Environmental artist talks science comics, the Gulf of Maine and animal sex

[](https://w2pcms.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Perrin-Ireland_FFDenny_6972.jpg) Perrin Roosevelt Ireland (Photo by Frances F. Denny) Artist and environmentalist Perrin Roosevelt Ireland has been telling visual stories inside of scientific and policy institutions for years. Now in her debut book, “Poking the Squid: What We Can Learn from Animal Sex,” she brings readers into the worlds of various species — hyenas, albatrosses, cephalopods, spiders and seahorses — and how they encounter sex. From mating, to pleasure,  desire and all that happens in between, creatures have much to say about gender and sexuality — and the world of science itself. Ireland reckons with subjects the public often turns away from; she’s also arguing with theories that have been presented to us from Darwin to now. The inaugural artist-in-residence at the New York Aquarium, Ireland zooms in on how people see these creatures, then ripples out to our responsibilities to each other, to science and the environment. **One of the things I love about this book is that it’s so genre-bending. What’s the origin story?** [](https://w2pcms.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/Poking-the-squid.jpg) I have doodled my whole life, and certainly when I started studying science at Brown University, I was doodling. Being in a lab is so fun for an artist. The drawings that I took during lab became vital for me to study. When it comes to developmental biology — and I’m sure there have been imaging advancements since the nearly 20 years since I was studying it — there were moments in the life cycle that no one had yet imaged, and it became vital to draw them — to bridge that gap as an illustrator for other people. That’s still the case. The illustrations require so much research because they have to be accurate. I want to get it right.  **How did you determine when you were going to insert the human and the sociological elements, and even your two cats, Ursula and Pudge?** Alison Bechdel’s work with theory and comics was so inspiring to me and helped me see that this was possible. The audience that I’m already in conversation with is so present in how I chose to tell this story, because they have taught me that it is okay to react as a human being to animal sex, and that that’s in fact more honest. Part of the goal was making it as accessible as possible. Taking your hand and saying, “Come with me, Ursula and Pudge — we’re going to discover some stuff,” was a device for me to be frank and candid about my humanity. I’m not an expert. I don’t want to be an expert. I want to be in collaboration with all of these incredible scientists, and more importantly, these genius animals. **What are the ethics of making art for beings that can’t speak? Do you feel yourself more a scientist or an artist?**  Definitely more of an artist. I’m lucky that so many scientists who spend their lives contemplating and considering these animals talk to me so much, and knowing now who each of them is, I’m so grateful that animals have them on their team.  [](https://w2pcms.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/PokingTheSquid_p63.jpg) A page from Perrin Roosevelt Ireland’s “Poking the Squid.” (Courtesy of the artist) There are so many ways to try to advocate for animals. Whether I was inside an environmental nonprofit or being an artist-in-residence at an aquarium, partnering with people that are doing it in different ways has been important — partnering with litigators who are advocating for the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, or with conservationists who are both spending their lives handling sharks inside the aquarium and also doing veterinary research a mile offshore from New York to understand better what those sharks might need. We all have to take a shot at what we think is our best value and add to these conversations. To endeavor to give animals a voice sometimes feels like the best I can do. Advertisement **This book also advocates for the queer community. Were you aware of that going into the book, or did it arise as you were studying animals?**  I think that including queer animal behavior is more scientifically rigorous, so even if I wasn’t deeply engaged with a lot of queer community, I would still want to be inclusive of mounting evidence of same-sex sexual behavior. In making a 200-page book about animal sex, I found that when there’s more diversity in science, we get better and more accurate depictions of animal life. If I’m going to be – from the feminist science and technology perspective – critiquing what’s been included in the research and what hasn’t, then my job is to make sure I’m actually representing what people have found, what people are continuing to study and the questions they are continuing to ask. **The book’s subtitle is ‘What We Can Learn from Animal Sex.’ What did you learn from writing the book?**  My primary loyalty, affiliation and pronoun is earthling. What I learned from animal sex is just: I belong, I belong, I belong, we belong. I can’t believe I get to be on planet earth with this unfolding. One time, my sister and I were lying in Maine on the grass, looking at the stars, and she said, “Can you believe that we get to be on this planet, and that we find it beautiful?” That second part is something I do not take for granted. I can’t believe that this is so mysterious, so bawdy, so hysterical, so cheeky, so lewd and so perverse. [](https://w2pcms.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/06/PokingTheSquid_p51.jpg) A page from Perrin Roosevelt Ireland’s “Poking the Squid.” (Courtesy of the artist) **Beauty is one of the real landing values of the book. So is loving critters. How has Maine played into this for you?** My dad’s family has gone to the coast of Maine for over 100 years. It’s where my body feels the most at home. My dad has been involved with the Maine Coast Heritage Trust for my whole life. He is someone who taught me that if you love a place, and you have capital of any kind to spend — class privilege, race privilege — then your work is to throw your weight behind protecting things. The coast of Maine was the one that he picked. Understanding the relationship between loving a place and stewarding it is a core value for me, and of course our place is in the part of Maine where Rachel Carson spent summers. Rachel Carson is the reason that we have the Environmental Protection Agency, and she’s a foremother to the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. Before that, she wrote three absolute blockbuster books about the ocean. She tide-pooled on the coast of Maine while she wrote love letters to Dorothy Freeman. So, a love of tide pool creatures, a love of the coast of Maine, and then going back out into the world and doing environmental advocacy — she set the model for me, and that was happening for her in Maine. We know that the Gulf of Maine is warming faster than 99% of the world’s oceans. We know that the beloved lobster’s sex life is being changed and impacted by that. Female lobsters are spending more time off shore in cooler, deeper waters. Male lobsters are staying in the Gulf. North Atlantic right whales, whose reproductive lives are so impacted and impeded by us, are trying to move through the Gulf. The Cashes Ledge is one of the most profound natural resources, and it is not formally protected at this time. So many of these animals move through the Gulf of Maine. There’s a lot of creature inspiration there for me. **This book is so much about the creatures. What can we do for them or for the environment now?** I think that for both us and them, leaning into sexual diversity as a form of biodiversity and celebrating it in all its forms, which does mean putting more skin on the line for our fellow humans whose rights are being restricted. It also means if you love albatross and their seven-year love affairs, then participating in beach cleanups and chipping a few bucks toward people that are working on conservation at the local level. Our work is to continue to insist on being inspired and engaged with the conservation projects that are underway. _Lisa Hiton is a writer living in Brooklyn, N.Y. She is the author of the poetry collection “Afterfeast,” and her work has been featured or is forthcoming in the Kenyon Review, The Slowdown, NPR, New South and elsewhere._  Copy the Story Link Tagged: [books](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/books/), [environment](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/environment/)