-
Animal Wise
- The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
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.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Other Minds
- The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
- By: Peter Godfrey-Smith
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into being—how nature became aware of itself. As Godfrey-Smith stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared.
-
-
Mischief and Craft
- By Darwin8u on 08-10-17
-
The Hidden Life of Trees
- What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
-
-
Tree Hugger
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-19
By: Peter Wohlleben
-
Animals in Translation
- Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior
- By: Temple Grandin, Catherine Johnson
- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Temple Grandin’s professional training as an animal scientist and her history as a person with autism have given her a perspective like that of no other expert in the field. Grandin and coauthor Catherine Johnson present their powerful theory that autistic people can often think the way animals think—putting autistic people in the perfect position to translate “animal talk.”
-
-
Wonderful, but I have a bone to pick...
- By Tango on 05-06-13
By: Temple Grandin, and others
-
The Truth About Animals
- Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife
- By: Lucy Cooke
- Narrated by: Lucy Cooke
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary Roach meets Sam Kean and Bill Bryson in this uproarious tour of the basest instincts and biggest mysteries of the animal world. In The Truth About Animals, Lucy Cooke takes us on a worldwide journey to meet everyone from a Colombian hippo castrator to a Chinese panda porn peddler, all to lay bare the secret - and often hilarious - habits of the animal kingdom. Charming and at times downright weird, this modern bestiary is perfect for anyone who has ever suspected that virtue might be unnatural.
-
-
Great listen, highly recommend
- By Thomas on 06-26-18
By: Lucy Cooke
-
Beyond Words
- What Animals Think and Feel
- By: Carl Safina
- Narrated by: Carl Safina
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Weaving decades of field observations with exciting new discoveries about the brain, Carl Safina's landmark book offers an intimate view of animal behavior to challenge the fixed boundary between humans and nonhuman animals.
-
-
Great book by a scientist with a heart
- By Sharon on 11-12-15
By: Carl Safina
-
An Immense World
- How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
- By: Ed Yong
- Narrated by: Ed Yong
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us.
-
-
If you’ve never read about the wonder of animal sensory capabilities this is for you
- By MediaBaron on 06-27-22
By: Ed Yong
-
Other Minds
- The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
- By: Peter Godfrey-Smith
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into being—how nature became aware of itself. As Godfrey-Smith stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared.
-
-
Mischief and Craft
- By Darwin8u on 08-10-17
-
The Hidden Life of Trees
- What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
-
-
Tree Hugger
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-19
By: Peter Wohlleben
-
Animals in Translation
- Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior
- By: Temple Grandin, Catherine Johnson
- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Temple Grandin’s professional training as an animal scientist and her history as a person with autism have given her a perspective like that of no other expert in the field. Grandin and coauthor Catherine Johnson present their powerful theory that autistic people can often think the way animals think—putting autistic people in the perfect position to translate “animal talk.”
-
-
Wonderful, but I have a bone to pick...
- By Tango on 05-06-13
By: Temple Grandin, and others
-
The Truth About Animals
- Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife
- By: Lucy Cooke
- Narrated by: Lucy Cooke
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary Roach meets Sam Kean and Bill Bryson in this uproarious tour of the basest instincts and biggest mysteries of the animal world. In The Truth About Animals, Lucy Cooke takes us on a worldwide journey to meet everyone from a Colombian hippo castrator to a Chinese panda porn peddler, all to lay bare the secret - and often hilarious - habits of the animal kingdom. Charming and at times downright weird, this modern bestiary is perfect for anyone who has ever suspected that virtue might be unnatural.
-
-
Great listen, highly recommend
- By Thomas on 06-26-18
By: Lucy Cooke
-
Beyond Words
- What Animals Think and Feel
- By: Carl Safina
- Narrated by: Carl Safina
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Weaving decades of field observations with exciting new discoveries about the brain, Carl Safina's landmark book offers an intimate view of animal behavior to challenge the fixed boundary between humans and nonhuman animals.
-
-
Great book by a scientist with a heart
- By Sharon on 11-12-15
By: Carl Safina
-
An Immense World
- How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
- By: Ed Yong
- Narrated by: Ed Yong
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us.
-
-
If you’ve never read about the wonder of animal sensory capabilities this is for you
- By MediaBaron on 06-27-22
By: Ed Yong
-
The Land of Little Rain
- By: Mary Austin
- Narrated by: Ellen Parker
- Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in 1903, The Land of Little Rain is Mary Austin's classic homage to the American Southwest. Her collection of short stories and essays takes listeners on an enchanted journey through Death Valley, the High Sierras, and the Mojave Desert.
-
-
of highest quality. do listen to this gem
- By Wolfgang on 07-06-20
By: Mary Austin
-
What an Owl Knows
- The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds
- By: Jennifer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ackerman
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For millennia, owls have captivated and intrigued us. Our fascination with these mysterious birds was first documented more than thirty thousand years ago in the Chauvet Cave paintings in southern France. With their forward gaze and quiet flight, owls are often a symbol of wisdom, knowledge, and foresight. But what does an owl really know? And what do we really know about owls? Jennifer Ackerman illuminates the rich biology and natural history of these birds and reveals remarkable new scientific discoveries about their brains and behavior.
-
-
Moving
- By Amanda on 11-29-23
-
Inside of a Dog
- What Dogs See, Smell, and Know
- By: Alexandra Horowitz
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you ever wondered what your dogs are thinking? What they're feeling? Now you can finally know! The answers will surprise and delight you as scientist and dog owner Alexandra Horowitz explains how our four-legged friends perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human.
-
-
not very informative
- By Drew Lackovic on 12-03-17
-
The Other End of the Leash
- Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs
- By: Patricia McConnell PhD
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Other End of the Leash shares a revolutionary new perspective on our relationship with dogs, focusing on our behavior in comparison with that of dogs. An applied animal behaviorist and dog trainer with more than 20 years of experience, Dr. Patricia McConnell looks at humans as just another interesting species, and muses about why we behave the way we do around our dogs, how dogs might interpret our behavior, and how to interact with our dogs in ways that bring out the best in them.
-
-
A MUST READ for anyone who has or wants a dog!
- By Marion on 08-31-16
-
The Science of Animal Welfare
- Understanding What Animals Want
- By: Marian Stamp Dawkins
- Narrated by: Esther Wane
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is animal welfare? This concise and accessible guide is for anyone who is interested in animals and who has wondered how we can assess their welfare scientifically. It defines animal welfare as "health and animals having what they want", a definition that can be easily understood by scientists and non-scientists alike, expresses in simple words what underlies many existing definitions, and shows what evidence we need to collect to improve animal welfare in practice. Above all, it puts the animal's own point of view at the heart of an assessment of its welfare.
-
-
Great book!
- By Anonymous User on 10-04-23
-
The Genius of Birds
- By: Jennifer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Margaret Strom
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. In fact, according to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. Like humans, many birds have enormous brains relative to their size. Although small, bird brains are packed with neurons that allow them to punch well above their weight.
-
-
What a disappointment!
- By S. Benedict on 07-05-16
-
Soul of an Octopus
- A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
- By: Sy Montgomery
- Narrated by: Sy Montgomery
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sy Montgomery's popular 2011 Orion magazine piece, "Deep Intellect", about her friendship with a sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and the grief she felt at her death, went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since then Sy has practiced true immersion journalism, from New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing these wild, solitary shape-shifters.
-
-
Eight legs and so much more!
- By Kirstin on 07-02-15
By: Sy Montgomery
-
The Genius of Dogs
- How Dogs Are Smarter than You Think
- By: Brian Hare, Vanessa Woods
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In their New York Times best-selling book The Genius of Dogs, husband-and-wife team Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods lay out landmark discoveries from the Duke Canine Cognition Center and other research facilities around the world to reveal how your dog thinks and how we humans can have even deeper relationships with our best four-legged friends.
-
-
Misleading title- My guess is that the Published
- By Howard on 08-26-14
By: Brian Hare, and others
-
I Contain Multitudes
- The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
- By: Ed Yong
- Narrated by: Charlie Anson
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joining the ranks of popular science classics like The Botany of Desire and The Selfish Gene, a groundbreaking, wondrously informative, and vastly entertaining examination of the most significant revolution in biology since Darwin - a "microbe's-eye view" of the world that reveals a marvelous, radically reconceived picture of life on Earth.
-
-
Undoes what you've learned from the headlines
- By Tristan on 10-14-16
By: Ed Yong
-
A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
-
-
I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
-
How Dogs Think
- What the World Looks Like to Them and Why They Act the Way They Do
- By: Stanley Coren PhD
- Narrated by: Bob Dio
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling author, psychologist, and world-renowned expert on dog behavior and training Dr. Stanley Coren presents the most informative, in-depth, fascinating book yet on dogs. Acclaimed for its solid scientific research and entertaining, eminently accessible style, How Dogs Think gives you the insight that you need to understand the silly, quirky, and apparently irrational behaviors that dogs demonstrate, as well as those stunning flashes of brilliance and creativity that they also can display.
-
-
EXCEPTIONAL BOOK
- By Lisa c. on 12-20-18
-
Crossings
- How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet
- By: Ben Goldfarb
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the earth, yet we tend to regard them only as infrastructure for human convenience. While roads are so ubiquitous they're practically invisible to us, wild animals experience them as entirely alien forces of death and disruption. In Crossings, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb travels throughout the United States and around the world to investigate how roads have transformed our planet. A million animals are killed by cars each day in the US alone, but as the new science of road ecology shows, the harms of highways extend far beyond roadkill.
-
-
Great book, but narration doesn’t fit.
- By Anonymous User on 09-22-23
By: Ben Goldfarb
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)
Related to this topic
-
The Age of Empathy
- Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
- By: Frans de Waal
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is it really human nature to stab one another in the back in our climb up the corporate ladder? Competitive, selfish behavior is often explained away as instinctive, thanks to evolution and "survival of the fittest", but in fact, humans are equally hard-wired for empathy. Using research from the fields of anthropology, psychology, animal behavior, and neuroscience, Frans de Waal brilliantly argues that humans are group animals.
-
-
A Lot Of Things In Common With Our Animal Friends!
- By James on 08-14-11
By: Frans de Waal
-
How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog)
- Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution
- By: Lyudmila Trut, Lee Alan Dugatkin
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog. But, despite appearances, these are not dogs - they are foxes. They are the result of the most astonishing experiment in breeding ever undertaken - imagine speeding up thousands of years of evolution into a few decades. In 1959, biologists Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut set out to do just that, by starting with a few dozen silver foxes from fox farms in the USSR and attempting to recreate the evolution of wolves into dogs in real time.
-
-
Amazing
- By paul on 10-26-17
By: Lyudmila Trut, and others
-
The Thing with Feathers
- The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human
- By: Noah Strycker
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself. The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the deft artistry of bowerbirds, the extraordinary memories of nutcrackers, and other mysteries.
-
-
Interesting book, terrible reader
- By MGM123 on 03-16-18
By: Noah Strycker
-
How Dogs Love Us
- A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain
- By: Gregory Berns
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How Dogs Love Us answers the age-old question of dog lovers everywhere and offers profound new evidence that dogs should be treated as we would treat our best human friends: with love, respect, and appreciation for their social and emotional intelligence.
-
-
misleading title
- By Cindy on 08-06-15
By: Gregory Berns
-
Gifts of the Crow
- How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
- By: John Marzluff, Tony Angell
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New research indicates that crows are among the brightest animals in the world. And professor of Wildlife Science at the University of Washington John Marzluff has done some of the most extraordinary research on crows, which has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, and the Chicago Tribune, as well as on NPR and PBS. Now he teams up with artist and fellow naturalist Tony Angell to offer an in-depth look at these incredible creatures - in a book that is brimming with surprises.
-
-
You Will Never Look At A Crow The Same Way Again
- By Diane on 06-30-12
By: John Marzluff, and others
-
Animals in Translation
- Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior
- By: Temple Grandin, Catherine Johnson
- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Temple Grandin’s professional training as an animal scientist and her history as a person with autism have given her a perspective like that of no other expert in the field. Grandin and coauthor Catherine Johnson present their powerful theory that autistic people can often think the way animals think—putting autistic people in the perfect position to translate “animal talk.”
-
-
Wonderful, but I have a bone to pick...
- By Tango on 05-06-13
By: Temple Grandin, and others
-
The Age of Empathy
- Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
- By: Frans de Waal
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is it really human nature to stab one another in the back in our climb up the corporate ladder? Competitive, selfish behavior is often explained away as instinctive, thanks to evolution and "survival of the fittest", but in fact, humans are equally hard-wired for empathy. Using research from the fields of anthropology, psychology, animal behavior, and neuroscience, Frans de Waal brilliantly argues that humans are group animals.
-
-
A Lot Of Things In Common With Our Animal Friends!
- By James on 08-14-11
By: Frans de Waal
-
How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog)
- Visionary Scientists and a Siberian Tale of Jump-Started Evolution
- By: Lyudmila Trut, Lee Alan Dugatkin
- Narrated by: Joe Hempel
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog. But, despite appearances, these are not dogs - they are foxes. They are the result of the most astonishing experiment in breeding ever undertaken - imagine speeding up thousands of years of evolution into a few decades. In 1959, biologists Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut set out to do just that, by starting with a few dozen silver foxes from fox farms in the USSR and attempting to recreate the evolution of wolves into dogs in real time.
-
-
Amazing
- By paul on 10-26-17
By: Lyudmila Trut, and others
-
The Thing with Feathers
- The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human
- By: Noah Strycker
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself. The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the deft artistry of bowerbirds, the extraordinary memories of nutcrackers, and other mysteries.
-
-
Interesting book, terrible reader
- By MGM123 on 03-16-18
By: Noah Strycker
-
How Dogs Love Us
- A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain
- By: Gregory Berns
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How Dogs Love Us answers the age-old question of dog lovers everywhere and offers profound new evidence that dogs should be treated as we would treat our best human friends: with love, respect, and appreciation for their social and emotional intelligence.
-
-
misleading title
- By Cindy on 08-06-15
By: Gregory Berns
-
Gifts of the Crow
- How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
- By: John Marzluff, Tony Angell
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New research indicates that crows are among the brightest animals in the world. And professor of Wildlife Science at the University of Washington John Marzluff has done some of the most extraordinary research on crows, which has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, and the Chicago Tribune, as well as on NPR and PBS. Now he teams up with artist and fellow naturalist Tony Angell to offer an in-depth look at these incredible creatures - in a book that is brimming with surprises.
-
-
You Will Never Look At A Crow The Same Way Again
- By Diane on 06-30-12
By: John Marzluff, and others
-
Animals in Translation
- Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior
- By: Temple Grandin, Catherine Johnson
- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Temple Grandin’s professional training as an animal scientist and her history as a person with autism have given her a perspective like that of no other expert in the field. Grandin and coauthor Catherine Johnson present their powerful theory that autistic people can often think the way animals think—putting autistic people in the perfect position to translate “animal talk.”
-
-
Wonderful, but I have a bone to pick...
- By Tango on 05-06-13
By: Temple Grandin, and others
-
A Small Furry Prayer
- Dog Rescue and the Meaning of Life
- By: Steven Kotler
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steven Kotler was 40 years old, single, and facing an existential crisis when he met Lila, a woman devoted to animal rescue. "Love me, love my dogs" was her rule, and Steven took it to heart. Spurred to move by a housing crisis in Los Angeles, Steven, Lila, and their eight dogs - then 10, then 20, and then they lost count - bought a postage-stamp-size farm in Chimayo, New Mexico....
-
-
Great book
- By Shirley on 08-29-11
By: Steven Kotler
-
Superlative
- The Biology of Extremes
- By: Matthew D. LaPlante
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world's largest land mammal could help us end cancer. The fastest bird is showing us how to solve a century-old engineering mystery. The oldest tree is giving us insights into climate change. The loudest whale is offering clues about the impact of solar storms. For a long time, scientists ignored superlative life forms as outliers. Increasingly, though, researchers are coming to see great value in studying plants and animals that exist on the outermost edges of the bell curve.
-
-
Fascinating survey of amazing biology
- By Nerd's-eye view on 12-06-19
-
In the Company of Bears
- What Black Bears Have Taught Me About Intelligence and Intuition
- By: Benjamin Kilham
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Imagine raising an orphaned bear cub, carefully reintroducing her to the wild, then being welcomed back, almost daily, to observe her wild world for more than 17 years. Imagine visiting her in her feeding spots, watching her with her mates and her young, peering into her den, and, over time, observing the lives of all the other wild bears in her territory and surrounding ones. That is what happened to Ben Kilham.
-
-
Best Bear book I have read!
- By Walking With Bears on 06-02-21
By: Benjamin Kilham
-
The Bonobo and the Atheist
- By: Frans de Waal
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this lively and illuminating discussion of his landmark research, esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal argues that human morality is not imposed from above but instead comes from within. Moral behavior does not begin and end with religion but is in fact a product of evolution. For many years, de Waal has observed chimpanzees soothe distressed neighbors and bonobos share their food. Now he delivers fascinating fresh evidence for the seeds of ethical behavior in primate societies that further cements the case for the biological origins of human fairness.
-
-
Great research on apes, bad research on humans
- By Christian Bonnell on 07-18-14
By: Frans de Waal
-
The Secret History of Kindness
- Learning from How Dogs Learn
- By: Melissa Holbrook Pierson
- Narrated by: Ann Osmond
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An intimate, surprising look at man's best friend and what the leading philosophies of dog training teach us about ourselves. Years back, Melissa Holbrook Pierson brought home a border collie named Mercy, without a clue of how to get her to behave. Stunned after hiring a trainer whose immediate rapport with Mercy seemed magical, Pierson began delving into the techniques of positive reinforcement.
-
-
Warning: praises ABA done to autistic people
- By Rosslyn on 03-09-16
-
Wesley the Owl
- The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl
- By: Stacey O'Brien
- Narrated by: Renée Raudman
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written with the same heartwarming sentiment that made the memoir Marley & Me a runaway best seller, biologist and owl expert Stacey O'Brien chronicles her rescue of an adorable, abandoned baby barn owl - and their astonishing and unprecedented 19-year life together.
-
-
Maybe good for children
- By Michael on 12-15-08
By: Stacey O'Brien
-
Time, Love, Memory
- A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior
- By: Jonathan Weiner
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Beak of the Finch, brings his brilliant reporting skills to the story of Seymour Benzer, the Brooklyn-born maverick scientist whose study of genetics and experiments with fruit fly genes has helped revolutionize or knowledge of the connections between DNA and behavior both animal and human.
-
-
This is a profound science book
- By Timothy A. Smith on 05-12-10
By: Jonathan Weiner
-
The Underdogs
- Children, Dogs, and the Power of Unconditional Love
- By: Melissa Fay Greene
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Underdogs tells the story of Karen Shirk, felled at age 24 by a neuromuscular disease and facing life as a ventilator-dependent, immobile patient, who was turned down by every service dog agency in the country because she was "too disabled". Her nurse encouraged her to tone down the suicidal thoughts, find a puppy, and raise her own service dog. Karen did this, and Ben, a German shepherd, dragged her back into life.
-
-
A nice good read!
- By Natalie Baranski on 04-05-22
-
Intelligence in Nature
- An Inquiry into Knowledge
- By: Jeremy Narby
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anthropologist Jeremy Narby has altered how we understand the Shamanic cultures and traditions that have undergone a worldwide revival in recent years. Now, in one of his most extraordinary journeys, Narby travels the globe - from the Amazon Basin to the Far East - to probe what traditional healers and pioneering researchers understand about the intelligence present in all forms of life. Intelligence in Nature presents overwhelming illustrative evidence that independent intelligence is not unique to humanity alone.
-
-
Favorite part was untrue :(
- By Al A'scgh on 08-13-18
By: Jeremy Narby
-
The Wonder of Birds
- What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future
- By: Jim Robbins
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically, draw us out into nature to seek their beauty, and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, providing clothing and food, and helping us better understand the human brain and body.
-
-
Stories about birds with something for everyone
- By D on 07-24-17
By: Jim Robbins
-
Wild Ones
- A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America’s endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Jon Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, to move beyond childlike fascination and make those creatures feel more real. Wild Ones is a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it.
-
-
The line between conservation and domestication...
- By Bonny on 04-02-14
By: Jon Mooallem
-
Our Wild Calling
- How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives - and Save Theirs
- By: Richard Louv
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Louv's landmark book, Last Child in the Woods, inspired an international movement to connect children and nature. Now Louv redefines the future of human-animal coexistence. Our Wild Calling explores these powerful and mysterious bonds and how they can transform our mental, physical, and spiritual lives, serve as an antidote to the growing epidemic of human loneliness, and help us tap into the empathy required to preserve life on Earth.
-
-
Sharing our world
- By Scott Br on 10-06-21
By: Richard Louv
What listeners say about Animal Wise
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dr.
- 04-14-13
Animal Wise is Wise Indeed
Although I love anecdotes that provide glimpses into the presumed thoughts and feelings of animals, I also like to see what comparative psychologists, primatologists, ethnologists, and others have to say as well. Animal Wise does an excellent job of providing a survey about what published studies by these researchers have to say. Although it would be easy for such a survey to become dry and academic, Morell is an accomplished science writer (think Nat Geo) who does a good job of making this information interesting and accessible to a lay audience. Along the way she tours what is known about animals you are likely to be somewhat familiar with - you know, dogs, chimpanzees, elephants, and porpoises, but she also covers animals and creatures you are probably less familiar with, like ants, fish, and birds (especially crows!).
What surprised me the most about reading Animal Wise is that Morell explores the philosophical and moral implications of animal intelligence: To the extent that there is evolutionary continuity at a physical level, what does it mean that there is also intellectual and emotional continuity between humans and other animals? What if any bearing do these issues have on how we treat and how we eat these animals?
If books of this type are of interest, check out "Our Inner Ape" by Frans de Waal.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tango
- 10-23-20
Utterly Fascinating
Animal cognition is such an enlightening field of study. Surprising that it took us so long to get around to it. This book presents some snapshots of cognition projects encompassing a wide range of animal species (mammals, fish, birds, insects) from around the globe. Engrossing read!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Douglas
- 12-13-13
"The Age Of Animals..."
That is what Mark Bekoff, author of Wild Justice, calls the twenty-first century, anticipating a growing awareness of animal cognition and emotion, along with a growing awareness of how close we really are in relation to animals and the way they live. Like Bekoff's Wild Justice and Dale Peterson's The Moral Lives Of Animals, Morell uses a wonderful combination of anecdote, science and philosophy to weave together a plausible argument that animals not only think and feel more like we do than we before believed, but that they, too, possess their own forms of morality, which, in most instances, very much resemble ours as well. Anyone who has spent a lot of time around animals knows that it is true, but we are just now fighting our way out of Descartes' famous proclamation that animals are simply "elaborate machines" without REAL thoughts and feelings. It is good to see a growing body of literature that, at last, contradicts that and publicizes what a lot of us knew by simple observation and interactions with our fellow beings.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
15 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 12-06-17
Amazing!!!
It was such a beautiful book that really makes one appericate all forms of life. I will and have already recommended this book to anyone willing to listen. I truly believe that if humans start to value animals more as intelligent creatures many of the problems we have today may cease to exist.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kathi
- 03-01-13
Beautiful insights into the minds of animals
What did you love best about Animal Wise?
I was tempted to say I was blown away by this sensitive and informative book about the inner minds and emotions of animals. But I'm not really. For anyone who loves and respects animals, this is more a confirmation of what we may have suspected than a surprise.
Virginia Morrell does a wonderful job of explaining some of the ways humans have been discouraged from believing in the intelligence and emotional connections of animals. She then goes on to explore case after case where people (scientists usually) who have spent great time studying certain kinds of animals have learned about what creative, intelligent and interactive lives they have. (Think Jane Goodall, but with every species...insects, birds, fish, mammals...)
In the beginning she states that we study animals' minds as a "better way to share the earth with our fellow creatures." And as she lays out her findings, one is repeatedly reminded that they *are* our fellow creatures.
This book may leave hunters, lab experimenters, even maybe just meat eaters re-thinking some of their positions. But whether that happens or not, it is undeniable that the book will leave you feeling amazed and far more respectful of our other animal kin.
Kirsten Potter does an excellent job of narrating, but I did find myself wondering what it might have been like if the author had read it herself. I am sure I will listen to this over and over.
Highly recommend!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- KL
- 11-02-13
Finished in 2 days!
I finished this book in two days! It was a greatly informative and educational peek into the science behind our animal kin...not just dogs but primates, dolphins, whales, even ants.
While I wriggled a little bit at some of the lab experiments, the outcomes are enlightening. This is a great book for anyone considering a career in dog training or just looking to understand how our counterparts communicate, feel and survive despite not communicating verbally.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Liliana Piegari
- 03-21-18
Great choice for animal lovers
If you Wonder how anómala feel or think, this is a great choice for you. It will go through diferent species and how they feel and comunicate among themselves and with us.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ned Ramm
- 01-17-20
Maybe the best overall book on animal ethology
I have read a number of books on animal intelligence and ethology such as the ones by Frans De Waal, and all offer some interesting, if overlapping, concepts. The beauty of this book is that the author travelled extensively to spend time and interview these leading scientists thus enabling the reader to gain a good overall insight into this fields in one book. If you are new to this topic, this would be a great place to start. My only criticism is that she could not seem to help being a bit apologetic to the behaviorist scientists by often defending her use of personal pronouns for animals with obvious personal traits.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- LegionWarrior2
- 03-17-21
Amazing and insightful
Loved it! Read it again and again. I did not want to put it down. It opened up so much understanding to how animals think, feel, and learn. It really does help to form bonds and appreciation for animals.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 10-12-22
LOVE this amazing book
This was one of the most interesting, insightful yet entertaining animal
books I have ever read, highly recommend it for anyone even with the slightest interest in the topic.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!