Medici Giraffe: And Other Tales of Exotic Animals and Power Book

Exotic animals as tools of diplomacy did not start with giant pandas. Belozerskaya delves back into the days of Alexander the Great to look at the various ways highly valued species (war elephants) or individual animals of particular charm (the titular giraffe) have influenced history. This was an interesting history book and mostly seemed well researched but somehow the author appears to have a phobia about emus of all things. She makes them sound like the most dangerous species ever to prowl a private menagerie. She also hit a pet peeve of mine, listing the number of "animal" species in a collection and then adding the number of birds as well. Now I know that recently evidence has lumped the birds into the same class as reptiles but they are now and always have been animals.