Animal Wise

April 29, 2013
Morrell takes listeners on a tour the animal kingdom from ants and fish to elephants and chimps, exploring the wide range of research that shows the common traits humans share with animals, and rectifying common misconceptions about animal intelligence or the lack thereof. With an air of authority and a hint of sternness, Kristen Potter captures the tone and style of Morrell exceptionally well. Potter’s straight and serious reading doesn’t provide room for humor—instead she urges listeners to seriously consider the complexity of animals and the ways in which they are similar to human beings. Potter’s deliberate tone makes it easy to listen to the book’s complex information. And the narrator’s congenial and conversational manner matches that of Morrell’s prose, capturing and maintaining listener attention from beginning to end. A Crown hardcover.

Starred review from February 25, 2013
Morell (Ancestral Passions), laying it out on the first page of her survey of various animals' thought processes, declares: "animals have minds. They have brains, and use them, as we do: for experiencing the world, for thinking and feeling and for solving the problems of life every creature faces." That's a bold statement, considering the widely-held theory that animals do not have feelings or the ability to reason, but Morell passionately and consistently proves her point in this frequently fascinating study of animal behavior. Over the course of the book's 352 pages, Morell reveals that rats dream as humans do (they also love to be tickled and can even grasp the concept of playtime), parrots have conversations, elephants grieve, and monkeys and apes conspire with one another. Careful to avoid the cardinal scientific sin of anthropomorphizing her subjects, Morell interviews a wide range of researchers to learn about their methodology and insights into animal cognition. Tempering her enthusiasm and delight for her material, Morell is a gifted writer with a deep knowledge base that never talks down to the reader or the academic communityâno small feat.

Starred review from January 15, 2013
Animals not only have minds, but personalities and emotions. They make plans, calculate, cheat and even teach, writes veteran science writer Morell (Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings, 1997) in this delightful exploration of how animals think. Until 50 years ago, most scientists--but not Darwin--believed that blind instinct governed animal behavior; thinking was unnecessary and therefore absent. Morell documents her interviews with scientists across the world whose studies have reduced this to a minority opinion. Readers anticipating the traditional high-IQ dog/monkey/elephant examples will receive a jolt in the first chapter, which reveals that ants are no slouches in the brain department. Members of a complex society, they solve problems with a flexibility that would be impossible if ant neurons were simple and hard-wired. No less impressive are fish, birds and rats, which the author examines in subsequent chapters. Fish feel pain. Birds sing because their parents teach them. Parrots not only imitate human sounds, they know what they are saying and can identify numbers, shapes, colors and even differences between them. Rats engaged in play make sounds that reveal that they are enjoying themselves. Entering familiar territory, Morell also looks at elephants and dolphins, which have long memories and sophisticated personal relationships that include genuine affection. While chimps perform their impressive feats, dogs occupy the final chapter since many experts believe that a dog's obsession with reading and responding to our cues make it the best model for understanding the human mind. Although human cognition remains uniquely profound, evolution guarantees that it has a long history, and Morell makes a fascinating, convincing case that even primitive animals give some thought to their actions.

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February 15, 2013
Animals have minds, and they use them. As science-writer Morell (Ancestral Passions, 1996; Blue Nile, 2001) points out, the question isn't do animals think? but what do they think? Morell's journey into the minds of animals (and the researchers who study them) began when she watched her dog invent a game; but she was truly set on her path after clearly being singled out by one of Jane Goodall's chimpanzee subjects. In this exploration of animal cognition, the author visits numerous scientists and observes their research, both in laboratories and in the wild. She sees firsthand, and reports in thoroughly engaging language, research with animals as disparate as ants and elephants, or from such different lifestyles as rats and dolphins. We learn of ants that teach other ants, of rats that express their social joy through special chirps that resemble laughter, and of elephants that grieve for their dead. Archerfish show us that fish can imitate other fish, and dogs reveal that they understand human rules.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)