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    Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures
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    Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures
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    Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures
    Ebook426 pages6 hours

    Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures

    By Virginia Morell

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Did you know that ants teach, earthworms make decisions, rats love to be tickled, and chimps mourn? That some dogs have 1000-word vocabularies and that birds practise songs in their sleep? That crows improvise tools and moths remember living as caterpillars? Animal Wise takes the reader on an exhilarating, eye-opening journey into the hearts and minds of animals, from ants to chimpanzees, dogs to dolphins -- via archerfish, elephants and wolves. A prolific contributor to National Geographic among other publications, Morell shows that individuality, self-awareness and feeling are far more widespread in the animal kingdom -- and among the scientific community -- than many believe. Combining scientific rigour and storytelling verve, Animal Wise brings the world of nature brilliantly to life in a nuanced, moving and original appreciation of the human-animal bond.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOld Street Publishing
    Release dateMay 28, 2013
    ISBN9781906964931
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    Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures
    Author

    Virginia Morell

    Virginia Morell is a regular contributor to National Geographic magazine and a contributing correspondent to Science. She has also written for Smithsonian, Discover, The New York Times Magazine, International Wildlife, Audubon, Slate, and Outside, among other publications. She and her husband, writer Michael McRae, live in southern Oregon, on the edge of the Siskiyou Mountains, where they hike every day with their Scotch Collies, Buckaroo and Annie Oakley.

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    Reviews for Animal Wise

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    • 4/5
      This was an LTER book that I struggled to start but ultimately found interesting. Each chapter concerns itself with a different animal and the various studies that were, or are, being performed to prove animals have thoughts, emotions, and feelings. I went into it with no illusions that animals didn’t have thoughts, emotions, and feelings so she didn’t have to convince this reader of anything.My struggle at the start was the first chapter, “The Ant Teacher”. I started it many times before I opted to skip it. Apparently I don’t care about the emotional life of ants. The second chapter, “Among Fish”, ultimately went the way of the ants. I haven’t fished in years but I love to eat fish. I didn’t want anything to interfere with that. That fish feel pain is not something unexpected. I skimmed the chapter. I may go back to it.Moving on, the book improved greatly. The chapters on birds, parrots, elephants, dolphins, and chimpanzees were fascinating. I had already heard of some of the studies the author discussed, but it was interesting to read about them. The elephant chapter was tear inducing. Unfortunately, the final chapter on dogs really offered nothing new that anyone with a half-smart dog didn’t already know. I didn’t mention the chapter on rats which I read but didn’t particularly enjoy because, well, rats.The paperback edition I read, with a border collie on the cover, was entitled Animal Wise, How We Know Animals Think and Feel. It is apparently the same book as the hardcover, Animal Wise, The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures, with a baboon on the cover. This bothered me as someone might buy the same book twice. But I think it was wise; the title is clearer and the cover, at least to me, more appealing.
    • 4/5
      I want to love this book so much. It has a lot of interesting facts, and Morell does a great job of making you care about both the animals and the scientists who study them. The problem is that many of the conclusions that she draws don't really seem to be supported by evidence.

      For example, in one chapter about the minds of dolphins, Morell describes an experiment in which two dolphins were captured together, but then separated. After a few weeks, the dolphins were reunited, and their actions showed that they were happy about this development. Morell then writes that this clearly shows that the dolphins recognized each other from before. It could also be argued that the dolphins were merely excited about being with another dolphin after a few weeks. I agree that, given the intelligence of dolphins as described elsewhere in the book, they most likely recognized each other, but the simple fact is that the experiment in question did not conclusively show this to be true.

      This is just one example, and while most of the conclusions that Morell comes to are much more concrete, there are still numerous unsupported suppositions throughout the text. There are also quite a few quotations from scientists that are presented almost as fact, even though they are merely the professional opinions of the scientists themselves. I don't mean to suggest that I'm a better judge of the animal mind than these researchers, but I find it a bit misleading to present opinions in such a manner in a science book. The line between scientific opinion and scientific fact should be more clearly delineated in a few sections.

      Nevertheless, it's a very engaging book. The parts of it that work do so splendidly and make for some of the most interesting scientific passages I've read in years.
    • 3/5
      I was hoping for something a bit more entertaining and a bit less dry, but overall an enjoyable read about studies on how various animals think from ants to parrots to dolphins. I can see how the author wanted to make it clear that there are scientific foundations for animal thought and emotions, but I would have liked a more approachable style with more stories about the animals and people rather than studies. By the end I felt hammered over the head with the message of "Yes, animals think and feel even though past scientists say they didn't!"
    • 4/5
      The research reported is not particularly revolutionary but the noteworthy aspect of this book is the positive presentation of the researchers' relationship with their {animal} colleagues. The stories of researcher and subject are rather touching and the part of the book that requires the most reflection.
    • 4/5
      Morell gathers some interesting researchers and profiles their work in animal cognition. She quickly summarizes the field in the introduction, then moves to cover different species in each chapter. Ants, fish, birds/parrots, rats, elephants, captive and wild dolphins, chimpanzees, and dogs are covered. Each chapter doesn't reach over much work in the field; Morell focuses on the work of one researcher in particular.Animal Wise is easy to read and provides a nice beginning in animal mind research. As a science writer, Morell has a good understanding of what is required to be considered valid, but she does make some interesting cognitive leaps of her own. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw how thorough her personal grasp of the topic was.I must confess, however, that I put the book down halfway through and was not motivated to pick it up again for a few months. The basic information is there, but it lacked a bit of personality. The comments on the researchers, the mentions of how much the author traveled, the anecdotes - they're entertaining, but not entirely engaging. I read a review galley, so the frequent typos will likely be corrected in the final version.Overall, it was a good work - better than many on the topic - but needed something just a touch more.
    • 4/5
      Virginia Morell's Animal Wise: The Thoughs and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures is a great read. In this book, Morell explores various studies and data that suggest that animals laugh, grief, and even learn from both their peers and their human companions. Some of the chapters are dedicated to exploration of wild animals including fish, rats, dolphins and monkeys. However, there is also an interesting chapter that examines the differences between domestic dogs and their wild counterparts. Morell is a science writer; however, she knows how to speak to an audience that could get lost in the scientific world. In other words, she documents her research well, citing both studies and quotes from experts in the field, yet she offers strong narratives that capture both readers' minds, and their hearts. I only wish the book had more work of even more animals!
    • 4/5
      As a summary of research into the intelligence and emotions of a whole range of species - from ants to whales and dolphins - this book is a bit one-over-lightly at times - but on the other hand, it's also a very readable introduction to a fascinating topic. It was a shame octopi were relegated to a couple of footnotes, though - they are both intelligent and fascinating. (If you're not a fan of octopi, give this book an extra half-star.)
    • 3/5
      I think there will be naysayers in the world who will still hold onto beliefs that animals don't have a lot of cognitive ability, that they are almost as inanimate (despite all evidence to the contrary) as plant life, and that they only exist to serve or support human beings. Virginia Morell is not one of them. Anybody who loves animals and has spent time with them and knows that there is more going on behind their eyes than simple instinctive reactions should read this book and learn what sort of scientific studies have been going on in this field. Fascinating. -KA
    • 5/5
      This book may change the way you look at the animals that we share this planet with. The author tells us about many groundbreaking studies of animal thinking. Contrary to long held beliefs there is more and more evidence that many animals make conscious decisions, have emotions and can create tools to accomplish tasks. The author interviews and watches many scientists working with their test animals in labs and in the wild. Included are studies of ants, fish, birds, rats, elephants, dolphins, chimpanzees, and dogs and wolves. Virginia Morell has a very readable style and tells a great story of each team of scientists and their animals of choice. Although I was not surprised by most of the insights, there were also many new things I learned. Any pet owners will be reaffirmed by several things that they have suspected all along. My guinea pig Scamper definitely had a great personality. She was so cute when she stood on her hind legs and squeaked at me. Don't get me started on my cat, Sweetie Pie. That said a lot of the problems with studying animal cognizance have arisen from the tendency to explain animal behavior in human terms. Even though animals have been found to think and even have emotions the studies need to be designed to assure that the animals true reasoning and motivation can be accurately and decisively discovered. The extensive work and devotion of these scientists is amazing to me. It was also interesting that many of them ended up studying animals very different than those that they began working with. There will always be more areas to study and some views may change but if you are intrigued by this subject, this book is the perfect place to begin! I must disclose that I received this book free in a Goodreads giveaway.
    • 5/5
      In "Animal Wise", the author Virginia Morrell, a well respected science writer, explores the realm of animal emotions, intelligence and cognition. The chapters deal with a varity of animals starting with ants and progressing through fish, birds, rats, elephants, dolphins, chimpanzees, dogs and wolves.Most of us that share our lives with animals, whether a cherished pet or by watching animals in the wild, have often wondered about what they are really "thinking" or if their behavior is just a matter of instinct. Not too long ago, any reference to thinking or emotions among animals was viewed as nothing more than anthropomorphism. But recent research as proven otherwise.In this book, Morell focuses on a few researchers (ethologists) who study animal behavior and how they go about devising and performing tests to illustrate that animals do indeed think. I found myself not only fascinated by the animals and their amazing abilities but also inspired by the dedication of the scientists and their love for the work they do and the animals in their care.So finally, what is the implication of all these studies?Toward the end of the book there is a quote by Dale Jamieson that sums it up perfectly: "What cannot be denied or evaded is that this science has a moral dimension. How we study animals and what we assert about their minds and behavior greatly affects how they are treated, as well as our own view of ourselves."
    • 4/5
      Virginia Morell has offered up a light, thought-provoking book on the minds of animals and some of the research being done to discover just what goes on in animal brains. From laughing rats to ants that teach, Morell has delivered an uplifting look at cutting-edge researchers who are finding the keys to what animals may think and how they feel.Each chapter features Morell visiting one or more researcher who has hands-on experience in projects looking to find out how various animals cope, care, plot, plan, and learn. This was certainly an enjoyable book. My central critiques are around the anecdotal narrative. The author often lets the voice of one or two researchers speak as authorities on the subject while giving the naysaying critics of the researchers' findings little discussion. I would have preferred a bit more clinical, evidence-grounded reporting along with the personal narratives in each chapter. I want to know what the best of science has to say about these subjects, not just those who are positively claiming to have found something matching the author's thesis.That said, Morell's narrative moves swiftly, covers a lot of conversations and studies, and leaves the reader considering carefully the implications. If even a few of the researchers discussed in the book are on the right path, our understanding of animal thoughts and emotions has a long way to grow.
    • 4/5
      Animal Wise is an interesting book that delves into how animals think and feel. Overall it is a good read for any animal lover. I felt I gained new insight into the cognitive function of various animals and learned new things about many animals through stories about specific experiments and the scientists who devote their lives to the particular species covered in each chapter. The book can make you laugh and cry. I thought the funniest section was the one discussing experiments with archerfish, while the saddest for me was the section on elephants. I was disappointed that the book did not cover cognitive experiments with cats, because they are difficult to test. I was also surprised to find there were no reptiles represented. As a cat and reptile lover, I felt under-represented.Overall, the flow of the book is very good and it is not too complex for the layman. It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you think, and it will make you look at your pets and local wildlife in a new way.
    • 4/5
      Animals are smarter than we think. More to the point, they are smarter than scientists think, or at least most scientists until just a few years ago. Science writer Virginia Morell probes the question of just how surprisingly smart animals are in her book "Animal Wise."For years science told us animals don't really think, they just act according to instinct. Animals don't feel pain or experience emotions, they said. These were the same scientists who insisted man had evolved and was thus biologically related to animals, and yet somehow people had thoughts and feelings and mental capabilities way beyond that of animals.Jane Goodall and her study of chimpanzees had a lot to do with changing the way science views animals. She had relatively little scientific education before she began observing chimpanzees in the wild, and this turned out to be an advantage. She broke all the rules because she didn't know what the rules were. She gave names to her subjects. She wrote about them as individuals with their own personalities. She referred to them as he or she, not it. She observed and reported chimpanzees making and using tools when everyone else in the scientific community believed only humans could do this. At first, her work was pooh-poohed by the scientific community, but eventually she made converts. Today many other scientists are studying various species in much the way Goodall did and making surprising discoveries in the process.Morell visited many of these scientists and describes their work in her book, which is written more for the average reader than for scientists. She tells why some researchers think parrots name their children, why others are convinced fish feel pain when they have hooks in their mouths, how it is known that bowerbirds have an artistic sense and how it was discovered that some dogs can learn new words in much the same way children do, and much more. She writes about studies involving ants, birds, rats, elephants, dolphins, chimpanzees, dogs and wolves, and in each case the findings are astounding. Some scientists are still not convinced, but we amateurs with pets won't have as much trouble with Morell's book.House cats love looking out windows, and one day I noticed my cat staring for a long time at the only basement window in our house with a ledge where he might sit and look out, but the window was high and out of easy reach. The next day, as I watched the TV, which was just a few feet from the window, I saw my cat climb onto the TV and position himself to leap from it to the window ledge. I held my breath because it looked to me like a risky jump. Apparently the cat decided the same thing because he eventually turned around and jumped down to the floor.A day or two later I noticed my cat on the window ledge, looking outside. Further observation showed me he had gotten there the best possible way. He first jumped onto the wood box and from there leaped to the fireplace mantel. After crossing that, it was just a short leap to the ledge. A small child could have figured these steps out in a matter of seconds. It took my cat several days, but he figured it out. He solved the problem. He used his mind.
    • 5/5
      Being an animal lover, I was immediately drawn to this book. The premise of this book, Animal Wise by Virgina Morell, is that all animals have minds. That they have emotions, moods and unique personalities. They use their brains just like humans do. The book is broken down into 10 chapters, each focusing on a different animal. The author goes from ants to birds to dolphins and dogs. Ms. Morell uses scientific facts as well as some emotion to argue her theory that animals do have brains. I don't think someone has to be an animal lover to enjoy this book and learn from it.I definitely walked away with a new found respect for all animals, even birds and parrots. I think many assume only the larger mammals would use their brains, such as dolphins and dogs. But the author successfully argues that birds and even ants do as well.This was an engaging read and not the least bit slow or boring. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who fancy themselves an animal lover. I also recommend this to people who don't consider themselves an animal lover.
    • 5/5
      Here is a book everyone should read. It deals with such an important subject, and too many of us are unaware of it. Probably, MOST of us are unaware of it.Virginia Morell, author of ANIMAL WISE, says that animals have minds. They use their brains as we do, and, like us, they have personalities, moods, and emotions. They laugh and play. Some show grief and empathy.It is true that most of us pet owners see intelligence and personality in our own animals. But this is more than a proclamation by someone who loves her pets. Morell speaks scientific fact, first in a cover article in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, now expanded in ANIMAL WISE. She tells us how we know that domesticated and wild animals, such as chimpanzees, elephants, wolves, and even fish, live by more than instinct.Morell knows and wants us all to know: animals have feelings, both psychological and physical. But most of us don't realize that because the scientific experiments and findings that prove this have happened mostly in relatively recent years, the 1990s. But, even then and now, other animal experts are telling us to beware of anthropomorphism, attributing human emotions to animals. They need to see the proof to believe it.The ANIMAL WISE epilogue gives examples to show why we need to know that animals as well as humans have minds and emotions. Then how could we not take care of animals and know that to do otherwise is immoral?So read ANIMAL WISE. Then you will notice that, more and more, this subject is discussed elsewhere, too. Places like PBS stations and the Discovery channel are getting the word out so that even nonreaders of scientific magazines will see the proof.Thanks to readitforward.com for this galley of ANIMAL WISE.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book. It is aimed at a non-scientific audience, but shows actual findings of scientific research into the minds of many different animals. I was surprised to discover that parrots have names, and that fish can learn, and are more aware that I thought. I was aware of some of the findings on dolphins, elephants and chimpanzees, but I was still very interested in the challenges and problems that such animals are able to solve, and the amount of information they seem to convey to their fellow creatures. The book covers the social structures of elephants, chimps, dolphins, even parrots. There is quite a bit of evidence that social structure is a main evolutionary pressure that drives the development of higher intelligence and more complex problem solving. Recognizing your individuals in a complex society, and being able to understand and predict their behavior and reactions becomes advantageous.To anyone who has owned an pet, the idea that animals don't have minds is ridiculous, but this book was really able to provide some scientifically rigorous experiments and observations to support this idea.
    • 4/5
      Virginia Morell interviews various scientists who study the intelligence, social structures, and learning abilities of a wide variety of animals, from ants to chimpanzees. As she points out in the introduction, science for a long time tended to regard animals as mindless, emotionless automatons, but in the last few decades, this has changed significantly. Which does seem like a sensible and positive development. After all, not only is it intuitively obvious to any pet owner that dogs and cats, at least, have some fairly complicated things going on in their brains, but a true understanding of evolution ought to lead us to expect to see important similarities between ourselves and our fellow creatures. Surely the intelligence and emotional sensitivity that we're so proud of can hardly have sprung full-blown from nowhere. In her descriptions of the experimenters she interviews and their animal subjects, Morell strongly emphasizes this aspect of things, concentrating as much on the scientists' emotional connections and subjective responses to their animals as she does on the science, but fortunately she manages to avoid the major pitfalls that this kind of approach opens up. She never comes across as too over-sentimental or preachy, and she does recognize that projecting our own humanity onto other species and expecting them to be essentially furry little humans is as wrong-headed as regarding them as simple stimulus-and-response machines. And the science she's reporting on is often really interesting, from accounts of ants teaching other ants how to locate a new nesting site, to elephants taking cues for their behavior from their leaders, to dolphins showing signs of being able to recognize themselves in mirrors. If there is a flaw here, it's that Morell does sometimes indulge -- or report enthusiastically as the scientists indulge -- in wild flights of speculation, but it's at least generally clear when a particular idea is the result of careful scientific investigation and when it's the result of speculative imaginings. And it is very clear that this is a field with a lot of room for speculation and for further investigation. It seems we've really only just scratched the surface when it comes to figuring out exactly how the minds of our fellow creatures work, or even how best to go about studying them, which just makes it all the more exciting.
    • 3/5
      Morell takes us through a variety of the many scientific studies of ants, fish, birds, rats,elephants,dolphins, chimps, dogs and wolves to determine if animals can think, learn, teach and feel. She provides a bit of historical background on past studies and attitudes, and basic ethological concepts. Virginia Morell introduces us to the many brilliantly passionate scientists (and their teams) planning and running these experiments explaining that they need to be patient at the least to see results, and brave at the most to face criticism from the scientific community. These scientists provide a tremendous service by helping us understand that (as Darwin believed) animals are much more than just things. We must seriously consider them as partners in our world and re-shape much of our personal and societal behavior to minimize the negative effects we've had on them. The book is very readable, instructive, and entertaining.
    • 3/5
      A somewhat interesting, not very technical account of animal psychology.. Most accounts of fish, primates, elephants, dolphins, etc., are derived from excellent articles from National Geographic. For those who don't want to get bogged down in peer-reviewed journal articles, this is a very accessible book.
    • 5/5
      I have read this book twice since receiving it - I found it that interesting. I admit that I struggled with the introduction the first time through; the number of scientists mentioned became a bit of a blur to me. I also was impatient to read about actual experiements and research. I skipped then to the last chapter about the canine family, thinking it would be the most interesting to me. Then back to Chapter One. I actually found each and every chapter interesting, enlightening and even entertaining. The information provided gave me a new outlook on the reasons behind the movements of different creatures. I especially found the chapter on ants to be eye-opening. This book is well worth the read.
    • 1/5
      I opened Animal Wise searching for something. I wasn't sure what exactly, but as the owner of two dogs, a cat and a Bearded Dragon and many other various creatures in the past, I was convinced that this book was somehow going to help me understand and communicate with them. I, however, was immensely disappointed.Animal Wise looks and different species of animals and discusses how these animals, whether pets or wild animals, communicate with each other and show emotion.I, personally, was floored that this book basically contained not one iota of information that I did not already know by being surrounded by my pets. It makes perfect sense to me that when my Border Collie is chewing a bone and my Goldendoodle barks at him that he wants the bone and is about to take it from him. I also know that when my Bearded Dragon climbs to the top of his "branch" and claws at the top of the tank that he wants me to take him out for a while. These things seem like common sense to me and I certainly didn't need 267 pages of Animal Wise to explain this to me. Yes, I do not own an elephant or an ape, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that when a momma elephant wraps her trunk around her baby it is either expressing love or protection. The same goes with apes - obviously the bigger stronger apes eat first and "control" the younger ones and love is expressed by sharing food and "picking" each other.If you are expecting to learn anything from Animal Wise - you will be sorely mistaken. This is one of the few and far between books that I finished and thought to myself, I can't believe I spent so much time - that I won't ever get back - on reading something so useless. Sadly, I don't recommend this book to anyone who has anything better to do.
    • 4/5
      The author visits with a number of scientists who are studying how (and if) animals think and feel, starting with fish and insects (yes, a fish DOES feel the pain of the hook) thru parrots and other birds, to wind up with chimps, dolphins, dogs, and wolves. I like the tone taken by the author. Very chatty, but she's not talking down to the reader at all. I also appreciate the copious footnotes and the fact that the note is on the page, but the citation is in a list at the back of the book. The book also includes an extensive reading list for those wanting more information. I quite enjoyed this one.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this well researched and interesting book on animal cognition and emotions. I know there are many who have yet to be convinced that other animal species sometimes experience the world in similar ways that humans do. Morell describes much recent research that has proven to be quite amazing and leaves little doubt that humans are simply not as unique as we once thought. She also tackles the concept of divergent -vs- linear evolution. The theory being that animals have not evolved in a straight line and humans do not subsequently top the chain of life forms - based on evolution alone. Many animals have evolved in different ways to ensure survival. Some of these ways even seem to converge with human thinking and feeling.There is quite a variety of animals studied around the world, including ants, parrots, dolphins, great apes, dogs, and fish. One thing that is very evident in Morell's writing is that this field of investigating animal cognition is in its infancy. The research takes many years making it necessary for information to be gathered and passed on over generations.Great reading!
    • 4/5
      This was an LTER book that I struggled to start but ultimately found interesting. Each chapter concerns itself with a different animal and the various studies that were, or are, being performed to prove animals have thoughts, emotions, and feelings. I went into it with no illusions that animals didn?t have thoughts, emotions, and feelings so she didn?t have to convince this reader of anything.My struggle at the start was the first chapter, ?The Ant Teacher?. I started it many times before I opted to skip it. Apparently I don?t care about the emotional life of ants. The second chapter, ?Among Fish?, ultimately went the way of the ants. I haven?t fished in years but I love to eat fish. I didn?t want anything to interfere with that. That fish feel pain is not something unexpected. I skimmed the chapter. I may go back to it.Moving on, the book improved greatly. The chapters on birds, parrots, elephants, dolphins, and chimpanzees were fascinating. I had already heard of some of the studies the author discussed, but it was interesting to read about them. The elephant chapter was tear inducing. Unfortunately, the final chapter on dogs really offered nothing new that anyone with a half-smart dog didn?t already know. I didn?t mention the chapter on rats which I read but didn?t particularly enjoy because, well, rats.The paperback edition I read, with a border collie on the cover, was entitled Animal Wise, How We Know Animals Think and Feel. It is apparently the same book as the hardcover, Animal Wise, The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures, with a baboon on the cover. This bothered me as someone might buy the same book twice. But I think it was wise; the title is clearer and the cover, at least to me, more appealing.
    • 5/5
      I wish this book could be assigned reading for everyone! Not only is it absolutely wonderful with never a dull moment, but it is full of fascinating and important information about the ways in which animals have been proven to be sentient, intelligent, and emotional beings, having self-awareness, fears, pains, ties to family, and a love of fun and play. They also sneak, connive, strategize, and combine with others to achieve goals. Given our common genetic and evolutionary heritage, we should realize that they have a lot to teach us about our own behaviors, just as we should not find it so strange that our own behaviors can provide clues about theirs.Some examples of the great developments in animal research you will learn:How scientists figured out that bowerbirds have an artistic sense of perspective;How they know if animals recognize themselves in mirrors;The vocabularies of a certain breed of dogs and how they can even pick out objects after seeing two-dimensional pictures of them on paper!Fish sing to communicate! We just can’t hear them without special instruments.Rats giggle, and love to be tickled; they also feel pain, and other emotions that make them questionable research subjects.Why elephant poaching makes a worse impact than even just the killing;And how PTSD can make young elephants grow up to be delinquents.I could go on and on. This is a book I listened to in the car, and I was grateful for Bluetooth so I could call my husband (hands free) every five minutes and say “WAIT till you hear THIS!” He is listening to it now (although one wonders why he needs to after all my phone calls, ha ha). The narrator, Kirsten Potter, is terrific. She did her homework on pronunciations, and added just the right inflections and voice changes for different scientists profiled in the book.Evaluation: Don’t miss this book!
    • 4/5
      Virginia Morell's Animal Wise is an interesting book that never quite coalesces into an excellent one. A thinly linked series of chapters – most covering different animals, but two on dolphins – are fascinating essays on their own, that stop just short of cohesively addressing the book's topic. Perhaps that's a bit much too expect, as we don't really know what animals are thinking or feeling. But each chapter at a certain portion of each animal's mind and behavior as its own narrow slice, without trying to integrate it with the rest of the animal's actions, and what it could mean for the animal's mind as a whole. Even the two dolphin chapters – one about those in captivity, and one about those in the wild – are largely unlinked.Which is not to say it wasn't an enjoyable and informative read. The tone is somewhat conversationalist, but never belabors it; the book stays about the animals, and not the author. And I certainly learned a fair amount.
    • 2/5
      The book started off with a 26 page introduction which should have tipped me off as to what was to come. Although it starts out interestingly enough with a chapter on The Ant Teachers, it quickly turns quite boring with an odd philosophy and a lot of pseudoscience. Some of the stories included in the book were rather extreme in nature. There was the story of a program to improve the lives of chimpanzees in zoos and its chairman’s comparing the work to “Schindlers’ List”. Even worse, is the story of a dolphin experiment in which they created a “flooded house,” isolating a male dolphin from other dolphins. A female scientist lived with him where she cared for him, slept next to him and performed sex acts with him. I wonder if our tax dollars paid for that one.I am sure there are people who will find this an interesting book, but I found it mostly boring and odd.
    • 4/5
      An informative and thoughtful overview of research into how animals perceive the world and how they exhibit emotions, personality, long- and short-term memory, self-awareness, learned behavior, and other abilities humans have historically reserved to themselves. In some cases, such results in animals exceed our own.Morell traveled world-wide to interview and observe researchers and their animal colleagues, and she found her preconceptions frequently challenged or overturned. Individual chapters on ants, fish, parrots, rats, elephants, dolphins, chimpanzees, and dogs and wolves, reveal a depth of intelligence, communication and culture (not just society) which calls into question just about all animal research practices and some zoo policies. The growing body of evidence for animal cognition has, of course, been received with scorn by vested interests (cosmetic and medical researchers, food producers, and others who feel threatened at the thought that humans may not be so superior to animals), but even slow-moving science is coming around to the reality that traditional practices are cruel and unethical and deprive us of the benefits of seeing animals for the complicated beings they really are. I’ll certainly never look at the animals around me the same again.
    • 4/5
      I admit it – I’d rather read sweet anecdotes with pictures. But this is definitely the book one “ought” to read, to satisfy both desires: for heartwarming stories and for clear unbiased research.Like many of us, I have talked to animals my whole life, and found it absurd to consider non-humans as non-thinking, non-reasoning, non-feeling, non-rational, or non-empathic. As Ms. Morell clearly identifies, there’s a need for supporting and reporting ongoing research into the workings of animal minds, partly to understand our own mind processes better.The layout of the book was practical and enjoyable, moving from an extensive “introduction” that could well have been termed “premise” or “hypothesis”, then through research in individual species. Each of the species research was not only different because of the different animal or ecological/lab setting, but also because of the research goals for that particular study. For example, the chapter on wolves and dogs is about when and how their development separated, versus a strict review of how human-smart dogs or wolves might be.Ms. Morell has applied a subtle skill in managing the length of each chapter and the book overall. You leave wanting more, but at each phase you’re ready to move from one species story to another. Therefore, this book is easily recommended to both the killjoys who want to cling to a claim that the studies are anthropomorphic or anecdotal, and the romantics – like me.[About 9 type-layout errors in the latter third of the book, one in the first third.]
    • 5/5
      People who live with or love animals know they are intelligent and have emotions, but our stories about the antics of our beloved pets are just anecdotes to scientists and don’t meet the exacting standards of rigorous experiment based proof. While not a scientist herself, science writer Virginia Morell spent many years visiting and interviewing scientists doing research on animal cognition and this book about what she saw and learned is fascinating. It’s also surprisingly moving considering how much science it contains. The experiments the scientists conduct are explained in some detail, but the results are so interesting and the animals’ abilities are so much more than what we often assume that it’s not dry reading. Each chapter covers one animal species, from ants to fish, parrots, elephants, dolphins, apes and dogs, and the scientists who are investigating them. People have come up with many ideas for an exclusive skill or feature that separates humans from other animals, but at the very least the research done by the scientists in this book casts doubt on those speculations. While there are obviously differences, it may be more a matter of degree. Ants do a rudimentary kind of teaching, parrots call each other by something like names, dolphins have such complex social networks their brains are bigger than apes, rats laugh when tickled, and several animals have simple language-like ways of communicating that appear to be learned rather than inherited through their genes. There are some quirky stories, like the woman who lived in a surprisingly intimate manner with a dolphin in a specially designed house, and though I learned a lot the book was fun to read. Virginia Morell’s has a knack for making hard to understand scientific concepts easier to grasp and her storytelling skills when describing the scientists and animals held me rapt.