I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life

by Ed Yong

waist of a zookeeper. Baba is a white-bellied pangolin – an utterly endearing animal that looks like a cross between an anteater and a pine cone. He’s about the size of a small cat. His black eyes have a doleful air, and the hair that frames his cheeks look like unruly mutton chops. His pink face ends in a tapering toothless snout that’s well adapted for slurping up ants and termites. His stocky front legs are tipped with long, curved claws for clinging to tree trunks and tearing into insect nests, and he has a long tail for hanging