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Lucy Cooke

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Lucy Cooke
Born1969/1970 (age 54–55)
East Sussex, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materNew College, Oxford (MS)
Occupation(s)Zoologist, author, television producer and director
OrganizationSloth Appreciation Society

Lucy Cooke (born 1969/1970[1][2]) is a British zoologist, author, television producer, director, and presenter.

Early life and education

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Cooke was born and raised in East Sussex.[3][4] She has an undergraduate masters[5] in zoology from New College, Oxford, where she was tutored by Richard Dawkins.[6][7]

Career

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Cooke began her career in television comedy production, and then moved into documentaries, later specialising in natural history.[8] Among others, she is credited as director and producer for Balderdash and Piffle, director for Medieval Lives and You Don't Know You're Born, and presenter of Springwatch.[6]

Cooke has presented a range of natural history programmes for the BBC.[9] In 2015 she presented Nature's Boldest Thieves and Animals Unexpected.[10] In 2016 she was a co-presenter on the four part series Ingenious Animals. She was a team captain on the BBC Quiz show Curious Creatures, which ran for two series from 2017 to 2018.[11] In 2019, she presented the Animal Planet series Nature's Strangest Mysteries: Solved.

In 2020, she presented Inside the Bat Cave, which was broadcast on the BBC.[12]

Cooke is the author of The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife,[13] which investigates popular misconceptions about animals, including sloths, hyenas, penguins, and pandas.[14] She had previously written three books about sloths: A Little Book of Sloth, The Power of Sloth, and Life in the Sloth Lane: Slow Down and Smell the Hibiscus, and presented a TED Talk on the subject.[6][15] She also founded the Sloth Appreciation Society.[16][17]

Cooke is also the author of Bitch: A revolutionary guide to sex, evolution & the female animal, published in 2022, which is also published as Bitch: On the female of the species.[18]

Personal life

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Cooke was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, after which she adopted a healthier lifestyle.[1] She moved back to her hometown of Hastings, East Sussex in 2019.[4]

Bibliography

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  • A Little Book of Sloth (2013)
  • The Power of Sloth (2014)
  • The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife (2017)
  • Life in the Sloth Lane: Slow Down and Smell the Hibiscus (2018)
  • Bitch: A revolutionary guide to sex, evolution and the female animal (2022), also published as Bitch: On the Female of the Species

References

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  1. ^ a b Piskorz, Juliana (22 April 2018). "Lucy Cooke: 'I loved to drink, smoke and have a good time. Getting cancer at 45 marked an end to that'". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  2. ^ Cooke, Lucy (4 November 2023). "The Biggest Myths About Motherhood in the Animal Kingdom". Time. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  3. ^ "Lucy Cooke - Wild UK". BBC. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  4. ^ a b Reece, Alex (2 April 2019). "My Coast: Lucy Cooke". Coast. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  5. ^ "The Oxford MA | New College".
  6. ^ a b c "Lucy Cooke". Amazon. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  7. ^ Boyd, Lou (9 May 2022). "Learn how Lucy Cooke is starting a gender revolution in the animal kingdom". The Red Bulletin. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  8. ^ Renninger, Bryce J. (30 October 2012). "How Lucy Cooke Became The 'Steven Spielberg of [Cute] Sloth Filmmaking' and Helped Save Ugly Animals". IndieWire. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  9. ^ Alfonsi, Sharyn (24 December 2023). "Sloths, the world's slowest mammal, turn survival of the fittest upside down". 60 Minutes. CBS. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  10. ^ "BBC One - Nature's Boldest Thieves". BBC. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  11. ^ "BBC Two - Curious Creatures". BBC. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  12. ^ "Inside the Bat Cave". The Press and Journal. Retrieved 2021-11-05 – via PressReader.
  13. ^ Garcia-Navarro, Lulu. "Who Cares If They're Cute? This Zoologist Accepts Animals On Their Own Terms". National Public Radio. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  14. ^ Lescaze, Zoë (25 May 2018). "What We Get Wrong About Animals". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  15. ^ Cooke, Lucy. "Sloths! The strange life of the world's slowest mammal". TED. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  16. ^ "Why we should all live like a sloth". BBC. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  17. ^ "Sloth Appreciation Society". Slothville. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  18. ^ Glausiusz, Josie (11 March 2022). "Bitch by Lucy Cooke review – a joyous debunking of gender stereotypes in nature". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
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