http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1205617...

A rather beautiful book about animal communication, based on years of personal observation from the writer's country estate by the river Danube. The story of the water-shrews will linger longest in my memory, but it's all fascinating. ( )

Truly filled with wonder

“Without supernatural assistance, our fellow creatures can tell us the most beautiful stories, and that means true stories, because the truth about nature is always far more beautiful even than what our great poets sing of it, and they are the only real magicians that exist.” This book is wonderful in the original sense of that word, filled with wonder, and this quote from the Preface explains one reason this is so. Another reason is the sense that one is sitting peacefully on a pleasant evening while a true raconteur quietly meanders through his unexpectedly mesmerizing tales.

I originally picked up this book looking for material to liven up a natural history essay on shrews; those tiny overlooked but wide-spread creatures better known as metaphors than animals. This classic book from a legendary naturalist includes one of the very few bits of writing on shrews outside formal scientific literature. Surely, I thought, Lorenz would have something interesting to say. In fact, he had many interesting things to say on shrews. After finding that he could tell an entertaining and informative tale that brought these apparently unexciting animals to life on the page, I naturally had to start back at the beginning and read the book through.

Each chapter treats a different topic and can stands on its own. But read together they bring an understanding greater than their sum. Lorenz’s skilled storytelling gradually reveals that what at first appeared to be many different threads are all actually part of one wonderful fabric. ( )

How open systems work, management teams for example.

A well-written and engrossing series of essays on the natural world, animal behavior and our relationships with animals. I don't remember a lot about the specifics of the author's ideas since I read it for a college class, but I remember the gist of it was a suggestion to treat the animal world with the proper respect. At the time, this was heretical stuff. ( )