From an expert on behavioral evolution, an entertaining exploration of what raccoons, rats, and other animal intruders teach us about intelligence, adaptability, and ourselves.

Marlene Zuk is a biologist and author

Recently retired from the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior at the University of Minnesota, her interests range across animal behavior and evolutionary biology, with a special emphasis on how parasites and disease affect their hosts. She has studied many kinds of animals, but insects are her main passion. Her writing explores how we think animal behavior reflects our own, and vice versa. She’s worked and lived in California, Michigan, New Mexico, Hawaii, Australia and Sweden, and currently lives in St. Paul, Minnesota with her husband and cats. She loves the Twin Cities but tries to escape to warmer climes – especially the desert – in the winter.