Virginia Morell

A fascinating look at current research into animal cognition. Scientists are just now beginning to acknowledge that animals other than humans have emotions and complex thoughts. The book is well-written and engaging, and full of interesting stories of researchers and what they have discovered.

What struck me the most in reading this is how much humans are absolutely determined that we must be unique and no other animals can have the same mental abilities that we do. What is at stake here is show more not only the ethics of animal research and the extinction of sentient beings, but humanity's place in the world. Just like those who resisted Galileo's proof that the earth moves around the sun, we currently resist the idea that our intelligence, reason, and emotion don't set us apart. show less

Virginia Morell interviews various scientists who study the intelligence, social structures, and learning abilities of a wide variety of animals, from ants to chimpanzees. As she points out in the introduction, science for a long time tended to regard animals as mindless, emotionless automatons, but in the last few decades, this has changed significantly. Which does seem like a sensible and positive development. After all, not only is it intuitively obvious to any pet owner that dogs and show more cats, at least, have some fairly complicated things going on in their brains, but a true understanding of evolution ought to lead us to expect to see important similarities between ourselves and our fellow creatures. Surely the intelligence and emotional sensitivity that we're so proud of can hardly have sprung full-blown from nowhere.

In her descriptions of the experimenters she interviews and their animal subjects, Morell strongly emphasizes this aspect of things, concentrating as much on the scientists' emotional connections and subjective responses to their animals as she does on the science, but fortunately she manages to avoid the major pitfalls that this kind of approach opens up. She never comes across as too over-sentimental or preachy, and she does recognize that projecting our own humanity onto other species and expecting them to be essentially furry little humans is as wrong-headed as regarding them as simple stimulus-and-response machines. And the science she's reporting on is often really interesting, from accounts of ants teaching other ants how to locate a new nesting site, to elephants taking cues for their behavior from their leaders, to dolphins showing signs of being able to recognize themselves in mirrors. If there is a flaw here, it's that Morell does sometimes indulge -- or report enthusiastically as the scientists indulge -- in wild flights of speculation, but it's at least generally clear when a particular idea is the result of careful scientific investigation and when it's the result of speculative imaginings. And it is very clear that this is a field with a lot of room for speculation and for further investigation. It seems we've really only just scratched the surface when it comes to figuring out exactly how the minds of our fellow creatures work, or even how best to go about studying them, which just makes it all the more exciting. show less

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.

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 show more 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.

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."

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 & 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."

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.

I also want to know more about the work of someone I'd never heard of before, Darwin's protege [a:George John Romanes|290765|George John Romanes|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1490829938p2/290765.jpg], who wrote [b:Animal Intelligence|2305492|Animal Intelligence|George John Romanes|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|2311904]. 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."

Note that "at the time." Because of human hubris (mostly male scientific academicians, it seems), until [a:Jane Goodall|18163|Jane Goodall|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1282766982p2/18163.jpg] (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.

Thanks to:
[a:Alexander F. Skutch|40634|Alexander F. Skutch|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] for [b:The Minds of Birds|2221741|The Minds of Birds|Alexander F. Skutch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1555796412l/2221741._SY75_.jpg|2227533],
[a:Temple Grandin|1567|Temple Grandin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1241222068p2/1567.jpg] for [b:Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism|103407|Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition My Life with Autism|Temple Grandin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348380738l/103407._SY75_.jpg|1775856],
[a:Irene M. Pepperberg|2731461|Irene M. Pepperberg|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1373496524p2/2731461.jpg] for [b:Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process|3018307|Alex & Me How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process|Irene M. Pepperberg|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1588397662l/3018307._SY75_.jpg|3048873] and
[a:Sy Montgomery|13364|Sy Montgomery|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1530470075p2/13364.jpg] for [b:The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness|22609485|The Soul of an Octopus A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness|Sy Montgomery|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1425611143l/22609485._SY75_.jpg|42099445], (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. ;) show less

I wish this book could be assigned reading for everyone! Not only is it absolutely wonderful with never a dull moment, but it is full of fascinating and important information about the ways in which animals have been proven to be sentient, intelligent, and emotional beings, having self-awareness, fears, pains, ties to family, and a love of fun and play. They also sneak, connive, strategize, and combine with others to achieve goals. Given our common genetic and evolutionary heritage, we show more should realize that they have a lot to teach us about our own behaviors, just as we should not find it so strange that our own behaviors can provide clues about theirs.

Some examples of the great developments in animal research you will learn:

How scientists figured out that bowerbirds have an artistic sense of perspective;

How they know if animals recognize themselves in mirrors;

The vocabularies of a certain breed of dogs and how they can even pick out objects after seeing two-dimensional pictures of them on paper!

Fish sing to communicate! We just can’t hear them without special instruments.

Rats giggle, and love to be tickled; they also feel pain, and other emotions that make them questionable research subjects.

Why elephant poaching makes a worse impact than even just the killing;

And how PTSD can make young elephants grow up to be delinquents.

I could go on and on. This is a book I listened to in the car, and I was grateful for Bluetooth so I could call my husband (hands free) every five minutes and say “WAIT till you hear THIS!” He is listening to it now (although one wonders why he needs to after all my phone calls, ha ha).

The narrator, Kirsten Potter, is terrific. She did her homework on pronunciations, and added just the right inflections and voice changes for different scientists profiled in the book.

Evaluation: Don’t miss this book! show less