Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures

Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures
Virginia Morell (Author)
(16)

New!: $26.00 $15.85 (as of 02/25/2013 10:32 PST)

Nature & Ecology

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.
 
   Did you know that ants teach, earthworms make decisions, rats love to be tickled, and chimps grieve?  Did you know that some dogs have thousand-word vocabularies and that birds practice songs in their sleep? That crows improvise tools, blue jays plan ahead, and moths remember living as caterpillars?

   Animal Wise takes us on a dazzling odyssey into the inner world of animals, from ants to elephants to wolves, and from sharp-shooting archerfish to pods of dolphins that rumble like rival street gangs.  With 30 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 pioneering animal-cognition researchers 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.

• Rank: #9707 in Books
• Published on: 2013-02-26
• Released on: 2013-02-26
• Format: Deckle Edge
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.53" h x 1.08" w x 6.53" l, 1.14 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Description #1 by audiobooksonline.com:

Written by Virginia Morell - Audio book narrated by Kirsten Potter - Unabridged Nonfiction - 9 COMPACT DISCS - 11 hoursPublisher, Random House Audiobooks (February 26, 2013)The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow CreaturesListen to a Free audio clip.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.?This enthralling book might change the way we perceive other species who share the planet with us?.A compelling read.?? Bark magazine?This charming book about animal intelligence?.has a nice arc to its structure?working from generally more basic (although still remarkable) cognitive abilities of creatures like adventurous ants to the complex thinking of chimps?and it is threaded through with philosophical questions that are as thought-provoking as the creatures and experiments she chronicles.?? Smithsonian magazine?For page after exci

Description #2 by eCampus.com:

Animal Wise : The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures, ISBN-13: 9780307461445, ISBN-10: 0307461440

Description #3 by Overstock.com:

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. Did you know that ants teach, earthworms make decisions, rats love to be tickled, and chimps grieve? Did you know that some dogs have thousand-word vocabularies and that birds practice songs in their sleep? That crows improvise tools, blue jays plan ahead, and moths remember living as caterpillars? Animal Wise takes us on a dazzling odyssey into the inner world of animals, from ants to elephants to wolves, and from sharp-shooting archerfish to pods of dolphins that rumble like rival street gangs. With 30 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 pioneering animal-cognition researchers 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.