The author of the book "The Naked Monkey" Desmond Morris has passed away.

Desmond Morris, a British zoologist and author of The Naked Monkey, has died at the age of 98. This was reported by The Guardian newspaper on April 20.

"Zoologist Desmond Morris, perhaps best known for his book The Naked Monkey and his work on the ITV program Zoo Time, has died at the age of 98," the publication says.

Desmond Morris was born in 1928 in Wiltshire, studied at the University of Birmingham, and then earned his doctorate at Oxford, where he studied animal behavior, especially birds. In 1959, he became curator of mammals at the London Zoo and held this position for eight years.

He gained wide recognition in the face of a TV presenter. In 1956, Morris became the host of the Zoo Time television program, which aired for more than a decade and introduced viewers to animal behavior. Since the mid-1960s, he has collaborated with the BBC, creating documentaries and broadcasts about nature and man, including Life in the Animal Kingdom, Television and Natural History.

The book "The Naked Monkey", written in 1967, brought him worldwide fame. The book became an international bestseller and determined the further direction of his work. In the following years, he published more than 90 books, including The Human Zoo and Human Observation. In total, Morris wrote more than 90 popular science works during his career.

In addition to science and television, the zoologist was actively engaged in art. He was a surrealist artist and organized exhibitions. In 1957, an exhibition was held that combined the zoologist's interest in animals and painting, showing works created by chimpanzees. In 1958, the scientist co-organized the Lost Image exhibition, which juxtaposed images created by infants, adults, and monkeys. The exhibition was presented in London.