Full name: Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals

Author: Jonathan Balcombe Year: 2010 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Animals, Non Fiction, Science Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780230613621 9780230107816 0230613624 0230107818

For centuries we believed that humans were the only ones that mattered. The idea that animals had feelings was either dismissed or considered heresy. Today, that’s all changing. New scientific studies of animal behavior reveal perceptions, intelligences, awareness and social skills that would have been deemed fantasy a generation ago. The implications make our troubled relationship to animals one of the most pressing moral issues of our time. Jonathan Balcombe, animal behaviorist and author of the critically acclaimed Pleasurable Kingdom, draws on the latest research, observational studies and personal anecdotes to reveal the full gamut of animal experience—from emotions, to problem solving, to moral judgment. Balcombe challenges the widely held idea that nature is red in tooth and claw, highlighting animal traits we have disregarded until now: their nuanced understanding of social dynamics, their consideration for others, and their strong tendency to avoid violent conflict. Did you know that dogs recognize unfairness and that rats practice random acts of kindness? Did you know that chimpanzees can trounce humans in short-term memory games? Or that fishes distinguish good guys from cheaters, and that birds are susceptible to mood swings such as depression and optimism? With vivid stories and entertaining anecdotes, Balcombe gives the human pedestal a strong shake while opening the door into the inner lives of the animals themselves. Similar books: The Parrot's Lament by Eugene Linden The Octopus and the Orangutan by Eugene Linden Inside the Animal Mind by George Page The Moral Lives of Animals by Dale Peterson Becoming a Tiger by Susan McCarthy Beyond Words by Carl Safina The Emperor's Embrace by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson Being a Beast by Charles Foster Unlikely Loves by Jennifer S. Holland Wild Minds by Marc Hauser The Exultant Ark by Jonathan Balcombe The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior by David Allen Sibley The Warbler Guide by Tom Stephenson Where the Animals Go by James Cheshire Life on Earth by David Attenborough Listening to Whales by Alexandra Morton National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America by National Geographic Society Sibley's Birding Basics by David Allen Sibley