Zoo (Patterson novel)
| Authors |
James Patterson Michael Ledwidge |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genres |
Thriller Science fiction |
| Published | 2012 (Century Publishing) |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 395 (1st edition, hardcover) |
| ISBN | (1st edition, hardcover) |
| Followed by | Zoo 2 |
| Website | Official website |
Zoo is a science fiction thriller novel by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge published in September 2012 and appeared on the New York Times best seller list. A sequel, Zoo 2, by Patterson and Max DiLallo, was released 7 June 2016 as a short story.
The novel centers on Jackson Oz, who is an outcast among professional and academic ecologists and biologists. Oz has tried for years to get these scientists to listen to the data he has been collecting on the increasing numbers of mammal attacks on humans. He becomes so obsessed with this goal that he quits graduate school and devotes himself to full-time data collection and arguing his case. Finally, on a trip to Botswana, he survives an attack by a large band of male lions in which about 100 people are killed over a large area. He saves the life of ecologist Chloe Tousignant. Upon returning to America he finds his girlfriend dead in his apartment, killed and partly eaten by his pet chimpanzee.
Five years later Oz has married Chloe and has a son named Eli with her. His theory becomes accepted as all over the world packs of animals are entering densely populated cities and killing humans en masse. He is recruited by the US president to research the cause but before he and his team of scientists can find an answer, the president's daughter is killed by their dog and the military launches strikes against affected cities which worsens the attacks. Continuing his research, he discovers that animal pheromones have changed due to the widespread use of radio communication (cellphones) and petroleum products (notably automobile exhaust) and these disrupted pheromones are enlarging the animals amygdalae and causing the aggression. The United States president orders all electricity, cellphone and automobile usage banned for two weeks and animal attacks cease nearly immediately as the ban takes effect. But after one week people return to their previous habits and the attacks return with increased ferocity. Oz, his wife and son along with some scientists and political leaders are evacuated to Thule, Greenland where research into how to reverse the changes will take place.
In the book cell phone radiation "cooks" the new petroleum by-products in the air, like car exhaust. This creates a new hydrocarbon that changes mammal's cerebral physiology and enlarges their Amygadala, increasing brain mass by 1.3%. The mammals this affected the book mentioned are gorillas, chimpanzees, squirrels, bears, rats, beavers, cats, foxes, jackals, lions, wolverines, leopards, racoons, rhinoceroses, dolphins, dogs, wolves, bats, boar, elephants and possums while other animals like birds, snakes and vultures remained unaffected. This is not true in the T.V. series where birds, reptiles, and insects are also affected. In the book it is explained that the reason humans aren't affected is they lack the vomeronasal organ, which is important for interpreting pheromones.
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