Autumn update: From farting fish to stoned sloths

These past two months have been a complete whirlwind. The first few weeks of my new job with zoologist, author and broadcaster Lucy Cooke coincided with a crazy period of travel, while the beginning of November was made rather hectic by birthday celebrations...

Lucy is a staunch supporter of the sloth's slow ways, and believes that they could teach us a lesson or two about sustainable living...

Last week, I met up with Lucy at London Zoo's Huxley Theatre for an event honouring the funnier, slightly more taboo aspects of the zoological world: 'Comic tales from the animal kingdom' featured everything from farting fish to monstrous dino-chickens and VR duck vaginas... Speaking alongside Lucy was the event's organiser - zoologist, science communicator and co-author of Does It Fart? and True Or Poo?, Dani Rabaiotti; journalist, speaker and author of Death On Earth and Sex On Earth (my current read), Jules Howard; and palaeozoologist, author, podcaster and blogger, Dr. Darren Naish. Being filled in on ancient species of sloth and quizzed on their modern-day counterparts' sex lives in the pub, after the event, made for an incredibly fun (if not nerdy) evening.

In a few weeks time, I'll be heading back to my old school to give a few of my own talks, all about sloth biology. With less than a month left until my Christmas holiday, I'm already starting to think a little about the new year and, for once, a feeling of impending doom isn't looming large... Provided everything goes well, I should have quite an exciting and adventurous 2019. All will be revealed in due course, but until then...

Coming soon to an interactive whiteboard near you...