim enough to easily get through in one sitting, it took me maybe 120 minutes. It even had some lovely art, so you know just which creature you’re learning all those terribly intimate things about. And some of the things you’ll learn are terrible – animals are pervs. Just like people, in that respect. But then there are detachable (or prehensile) penises and gender swapping and some profoundly odd genital shapes that are…well, different. Very, very different. But, of course, all perfectly natural, because, you know, it's nature. Literally.
The author, much to her credit, has struck just the right tone here, it’s science but one you just have to marvel at with bewildered bemusement or something like that. It’s disturbing, funny, strange, and, above all, absolutely fascinating. It’s also a pure pleasure to read, this NC-17 rated nature documentary you’ve been secretly searching for. Oodles of fun. Recommended.

Previously published in French, this book is now available in English through MIT Press.

When I was a child, the phrase “learning about the birds and bees” meant one thing: the act between sexually dimorphic partners having an “innie” and an “outie.” With today’s gender fluidity, identity, and preferences, nothing is that simple any more, and this book shows that in nature, nothing ever was that simple.

As SOME people say, they “only buy Penthouse for the stories.” Other people like me, will read books from NetGalley for the pictures, and more, and this book has an eyeful! Let’s cut to the chase and just start with those pictures. If my beloved Georgia O’Keeffe’s floral paintings are suggestive of a woman’s most intimate parts, then the artwork in here is suggestive of the weirdest aliens in the wildest science fiction writer’s first contact stories. And I do mean close encounters of the third kind! Some drawings are close up pencil sketches of anatomy, I think. It’s actually hard to imagine some of these images are sex organs much less belonging to animals existing here on planet earth, and even after staring at them, and using my imagination, I cannot understand how some of them work. Other drawings are full-color pencil sketches of animals getting frisky in “the act”—reminiscent of those US court house sketches used in lieu of photographs, except maybe more interesting. Let’s hope they sell this book sealed in plastic to keep these pages pristine!

There are so many stories about size and shape—of penises of course—from the gigantic to nonexistent to hidden to detachable. Some males are equipped with a double dong and some a quad head and others a prehensile wand long enough to scratch the owner’s back after “satisfying his itch.” There are stories about intimacy, cock-blocking, deception, rape, murder, and last and sadly maybe least—pleasure.

Any permutation you can imagine—it has been described here. The writing is fresh, personable, engaging, humorous, thoughtful, and sensitive. I could easily imagine this being a volume to keep on hand in the lavatory to browse during a private moment. I especially liked the scientific aspects and wish there were more.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an eye opening ARC in exchange for my feedback.

Thank you for the publisher and Netgalley for my e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fun read. As a former bio/eco major I enjoy reading about animals and the secrets of their behaviour.
I've found that even though I spent many years behind a schooldesk studying the flora and fauna of the world, this book still had a couple of interesting infos I didn't know or forgot about.

I read the book throughout a couple of weeks. I can confirm that it is a good read for commute, because you can read it a chapter at a time and even if you don't pick it up for a couple of days you'll still be able to enjoy and continue it.

I also quite liked the art in it, but they felt kind of random. The choices on what they depict and the selection on which animals to highlight as well.
I also felt that the book itself was a bit like that too, I didn't really feel that there was a conscious structure or thought that followed through in each chapter.

All in all the absence of cohesion was a bit of a let down for me, but otherwise I would recommend this read for non bio and bio background ppl as well.
Rating:
3.5 stars

I enjoyed this book. Author Emmanuelle Pouydebat explains anatomy and evolution very clearly, with a conversational tone, and with a copious amount of humor. However, at times I did think that the humor was somewhat juvenile. Julie Terrazzoni provided great illustrations, which were a high point of the book for me. Kudos also to Erik Butler for the great translation including the use of idiomatic language. Thank you to Netgalley and MIT Press for the advance reader copy.

This book offers a sampler of the wildly divergent ways and equipments by which animals manage sexual reproduction. From amazingly varied types of penises and vaginas to a variety of mating practices, the author offers very short chapters that each cover a particular species. The chapters are arranged to move through major adaptive themes in the species’ evolution. It was a quick read and definitely kept my attention. I would have enjoyed more depth on the life and habits of the animals, however. I was frequently disappointed that the chapters seemed limited to description with very little discussion about what we can learn about the organism as whole and its evolutionary history from examining its current form.

Subtitled "There Is Nothing Unnatural in Nature" and written with a delightfully playful sense of humor, this books explores a sampling of animal (including non-vertebrates) sexual behaviors and appendages, making for an incredible read. And I mean that literally - it's hardly possible to credit some of these things, although I have no doubt that they're true.

There's the water boatman, for example, which has - and I am stating this correctly - the loudest penis in the world, for its size. There is a fish, known o-fish-ially as the Phallostethus cuulong, that is quite ltierally, a dick head. Since there was a walrus, it would have been nice to have included a carpenter - ant, but I guess that was too much to hope for! I suppose there's nothing particularly special about the ants when it comes to this subject. There's the clownfish - and this ain't your children's Nemo. I've concluded they get their name from the clowning around they do with lines of succession, and gender changes. And the young have a brief rumspringa, too!

Oh yes. Any idiot creationists who try to claim that their god made everything to perfection just a few thousand years ago and exactly as we see it now, will have some serious work to do to supply intelligent explanations for the variety of behaviors - some of which are despicable - that their creator purportedly made. The bedbug comes immediately to mind. It's equipped with a literal weapon - it's not just a euphemism in the case of a bedbug. It's supplied with a beveled penis that stabs right through the female's exoskeleton and it doesn't matter - to the male - where penetration is made. This is only one story of such brutality. There's also rape in the animal kingdom: it's not just a human thing.

On a much more pleasant note, there is also love in the animal kingdon - at least amongst the higher species - which includes rats! There are also gay relationships and transgender changes, and masturbation, so as they say, there's nothing new under the sun and not a whole heck of a lot of difference between animals and humans - who are also animals - when it comes to sexual expression.

There is over thirty such stories of amazing variety included here: of impressive stamina and record-setting activity, along with numberous asides that are relevant if slightly off the main topic. The book made for a perverse and fascinating read and I commend it fully.

No male on earth will ever come out of things well if he starts to think about his mother's attitude to penises. But what about Mother Nature – surely we can consider her approach to using the things? This book does just that, in eye-boggling style and with mind-blowing content, making it the book whose contents you really would never have expected to find yourself reading about.

And that content, even if it really seems a rarefied topic, is wide-ranging. There are birds with penises, but only three per cent of them – despite birds mating in ways that would make them more than useful, ninety-seven per cent of them seem to have evolved to no longer have them, and we can never be sure why. It's hard to know how tubular, inserted sperm deposit machines evolved in the first place, as insemination took place in water before we ever turned into land creatures. There is the female biology side of things as well, although we're told the research is biased in the other favour. This section of our world includes how the dolphin can divert the penis to lessen the chance of impregnation, and many other females choosing discernment as to what gets to be successful.

All this then is very measuredly given, with just a tiny bit about the animals, and a larger bit about their, well, tiny bits (although if crocodiles can have a three foot long clitoris, that's only relative – and many creatures here would put the human proportion to shame). Oh, and the illustrations, showing the dirty deed and the organ of concern, have the same vicar's wife-friendly fine art style, making this have the feel of "The Joy of Sex", or similar early sex manuals.

You may have to ask your parents about those. Just nothing else here. You won't need to check with them the qualities of this book, which is very surprising, very intelligently done – and very French. Some irrelevant and repeated illustrations aside, this is nearly perfect – four and a half stars. Well, we can't have the creators getting all cocky...

This was an informative and entertaining book! I would never have guessed so much sexual diversity existed on Earth. Some of the sex in the animal kingdom sounded downright scary; really alarming! It gave me a pretty good laugh simultaneously. Emmanuelle Pouvdebat, and her collegues, certainly did their homework. I actually think this would make a good read for anyone. It's not too technical and the language is really everyday-ish; just plain English. Chapters aren't too long, just direct and to the point.

This was, indeed, and impressive read! It was fun and I even made me laugh out loud at some points, and I think that it is the perfect read for anyone curios