Animal Wise

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This week, I read Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of our Fellow Creatures by Virginia Morell.

The book is a fairly short (about 300 pages in its print edition) non-fiction work covering some of the latest studies in animal cognition.  In a series of chapters, each generally dedicated to one animal or a pair of animals, it covers ants, fish, parrots, rats, elephants, dolphins (captive and wild), chimpanzees, dogs, and wolves.

In essence, the book is a very approachable look at the current state of animal cognition research.  It does not go into depth on any of the topics — you would likely need to read the scientists' own papers for that — but rather contains a series of discussions, interviews, and anecdotes mostly resulting from the author's work as a science writer for various magazines.

I've seen some criticism of the book from the perspective that it does not acknowledge humans as "specially created" and therefore is hostile to that view.  I wouldn't say it's hostile to to that view per se, but rather the author does not really accommodate that view, and rather relies on science.  The point is closer to being that we should not really be surprised by animals having emotions and being able to do certain things that we can do since we have, essentially many of the same physical structures and motivations that they do.

I actually found it a very interesting read and learned of some studies I had not known were taking place, particularly around the thinking abilities of birds, fish, and ants.  (Really, it's a good jumping off point for looking deeper into some of the studies.)  My only wish really was that it was longer and that it filled in more detail on some of its assertions (e.g., that butterflies remember being caterpillars).