We've all encountered people who remind us of animals. They act like bears, baboons, weasels, sloths, and vultures and often even physically resemble the animals they behave like. The Animal in You (St. Martin's Press) explores why this correlation is not coincidental, for it is rooted in nature's need for diversity, which is an essential component of a healthy ecosystem. Without it, instability and population booms  threaten the balance. The food chain -- or, more accurately, the food web -- requires the interaction of predators, prey, burrowing creatures, arboreal animal, and insects to remain stable, and it is the interplay of this divergence that gives rise to enduring and healthy populations.

Through a process known as parallel evolution, unrelated animals species separated by vast distances often evolve similar patterns to take advantage of available niches. We're all familiar with the pack mentality, hunting behavior and physical characteristics of the North American wolf, but in Australia, isolated from the mainland for thousands of years, some marsupials have evolved into animals that are remarkably similar to the wolf. Although almost driven to extinction by hunters, the Tasmanian Wolf or thylacine with its dog-like body, coughing bark, and canine hunting behavior parallels the wolf in many ways. Similarly, the porcupine -- a small creature with a prickly exterior for defense -- is mimicked by the porcupine fish, spiked dinosaurs, the cactus and Joan Rivers.

Because our own species so completely dominates the environment, it has essentially become an ecosystem unto itself. So it's not surprising that this same process works on humans, since the attributes that provide equilibrium in the animal world -- aggression, passivity, stealth, skittishness and so on -- also provide stability in our society. This is why we each exhibit a set of characteristics that corresponds to a particular animal species. Animal Attraction explores the relationships between each of the individual species and details the mating strategies for each animal.

Determining your animal personality is a matter of matching your personality traits to the animal species that is closest to you by taking the Animal In You personality test.

Limited numbers of signed Animal in You copies are available for only $10.00  

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