Posts Tagged ‘animal stories’

Animals in Translation

Update:  Temple Grandin has recently published a new animal book titled Animals Make us Human and is a currently the #1 ranked zoology book at amazon!

Philosophers and scientists have long wondered what goes on in the minds of animals, and this fascinating study gives a wealth of illuminating insights into that mystery.

Temple Grandin has been known to crawl through slaughterhouses to get a sense of what the animals there are experiencing. An autistic woman who as a child was recommended for institutionalization, Grandin has managed not only to enter society’s mainstream but ultimately to become prominent in animal research.

An associate professor at Colorado State University, she designs facilities used worldwide for humane handling of livestock. She also invented a “hug machine” (based on a cattle-holding chute) that calms autistic children. In Animals in Translation, co-authored with science writer Catherine Johnson, Grandin makes an intriguing argument that, psychologically, animals and autistic people have a great deal in common—and that both have mental abilities typically underestimated by normal people.

The book is a valuable, if speculative, contribution to the discussion of both autism and animal intelligence, two subjects on which there is little scientific consensus. Autistics, in Grandin’s view, represent a “way station” between average people, with all their verbal and conceptual abilities, and animals. In touring animal facilities, Grandin often spots details—a rattling chain, say, or a fluttering piece of cloth—that disturb the animals but have been overlooked by the people in charge. She also draws on psychological studies to show how oblivious humans can be to their surroundings. Ordinary humans seem to be less detail-oriented than animals and autistics.

Grandin argues that animals have formidable cognitive capabilities, albeit specialized ones, whereas humans are cognitive generalists. Dogs are smell experts, birds are migration specialists, and so on. In her view, some animals have a form of genius—much as autistic savants can perform feats of memory and calculation far beyond the abilities of average people. Some dogs, for example, can predict when their owner is about to have a seizure. Delving into animal emotion, aggression and suffering, Grandin gives tips that may be useful for caretakers of pets and farm animals.

She also notes that humans seem to need, and thrive on, the proximity of animals. Indeed, she states provocatively, in the process of becoming human we gave up something primal, and being around animals helps us get a measure of that back.

Hope for Animals and Their World Book Review

Jane Goodall’s new book, Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink Goodall shares fascinating survival stories about endangered species whos populations are now being regenerated thanks tot he help of zoos across the world.

Scroll to the bottom of the review to preview Jane Goodall’s new book.

With the help of zoos, Jane Goodall and the Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard share 34 animal stories that describe how amazing groups of dedicated people prevent the extinction of animals by working hard to save the animals they love.

These uplifting and hopeful stories will touch your heart and show you that humans can in fact make a difference in this world and they may inspire you to get out and help, which is Jane Goodall’s ultimate goal.

Example of one of the Animal Stoires: Golden Lion Tamarins

Golden Lion Tamarins at the National Zoo in DC

Below i will present to you one of the animal stories on the rare and beautiful Golden Lion Tamarins that are found in South America.  The small monkeys  were almost extinct a few decades ago but thanks to the National Zoo’s involvement along with other zoos and institutes around the world they helped save the species.

Jane Goodall visited the National Zoo back in 2007 and saw the Golden Lion Tamarins for the first time face to face and was marveled by their beauty, describing them in the following way “I was enchanted.  They are like living jewels of the deep forest with a lion-like mane.  As i watched them, slightly apprehensive with so many strangers in their new home, i felt a surge of gratitutude for all the hard work and tears that had prevented their extinction.”

Free Range Golden Lion Tamarins at the National Zoo in D.C.

The Golden Lion Tamarins at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. is a fascinating story in which i got to witness for myself.  In 2007 the zoo let a few of the families roam freely in a small patch of forest on the grounds of the National Zoo.  This would allow them to become familiar with tree top travel and living before being released in their future home in Brazil.

The innovative decision to let the small monkeys range freely on the grounds of the National Zoo was a bold and successful move, and the separate families established their own small territories that were about 100 square meters in range, something they would have done in the wild.

Hope for Animals and Their World by Jane Goodall

I am lucky enough to live close to the National Zoo and got to see the Golden Lion Tamarins roam the grounds of the zoo.  I spotted them between Sea Lions and Siamangs.  They were very high in the trees and it was great to see free range monkeys in North America!  The following year one of the Golden Lion Tamarin families gave birth to twins in the small mammal house in which i watched for many months.  The baby Golden Lion Tamarins were so much fun to watch and photograph, they had so much energy and loved to explore their territory.  I often saw the young Golden Lion Tamarins trying to play with and groom the Sloth couple, they seemed to really be fascinated with the big furry slow guys!

There are many animal stories like this in which innovative and brilliant people decide to try to save the animals they love.

Not only are there many great animal stories, Jane Goodall and Maynard give a great appendix in the back of the book on different ways you can help your favorite animals that you read about in the book.  This section gives you the information on where the best place to go to take action on the situation by donating and volunteering to the right organization, what products to stay away from and so much more!

Preview Jane Goodall’s Newest Book

Smile of a Dolphin not only covers dolphins but many other animals. Find out how expressive animals really are!

Remarkable Accounts of Animal Emotions

If you have ever wondered if animals truely can express emotions to their fellow beings, this book will do a great job of convincing you that they do.  The Discovery Channel backed this book and the editor, Marc Bekoff, found more than fifty experts on animals to present observations of animals evoking some kind of emotional response to such situations as losing a child, confronting an enemy, choosing a mate, or being tricked, chastised, challenged, played with, or picked on.

There are many famous “animal people”, one of them is Sue Savage-Rumbaugh of Georgia State University.  You may remember her name if you read my previous review on the book about Kanzi the Bonobo Chimpanzee who had learned to communicate with humans by learning with Lexigrams.  Another contributor, Frans de Waal, is also an author which i have wrote about, writing the “Tree of Origin” book which is a must read for evolution/animal lovers.   And i am sure you have heard of Jane Goodall, who adds two amazing stories, one of which is included in it’s entirety below. Along with these and other amazing people, there are over 120 color photographs of various animals obviously showing some kind of emotion.

How the Book is Presented

The book is a collection of very short stories, usually around 2 pages long, which makes this a GREAT coffee book or bathroom book (eww).  There are a total of four chapters:

1. Chapter One: Love
2. Chapter Two: Fear, Aggression, and Anger
3. Chapter Three: Joy and Grief
4. Chapter Four: Fellow Feelings

My favorite section of the book is the last chapter on Fellow Feelings, which tells 16 stories that include the Goodall, Waal and Savage-Rumbaugh entries.  There is one touching story by Jane Goodall that i would like to share in it’s entirety (please note that all the stories are not as sad as this, i just wanted to share this because of how emotional it is).

A Sorrow Beyond Tears
by Jane Goodall

Chimpanzees, differing from us genetically by only just over one percent, can’t be said to weep, for they don’t shed tears.  Yet they show behavior that’s associated with sadness, depression, and grief in humans: soft whimpering, crying sounds, listlessness, lack of appetite, avoidance of others.  And they show those behaviors int he same kind of situations that we do.

In 1972, in Africa’s Gombe National Park, the almost fifty-year old matriarch of our study community died.  Flo, as she was called, was with her eight-and-a-half-year-old son, Flint.  He should have been able to look after himself, easily.  Yet he’d developed a strange, abnormal dependance on his old mother, probably because she hadn’t had the energy to wean him properly.  All day he sat near her body at the edge of a small, fast flowing stream.  Occasionally he approached her, inspecting her carefully, moving all around, then grooming her a little.  He pulled her dead hand twoard him, whimpering; in life she had responded, grooming him in return.  Then he moved a few yards away to sit, hunched and motionless, eyes staring.  As darkness fell, Flint climbed into a tree and made a small nest – to spend the first night of his life alone.

On the second day Flint heard his brother calling in a nearby group, and he joined them.  Some of his depression lifted for a while, but after a few hours he suddenly left the other chimps and hurried back to the place where Flo had died.  There he sat alone, eyes staring into space.  Later he climbed slowly into a tall tree, walked along a branch, and stood staring at a large empty nest – the one that Flo had made and that he and she had slept in the previous week.  What was he thinking?  He climbed down and lay on the ground, staring at nothing.

Over the next three weeks, Flint became increasingly lethargic.  He stopped eating, and he avoided other chimps, huddling in the vegetation close to where he’d last seen Flo.  His eyes sank deep into the hollow sockets of his skull; his movements were like an old man’s.  The last short journey he made, with many pauses, was to the very place where Flo’s body had lain.

There he remained, sometimes staring and staring into the water, until he died, just three and a half weeks after losing Flo.  He died of grief.

This is my Favorite Animal Book Yet!

Out of all the animal books i have reviewed, The Smile of a Dolphin is by far my favorite book so far.  The main reason this is such an amazing book is the fact that it is a large book, which means large photos can be included.  Another nice feature is that is a collection of short stories from such amazing contributors as Jane Goodall and Frans de Waal, along with many more.  Not only that, the stories are just so amazing and emotional, i really reccomend everyone should check this book out.

For further reading, please check out all of the animal books that i have reviewed.  Also please feel free to check out some of my animal pictures that i have taken!