Special thanks to Jürgen Tautz for answering 5 questions about his recently featured co-authored book – Animal Architecture

Jürgen Tautz is a German ethologist, sociobiologist and bee expert. – Wikipedia

#1 – What was the impetus for Animal Architecture?

A combination of admiration of the beauty in nature with learning from nature, in the case engineering.

#2 – Over what period of time were the photos taken? How much travelling did Ingo have to do?

Ingo travelled for this book for two years all around the world. This took him several trips.

#3 – How was the text written to accompany the photographs? What were you trying to convey separately (or in conjunction) with the text?

Photos and text went hand-in-hand and insprired each other, i.e. for the selection of the photos as well as ceratin background aspects of more general messages in the text. I tried to build in general ideas about how evolution works because animal architectural highligths are sometimes such a breathtaking outcome of natural and sexual selection, that it will astonish (without taking anything from the admiration and astonishement) that simple rules lead to such results.

#4 – What is the response from people to the wondrous architecture created by animals?

Absolutely fantastic reactions. E-mails, comments in the internet, personal communication make Ingo and me very happy, telling us that our vision gets across to those who look at this book. And the fact that the photo-exhibition based on this book is asked for from small and large museums, is also a very positive sign. Messages on nature can be best transmitted through photos. One does not need much text. The text can be reduced to a short guideline and eye opener and eventually to give more general messages.

#5 – Are you working on any new books/projects you can tell us about?

Yes, there will be another book on another topic with hopefully the same success, like catching the interest of laymen and pros like you now. Please understand that I cannot tell you more details at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OZ5yvm3AFQ

[Image Credit: http://www.planet-wissen.de/natur_technik/insekten_und_spinnentiere/bienen/img/hobos_tautz_padpa_g.jpg ]