Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

I have been an avid reader of all of Carl Safina's books and have read all of them at least twice; he is in my top three list of nature/conservation writers and I was very excited when I saw that the topic for his next book would be animal cognition, emotions, and intelligence. As anticipated, Dr. Safina does not disappoint with his latest book "Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel". The book is divided into four distinct sections concerning African Elephants, wolves in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Killer whales in the Pacific Northwest, and a forth section entitled "Whines and Pet Peeves" in which Dr. Safina basically breaks down common "educated" thinking concerning animal cognition and intelligence, sprinkled with anecdotes about his two wonderful dogs Jude and Chula. Dr. Safina spends time in each section of the book with leading researchers and biologists in the field of study for each animal highlighted and discusses the remarkable cultures, family bonds, intelligence, communication abilities, emotions, and so many other fascinating aspects of these animals and also steps back to widen the lens to other species which share similar behaviors, emotions, and intelligence. All this makes for absolutely fascinating reading and I was entranced by the many descriptions of animal intelligence and emotions in which Dr. Safina expresses, all relayed to the reader in his excellent and thought provoking prose. There are a few more depressing parts of the book concerning man and our relationship to the whales, elephants, and wolves (aren't there always) but I think Dr. Safina includes these sections of the book to inspire the reader to do something to help protect and preserve the amazing animals discussed; I was firmly entrenched in that camp long before starting to read this book but hopefully others new to the subject will be inspired by the wonderful writing and passion brought to these parts of the text by Dr. Safina. In summary, "Beyond Words" was an absolutely wonderful reading experience, enlightening, inspiring, infuriating, passionate, educational, and I thank Dr. Safina so much for writing it and bringing this topic to the masses. It will prove to be one of my top reads of 2015 and will sit proudly on my book shelf next to the other works of this wonderful writer. Recommended reading!

This book is one that I literally think every human being on the planet without exception should have to read. When you realize what we humans are doing to the world, building and drilling and polluting and killing every last thing we can get our hands on without any restraint or limit, it's of great concern, or should be. This book shows, by observation and fact, that animals are not "just animals" (whatever that means anyway), or things to be used to make money, but thinking, feeling creatures, not human but not all that different. If you think otherwise, you are simply wrong and possibly resistant to the inconvenient truth, in which case I hope you can't vote or reproduce. The book follows a few animals and clearly shows how animals think thoughts, develop relationships, experience fear, terror, pain, depression, mourning for the dead, etc. Yeah, inconvenient but clearly and factually true. We can't avoid killing animals for food and self-defense and such, but there are some animals that we kill for "sport" or fun (Cecil the lion…), for money (poachers for ivory), and there are events in some countries that actually torture animals as if it's a celebration, etc. We've hunted animals to extinction, we are fishing the oceans out and catches diminish, and we hack up and fragment wild areas without realizing (or perhaps troubling ourselves to care about) the implications. So much for our higher intelligence and awareness. Animal lovers are not little old ladies with thirty cats, they simply see and understand what is there. Certainly some people over-humanize animals and read human things into animal behavior, and that is equally incorrect, but this book confirms what many people have suspected or known and is a great read for anyone with an open mind and "human" as we like to think of that word. Safina demonstrates intellectual rigor with crystal-clear insights and analogies, coupled with a lush writing style, it's a well done book. But it is also sad to read what we as a race are doing to creatures not all that different from us. The author does not explicitly condemn people, he understands and conveys why people feel compelled to harm or kill animals, but it's obvious that we need to think differently than we do, and to do so soon or risk destroying things that can't be replaced and who's loss will ultimately affect us directly, in ways we may or may not understand yet.

Finally researchers into animal intelligence and behaviour have given up their avoidance of using emmotional teminology to explain animals' reactions to loss, fear, in brief, all of the emotions human beings have. The author builds up his argumentation via careful observation of the animals he is analysing, the social structures of the various species as well as their responses to one another. At no point does anthropomorphisation distort our view of the animals mentioned, not is their any kind of sentimentality, which would destroy what he is trying to do: give the reader at least a hint of animals' emotional life. Throughout centuries, philosophers and scientists tried to present animals als mere automatons, running on instinct and reflexes alone; Safina's book reveals this to be an invalid construct. Whoever is really interested in why animals often react in unexpected ways, should take the time to read this book. It never becomes too technical, but it reveals many details that people who own birds or animals have known all the while.

Beautiful book Thankyou

CARL SAFINA, BEYOND WORDS. WHAT ANIMALS THINK AND FEEL, New York 2015. Questo libro è una battaglia. Tutti dovrebbero leggerlo e se ne dovrebbe fare, a cura dell'autore stesso o di qualcun altro da lui indicato, una riduzione per le scuole e renderla obbligatoria. Guarisce dal peggiore errore dell'uomo, quello di credersi misura di tutte le cose e di pensare che il mondo sia fatto per lui. E quello di credere che ci sia un salto qualitativo fra la nostra e le altre specie animali. Nelle sue 441 pagine in carattere piccolo, Safina ci ricorda e ci dimostra su base scientifica che condividiamo con le altre specie animali tutta la nostra parte emozionale, che appartiene agli strati più antichi dell'evoluzione, e che non siamo affatto gli unici detentori di una cosa chiamata intelligenza e neppure di quell'altra cosa chiamata linguaggio. Attraverso 4 grandi sezioni - dedicate agli elefanti, ai lupi, a riflessioni su alcuni abbagli degli etologi, alle orche - Safina attinge ai più recenti studi sul comportamento animale e narra le emozionanti e romanzesche storie degli animali seguiti dai ricercatori. Si scoprono cose che mai si sarebbero immaginate e il capitolo sulle orche conduce a porsi domande inquietanti: forse gli altri esseri come noi, che tanto abbiamo immaginato di incontrare un giorno in qualche pianeta del sistema solare, sono già qui con noi, nelle acque degli oceani, e noi li stiamo distruggendo con le bombe e i sonar delle navi militari, consumando le loro risorse alimentari con la pesca eccessiva del salmone, avvelenandoli con le sostanze chimiche che disseminiamo e che si concentrano al sommo della catena alimentare danneggiando il sistema immunitario e quello riproduttivo (e qui il discorso ci tocca da vicino perché anche noi siamo al sommo della catena alimentare...). La conoscenza dei nostri compagni nel viaggio su questa terra è la base fondamentale del rispetto e dell'amore che dovremmo avere per loro. Ma il libro è una denuncia spietata delle atrocità che gli esseri umani hanno commesso e stanno commettendo verso questi compagni, che ci siamo addirittura spinti in passato (ma è davvero passato?) a giudicare senz'anima e incapaci di soffrire, per non provare rimorso quando li torturavamo o li uccidevamo. Devo dire che leggendo ci si vergogna di essere uomini, o più precisamente uomini occidentali viventi in un sistema capitalistico, perché le varie tribù native, che avevano con l'ambiente un rapporto armonioso, rispettoso ed equilibrato, sono state trattate dal sistema capitalistico esattamente come gli animali. Verso la fine della sezione sulle orche, animali gioiosi e inventivi ed estremamente sociali, Safina si chiede come saremmo se fossimo capaci di vivere anche noi in maniera gioiosa, con continua meraviglia e desiderio di conoscenza, sopraffatti dalla bellezza della vita e infinitamente grati per essa.

Nice one. Got it in 2018

A beautifully written book on a fascinating subject. Humourous and heart-breaking in equal measure, I genuinely believe that this is one of the best books that I have ever read. It draws attention to the almost wilful misunderstanding of the complexity of animal communication by humans. I was riveted from the start and I cannot recommend this book enough. Carl Safina has that rare quality in a scientific writer: the ability to tell a spellbinding tale. Beyond Words is a book that feels like a discovered treasure. An absolute must for anybody who has an interest in animals. I bought it as a gift for someone else, but after reading the first few pages I got them a box of chocolates and kept it for myself. Get it, you won't regret it.