Animal wise
Ratings3
Average rating4
15
Ratings3
Average rating4
This book explores the frontiers of research on animal cognition and emotion, offering a surprising examination into the hearts and minds of wild and domesticated animals. Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a fish? Or a parrot, dolphin, or an elephant? Do they experience thoughts that are similar to ours, or have feelings of grief and love? These are tough questions, but scientists are answering them. They know that ants teach and rats love to be tickled. They have discovered that dogs have thousand-word vocabularies and that birds practice their songs in their sleep. But how do scientists know these things? This book takes us on a dazzling odyssey into the inner world of animals and among the pioneering researchers who are leading the way into once-forbidden territory: the animal mind. Here the author transports us to field sites and laboratories around the world, introducing us to animal-cognition scientists and their surprisingly intelligent and sensitive subjects. She explores how this rapidly evolving, controversial field has only recently overturned old notions about why animals behave as they do. In this she brings the world of nature brilliantly alive in a nuanced, deeply felt appreciation of the human-animal bond.--From book jacket.
Reviews with the most likes.
Did I hear about this on one of those rare occasions I listened to NPR? Maybe. Sometimes, I heard about intriguing books. But I digress before I begin.
I ran across this little lovely at the library a couple weeks ago. And since one of the three topics I'm apparently obsessed with right now happens to be animal studies, I snatched up Ms Morell's book. She is an experienced science writer who has traveled the world and interviewed a variety of scientists, and actually witnessed some tests being run on animal cognition, so she's not just wildly exclaiming things in the dark.
The book begins with the intelligence of some of our smallest brethren in the animal kingdom, insects–specifically ants. She then moves to fish, to birds, to elephants, dolphins, chimps, and members of the canine family. She interviews ethologists, biologists, psychologists, anyone who has experience working with animals, who tests their cognition, who spends a large amount of his or her time with animals. And in each case, we are stunned at their capabilities and moved by their intelligence. And, I'll be frank, for full disclosure, it just made me even more glad I decided to be a vegetarian.
Because, as she points out, the more we learn about the creatures with whom we share our planet, the more we realize they are intelligent, emotional beings, in some cases self-aware and aware of others, with the capacity for altruism and deceit, the more we must be held responsible for how we treat them. (I'm not saying everyone has to be a vegetarian, but that's what made sense to me, which you probably already know, since you can see ‘Eating Animals' as a five-star book on my shelves.)
In short, I want to hug everything.
