The Territorial Imperative

By Robert Ardrey, Berdine Ardrey (illustrator),

Book cover of The Territorial Imperative

Book description

A territory is an area of space which an animal guards as its exclusive possession and which it will defend against all members of its kind. In this revolutionary book Robert Ardrey takes a concept familiar to every biologist, brings together for the first time a fair sampling of all…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Territorial Imperative as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Animals are picky about who they mate with. Biologists have explained a wide array of mating strategies, and this book is an “intimate” look at one of them: territoriality. This book gets down and dirty, as it were, to see how animals fight for turf and how it promotes their genes. It’s a great read - not a stuffy textbook - and it’s part of a series of 4 so you may want to keep going as I did.

Another older book that opened my eyes is The Human Side of Animals by Vance Packard. Together, these books showed me…

From Loretta's list on the animal mind.

If you love The Territorial Imperative...

Ad

Book cover of I Am Taurus

I Am Taurus By Stephen Palmer,

The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.

Each of the sections is written from…

Want books like The Territorial Imperative?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 69 books like The Territorial Imperative.

Browse books like The Territorial Imperative

Book cover of A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons
Book cover of Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes
Book cover of Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,584

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like The Territorial Imperative, you might also like...

Book cover of Diary of a Citizen Scientist: Chasing Tiger Beetles and Other New Ways of Engaging the World

Diary of a Citizen Scientist By Sharman Apt Russell,

Citizen Scientist begins with this extraordinary statement by the Keeper of Entomology at the London Museum of Natural History, “Study any obscure insect for a week and you will then know more than anyone else on the planet.”

As the author chases the obscure Western red-bellied tiger beetle across New…

Book cover of From One Cell: A Journey into Life's Origins and the Future of Medicine

From One Cell By Ben Stanger,

Everybody knows that all animals—bats, bears, sharks, ponies, and people—start out as a single cell: the fertilized egg. But how does something no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence give rise to the remarkable complexity of each of these creatures?

FROM ONE CELL is a dive…

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in biology, philosophy, and physics?

Biology 224 books
Philosophy 1,790 books
Physics 152 books