Animal Wise
The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures
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Animal Wise
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Narrated by:
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Kirsten Potter
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By:
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Virginia Morell
About this listen
Noted science writer Virginia Morell explores the frontiers of research on animal cognition and emotion, offering a surprising and moving exploration 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 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, earthworms make decisions, and that rats love to be tickled. They’ve discovered that dogs have thousand-word vocabularies, that parrots and dolphins have names, and that birds practice their songs in their sleep. But how do scientists know these things?
Animal Wise takes us on a dazzling odyssey into the inner world of animals from ants to wolves, and among the pioneering researchers who are leading the way into once-forbidden territory: the animal mind. With thirty years of experience covering the sciences, Morell uses her formidable gifts as a story-teller to transport 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. She probes the moral and ethical dilemmas of recognizing that even “lesser animals” have cognitive abilities such as memory, feelings, personality, and self-awareness–traits that many in the twentieth century felt were unique to human beings.
By standing behaviorism on its head, Morell brings the world of nature brilliantly alive in a nuanced, deeply felt appreciation of the human-animal bond, and she shares her admiration for the men and women who have simultaneously chipped away at what we think makes us distinctive while offering a glimpse of where our own abilities come from.
©2013 Virginia Morell (P)2013 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"After you read this book, you will be convinced that many different animal species have true thoughts and emotions. You will take a journey to the center of the animal mind." (Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human)
"From real-estate appraising ants and wife-beating parrots to laughing rats, grieving elephants, and dogs that play Simon Says, Virginia Morell’s Animal Wise is a fascinating and intellectually sweeping overview of the new science of animal cognition. With Morell’s unusual ability to capture the passion and humanity of these scientists, this extraordinary book is an impressive treatment of animal minds and a must read for anyone who has ever wondered what is going on in the heads of the creatures we share our world with." (Hal Herzog, author of Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat)
What listeners say about Animal Wise
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- David
- 02-06-15
Animal Wise
Excellent book, brings together many fascinating studies covering all sorts of animals from ants to elephants, parrots to dolphins. If you want to know more about the inner workings of animals from the field of animal cognition but are looking to avoid lots of technical jargon I would highly recommend this book. A good balance of the science and the authors (and the scientists she works with) own personal views on things; well written, and well read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 04-05-16
loved the book would definitely recommend it.
lots of good examples and points to a lot of people whose papers I'm going to read.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kristen
- 07-10-15
Anybody can learn something new from this
Would you consider the audio edition of Animal Wise to be better than the print version?
I don't know but I enjoyed the audio very much.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Maybe the fish because usually I don't care for them, but she uncovered really interesting facts about them.
Which character – as performed by Kirsten Potter – was your favourite?
not sure
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, science is best in small doses.
Any additional comments?
It's really very varied so whatever animal you like will probably be covered but you will also expand your horizons.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MISS ELISA BRADY
- 23-02-15
Enlightening and heart warming
Beautifully narrated and easy to follow. Includes interesting quotes, studies, stories and opinions from many well known experts in the fields of animal behaviour and emotions. 10 chapters cover the range of animal groups, focusing on one animal and types of insight per chapter. With so much research fairly recent, we are at the dawn of discovering all these great insights. This book brings together all the findings you've heard about in documentaries, you-tube, magazines and museum exhibitions. If you like animals you'll really enjoy it. It wouldn't offend either if your indifferent to some of the animals talked about. It's written in a way that's very personable and down-to-earth.
If Darwin were around still today, I think he would push for this book to be on the national curriculum. He wrote a similar (but stuffier version) 100 years ago. The world wasn't ready for it then.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mr Jack Merrifield
- 02-02-24
Fascinating
A crucially important topic written beautifully. An elegant and complex topic requires an elegant approach and this is perfectly captured here. Highly recommend. Best animal cognition book I have read since I picked up Shettleworth (2013).
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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- Mossias
- 25-07-18
Mostly boring, but perhaps my fault.
This book is saturated with results of research that went on for years, even decades. and rich anecdotes telling remarkable experiences with animals, that being said, the book never captured me fully. Perhaps I interpreted the title as something less "sciency", perhaps wrongly so.
To conclude, this book is for wild animals enthusiasts, or anyone who wants to know more on animals, but mostly enthusiasts.
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