Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures

I liked this book. I do recommend it to others. <br /><br />It begins with a brief history of how we have in the past viewed the cognition and emotions of animals, starting with Aristotle, moving ahead to the Stoics, then René Descartes, Voltaire, Darwin, the Behaviorists, Konrad Lorenz, Jane Goodall and showing how Donald Redfield Griffin in the 1970s opened up research into cognitive ethology. Previously, research into how animals think and feel was quite simply not taken seriously. It had only been on the level of Skinner’s operant conditioning through the reinforcement of desired behaviors and the punishment of undesired ones. <br /><br />After the brief history of animal cognition, we progress chapter by chapter from simple creatures to more complex ones, from ants, archer fish, parrots, rats, elephants, dolphins, gorillas, chimpanzees to finally wolves and dogs. Looking at specific studies, carried out in the late 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, conclusions are drawn about the respective animals’ cognitive abilities, self-awareness, personality traits and emotions. The studies have been conducted in countries all over the world - Japan, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Tanzania, the United States and more. <br /><br />The author is a science writer, not a scientist. This book grew from her writing in <i>The National Geographic</i>. The book reads as an article in the magazine. Terms are clearly defined. It is well organized and easy to follow. <br /><br /><br />Due to our evolutionary background, there is more that makes us similar to than makes us different from other species. It is just nonsense to think that humans alone think and feel. This is the book’s central thesis and what it shows. It also gives examples of where our capabilities are not as good as in other species, and that there is strength in diversity. It is time we open our eyes to both what species share and how we differ. Why must we incessantly see ourselves at the top of a pinnacle with all other creatures below? If we are made aware of and begin to appreciate the abilities and beauty of other creatures, perhaps then we can stop or at least decrease the mass extinction that is occurring today. Crassly put, can we afford to lose what these creatures can teach us? <br /><br />Perhaps you are wondering what I am so scared of losing. I will give just one example. Chimpanzees have an instantaneous flash memory <b>MUCH</b> better than humans. They are shown a picture for just a teeny bit of a second, and they can remember and replicate it. I followed the experiment and thought, gosh, I cannot do that, only to discover that no humans can do what they do! As we discover other creatures’ abilities, they become beautiful in our eyes and we value them. We must prevent further extinction!<br /><br />OK, so why am I not giving this more stars? It is well organized, intelligible and has an important message. It covers modern day studies. The simple answer is that I quite simply liked it, but don’t feel I can say I liked it a lot! It left my heart unmoved. There is a spark that is missing. Animals do think and they do share our emotions; that is shown. Yet, the evidence stays on a clinical level. The reader does not get to know any one specific individual creature well; there is no emotional connection. When I read <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/22320456.Beyond_Words_What_Animals_Think_and_Feel" title="Beyond Words What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina" rel="noopener">Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel</a>, I was so emotionally moved that I felt horrified at the thought of even stepping on a bug! Such an emotional response just did not happen here. <br /><br />The audiobook is wonderfully read by Kirsten Potter. She does nothing wrong. The speed and the clarity of the spoken words are perfect. <br />

Oh my gosh! I'm going to get to read this sooner than I'd thought because I just won my FIRST EVER FIRST READS GIVEAWAY!!! HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE! And this is a perfect first winner, too, because if it's here in time for Christmas, I can read it with my niece who is interested in animals and their thoughts and emotions!<br />I AM SO EXCITED!!!<br /><br />Feb 2012: I have finished this book! Thank you, First Reads, for making me a winner!<br />And now, my thoughts:<br />I had so much fun reading this. I mean, first off, it's really nice to know that other people in the world do not scoff at the idea of animals being able to think. I watch my cats all the time and wonder what schemes they're scheming, what dreams they're dreaming, what weird little kitty thoughts are happening in their heads because it seems so obvious to me that there IS something going on in there, something more than just prowling for mice and finding warm spots of sunshine.<br />Another reviewer had mentioned she'd known most of the information contained in the book because she watches nature shows on TV. Well, I don't get any sort of television programming in my house so many of these stories were news to me! Ok, I did know about elephants and chimpanzees/bonobos/other ape friends. But many of the chapters were surprising and fun...well, except the chapter about Alex. That was not surprising or fun and it made me cry. Still.<br />I think one of the things that excited me most was that I was able to remember my own encounters with creatures while I was reading each chapter. While reading about ants (and I really hope the little ant symbol at the bottom of the first chapter page remains in the retail copy), I remembered that I had a friend ant named Cindy when I was little; for a few weeks one summer, I'd run out back every morning and lie on my stomach next to Cindy's ant hill and would call for her. The first ant that came out would stand and look at me and I knew she was my friend Cindy. It made sense when I was four. It doesn't, now, but I had just assumed this little black ant lived in a family similar to mine and wanted to play with me every day, would leave her breakfast table and come running to see me when I called at her front door. I loved remembering that as much as I loved reading about little colored dots on tiny, busy ants.<br />I also remember playing tag with a funny little fish in Greece. I was kneeling in the water, looking for perfect rocks and this fish, a minnow maybe about the size of my pinky, came darting up between my thighs. It wasn't looking for caves so don't even go there. Anyhow, I moved to get a better look and it darted away. I put my hand toward it and it swam just out of reach but it stayed, looking at me. I sat back up and it darted back in. I made to grab it and it darted out of reach. We did this for a minute, or so, back and forth, and I swear it was giggling. Then it darted off, stopped and looked at me, then swam away. I don't know what that was but I like to think we were both having fun. And that is what made me believe that archerfish shoot people in the eye because it's funny. <br />I do think animals think and feel. I also think they have a sense of humor, that they can be sad, that they can be upset. I've never agreed - based on nothing more than being around animals - that humans are the only ones who can do all these things that supposedly make us human. Thus, I enjoyed nearly every single story in this book because it made me hope that more and more people will begin to feel the same - that animals aren't just automatons but are thinking, feeling beings.<br />Yes, I said "nearly every single story" because the one that did not strike me, though I think I was most excited to read it, was the chapter on ticklish rats. For some reason, that one chapter didn't resonate with me, which is odd because I am delighted with the idea of tickling rats. I want to find some rats to tickle right now.<br />My copy is an uncorrected proof. I expect several of the little things, aside from typos and the like, will be corrected before the book is finalized and sent to shelf so I won't go into that.<br />I look very forward to sharing this with my niece; I think she'll enjoy it as much as I did. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is fascinated by animals, by psychology, by zoology, or just the overall bigger life picture. I would not recommend it to that guy who told me that cats and dogs don't truly feel affection, that they're just asking for something or working on instinct because I don't think he'd enjoy this book at all.

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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />Thanks to readitforward.com for this galley of ANIMAL WISE.

I really enjoyed the book! I liked the way the author wrote about the scientists who were studying the different animals, from ants to dolphins. All of the storys were clearly detailed with background information and literature from other sources. I thought the stories were well done with respect to the research and the people doing the research. There was just enough scientific details to carry the stories along, without getting bogged down into difficult words and terms. I liked that there were so many stories and how they moved from one to another. <br /><br />All of the years that have been spent trying to understand what animals are thinking and how they do what they do, and why. I admire the researchers who have dedicated so many years of their lives to do what they do and still find it exciting and new everyday.<br /><br />What a great job! To be able to travel all over the world and meet so many different researchers and their animals and watch the testing being done, and then to put it all together into a book for everyone to read. Thank you!

Rec'd by Fox for an intro to the cognitive ethology field. Cognitive ethology, for those of you who don't know, is a thing that I definitely totally know what it means.

yes, catch and release hurts fish! &amp; of who knew birds were such drama queens? great book for everyone

Won an Advanced Reader's Copy from Read It Forward.<br /><br />As one scientist interviewed for this book states -- "I really do not understand this need for us [humans] always to be superior in all domains. Or to be so separate, so unique from every other animal. . . . We are not. . . . we are members of the animal kingdom." <br /><br />I would guess that most people who would choose to read this book would agree with this sentiment, as I do. Which means that the author's message - that animals are thinking and feeling creatures much more similar to us than we tend to realize - will likely be preaching to the choir for most. However, even if you already believe the basic premise, it's entertaining and validating to read lots of scientific experiments, conducted on a wide variety of animals by scientists all over the world, that reinforce your own personal view. I enjoyed reading it.

Morell goes on great adventures, following many of the world's top researchers of animal intelligence through jungles, tropical bays, or university research facilities in many nations. She covers the slowly developing analysis of parakeet twitters, dolphin calls, rat laughter, patterns of dog behavior, and the better-than-human feats of memory by gorillas. In each case she coveys the beauty and mystery of the animals while explaining the complexity of research that is more challenging than decoding unknown human languages. I enjoyed her book a lot. Hard to see any animal as an "it" after reading this.

Fascinating and important, and also carefully written. I'm convinced that I want to be a vegetarian. At the very least, I expect readers of this to come away with an appreciation that more research needs to be done, by scientists with less hubris, less need to feel superior to the rest of the animal kingdom.<br /><br />It's not a perfect book. Some bits are repeated, and though there are notes, an index, and a bibliography, none serve to guide a reader to the better choices for further reading. Nor is there offered a clear working definition of different kinds of intelligence between the ants and fish in the first two chapters, and the known-to-be smart mammals in the last ones.<br /><br />I really like the chapter on dogs. The hypothesis being explored by the researchers Morell focused on is that "dogs and humans represent an unusual case of ... convergent evolution, because although dogs and humans have entirely different ancestors, we share numerous behaviors and traits--particularly the desire to work together to accomplish a task." Darwin himself proposed that "Dogs may have lost in cunning... yet they have progressed in certain moral qualities, such as affection, trust, worthiness, temper, and probably general intelligence."<br /><br />But for the most part animal intelligence is different than human intelligence. Not entirely, of course; we're all Earthlings. But sufficiently so that, for example, chimps' zookeepers have to study what habitat &amp; toys chimps are interested in, because if they try to imagine what they, or their human children, would like, they'd mostly guess wrong. Instead, enlist the chimps as colleagues, much as some Japanese scientists do. And what about clues we miss entirely? It's true that we're starting to investigate echolocation, but consider: "A room full of laughing rats! Their joyful chirps were ricocheting all around us, but we couldn't hear a bit of it. If there was a moment that encapsulated all we don't know or miss about animals, for me, this surely was it." <br /><br />Hidden in a footnote is this gem: '"There was actually very little that was 'comparative' about most comparative cognition labs in the past," one comparative animal psychologist told me. "Three animals were used: rats, pigeons, and college sophomores, preferably male..."' Hmm. In the past, eh? Next time you read a psych book, check if the studies used older humans, or ones who did not go to college, or ones who live in a culture that does not value a college education, or even females. I, personally, have noted plenty of extrapolation from college students to all humans even now.<br /><br />I also want to know more about the work of someone I'd never heard of before, Darwin's protege <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/290765.George_John_Romanes" title="George John Romanes" rel="noopener">George John Romanes</a>, who wrote <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/2305492.Animal_Intelligence" title="Animal Intelligence by George John Romanes" rel="noopener">Animal Intelligence</a>. Morell points out that he "argued that because animals could learn, they must have minds--the same argument that was used at the time to explain the existence of minds in humans."<br /><br />Note that "at the time." Because of human hubris (mostly male scientific academicians, it seems), until <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/18163.Jane_Goodall" title="Jane Goodall" rel="noopener">Jane Goodall</a> (almost untrained, and female) animals and humans desperately needed to be seen as distinct from one another. Even now the goalposts keep changing. First only humans had language - then using a board with symbols wasn't good enough, then not using full syntax wasn't good enough. First only humans used tools, then only humans made tools, then tool-making was defined as an instinctive behavior.<br /><br />Thanks to:<br /> <a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/40634.Alexander_F__Skutch" title="Alexander F. Skutch" rel="noopener">Alexander F. Skutch</a> for <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/2221741.The_Minds_of_Birds" title="The Minds of Birds by Alexander F. Skutch" rel="noopener">The Minds of Birds</a>, <br /><a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/1567.Temple_Grandin" title="Temple Grandin" rel="noopener">Temple Grandin</a> for <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/103407.Thinking_in_Pictures__Expanded_Edition_My_Life_with_Autism" title="Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition My Life with Autism by Temple Grandin" rel="noopener">Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism</a>, <br /><a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/2731461.Irene_M__Pepperberg" title="Irene M. Pepperberg" rel="noopener">Irene M. Pepperberg</a> for <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/3018307.Alex___Me_How_a_Scientist_and_a_Parrot_Discovered_a_Hidden_World_of_Animal_Intelligence_and_Formed_a_Deep_Bond_in_the_Process" title="Alex &amp; Me How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process by Irene M. Pepperberg" rel="noopener">Alex &amp; Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process</a> and <br /><a href="https://goodreads.com/author/show/13364.Sy_Montgomery" title="Sy Montgomery" rel="noopener">Sy Montgomery</a> for <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/22609485.The_Soul_of_an_Octopus_A_Surprising_Exploration_Into_the_Wonder_of_Consciousness" title="The Soul of an Octopus A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery" rel="noopener">The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness</a>, (and other books by each of them, and other authors), today's readers and aspiring scientists can begin to get to know our fellow animals for who (not what) they are. And maybe someday calling someone an "animal" will be no more insulting than calling someone "black" or "gay" or "a girl." Because all animals are amazing, even humans. ;)

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.