Altruistic Armadillos, Zenlike Zebras: A Menagerie of 100 Favorite Animals

Altruistic Armadillos, Zenlike Zebras by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Short essays covering the author's favorite animals, explaining basic facts along with the unusual characteristics that make each species distinct. Masson is a world traveler, as well as a former psychoanalyst, so he combines research and information with his own feelings about his choices.

All hail to library displays!  I would never have found this book, let alone read it, unless the local library hadn't created an "animal book" display in front of the stacks.  I literally picked it up on the way to the checkout desk.  The short overview format makes this book entertaining... each animal only gets about 3 pages.  However, there is so much information packed into each that I could only read about three or four animals before my brain needed to rest & process.  My husband laughed every time I say "Huh!", when I read yet another fact... for example, that camels don't need constant water because they internally recycle their urine (weird but true).  The book occasionally becomes a little preachy about saving endangered species, but then again, so do I.