Posts Tagged ‘Book Review’

How can we give animals the best life–for them? What does an animal need to be happy

In her groundbreaking, best-selling book Animals in Translation, Temple Grandin drew on her own experience with autism as well as her experience as an animal scientist to deliver extraordinary insights into how animals think, act, and feel. Now she builds on those insights to show us how to give our animals the best and happiest life–on their terms, not ours.

Knowing what causes animals physical pain is usually easy, but pinpointing emotional distress is much harder. Drawing on the latest research and her own work, Grandin identifies the core emotional needs of animals and then explains how to fulfill the specific needs of dogs and cats, horses, farm animals, zoo animals, and even wildlife. Whether it’s how to make the healthiest environment for the dog you must leave alone most of the day, how to keep pigs from being bored, or how to know if the lion pacing in the zoo is miserable or just exercising, Grandin teaches us to challenge our assumptions about animal contentment and honor our bond with our fellow creatures.

Animals Make Us Human is the culmination of almost thirty years of research, experimentation, and experience. This is essential reading for anyone who’s ever owned, cared for, or simply cared about an animal.

A Q&A with Temple Grandin, Author of Animals Make Us Human

Q: In Animals Make Us Human, you discuss a wide range of animals, from dogs to pigs to tigers. Which animals do you enjoy studying and working with the most?

A: I’ve worked with cattle the most, so I really enjoy cattle. I always liked to sit in the pen and let the cattle come around me and lick me–they’re really peaceful animals when they’re not afraid. But the thing about cattle is they’re a prey-species animal and they get scared really easily–and I can relate to that because as a person with autism, fear is my main emotion. So I can relate to how cattle are always hypervigilant, looking for rapid movements, looking for little signs of things that might be danger.

Q: How has autism helped you in your work with animals?

A: I’m a total visual thinker. And you’ve got to think about it: animals don’t think in language. If you want to understand animals, you must get away from language. Animals are sensory-based thinkers; they think in pictures, they think in sounds, they think in touches. There’s no other way that their brains can store those memories.

Q: How has your work affected the treatment of animals?

A: I’ve been working on improving the treatment of cattle for years. When I started out in the seventies, people were incredibly rough and abusive with cattle. The thing that kept me going was that there were some really nice people who handled their cattle well, and their cattle had a great life, and so I could see that it was possible to handle animals right. And today many more people are now involved in teaching low-stress stockmanship and good cattle handling. When I started in the early seventies, I was a pioneer in the U.S. on this; nobody else was working on these things.

Q: How will this book be useful to people working with cats and dogs in animal shelters?

A: People often don’t recognize emotions in these animals. I went to a very nice animal shelter recently that had group housing for cats that had tree-like things with platforms and cubbyholes for the cats to get in, and a very astute worker there noticed that you can have a situation where a cat seems very calm in a shelter, but he’s not really sleeping, he’s constantly keeping an eye out for another cat. And people need to watch for that kind of situation, because even though it looks peaceful, that one particular cat that never sleeps is going to be stressed out.

Also at this shelter, I was very pleased that the amount of dog barking was way less, and I think one of the reasons for this is that every day, every dog is taken out for an hour of quality time, playing and being walked and interacting with a person. That’s going to help lower the stress. Dogs need to be taken out every day for quality interaction with a person, exercise, and fun play.

Q: What are the things you really like about creating a book like Animals Make Us Human?

A: I really enjoyed getting into all the neuroscience information. Another thing I talked about in the book are the problems with not having enough people working out in the field to implement things. We’ve got policymakers who never work out in the field, and some of the policies can backfire. We need to have more people working in the field. In the wildlife chapter, I talk about who’s going to be the next Jane Goodall–we need a lot more of that kind of on-the-ground work.

Q: You mention Dr. Nicholas Dodman and some other people in your field. Has anyone in particular been a great inspiration for you?

A: One of my big inspirations when I was starting out was a scientist named Ron Kilgore, who studied sheep handling and sheep behavior. At the same time that I was working on cattle handling in the U.S. in the early seventies, Ron Kilgore was doing the same sorts of things in New Zealand. I discovered one of his papers early on, and that really was an inspiration.

Q:What do you think of the more extreme animal activists?

A: Violence I’m totally against–that’s very counterproductive. All that does is make the animal industry go and get more lawyers and more security systems. Demonstrations–sometimes there may be a place for that. In some situations we might have philosophical differences. I eat meat. I get hypoglycemic if I don’t eat animal protein. But I feel very strongly that we’ve got to give the animals a decent life. A woman working at Niman Ranch said that we’ve got to give animals “a life worth living.” These cattle can have a decent life: the cows and the bulls, out on a ranch eating grass. The calves spend half their lives in a feed yard, but they’re still outside. Another way I look at it is, those cattle would have never been born, would have never existed, but now that we’ve made them exist, we’ve got to give them a decent life.

Q: If you could give your book to one person or one group of people so that they could learn more about animal care, who would that be?

A: I think any kind of person who works with animals, whether it’s a pet owner, a cat owner, people who work with horses, people who work on farms–anyone who works with animals on a daily basis is going to like Animals Make Us Human, and they’re also going to like Animals in Translation.

Q: Proposition 2 in California just passed. Its aim is to reduce the inhumane confinement of farm animals by giving them enough room to stand up, turn around, and stretch. What do you think of this, and what do you think the real effects will be?

A: Veal stalls and sow stalls we need to get rid of, plain and simple. Putting a sow in a box where she can’t turn around for most of her life, that’s absolutely not acceptable. Two-thirds of the public have problems with it. With hens and chickens, that’s a more complicated issue. It’s so much more expensive to put them in systems that are cage-free, and what I’m worried about is the egg industry migrating to Mexico and being a real mess, where we have no controls at all. What people don’t realize is that half of the egg industry is liquid egg, which can be easily shipped in those stainless-steel tanks. It’s the eggs that go into bread, the eggs that restaurants use…And I’m concerned that that might migrate to Mexico.

There needs to be a lot more thought going into how we’re going to implement things. What’s happening in a lot of fields now–with any issue, not just animal issues–is we’re getting more and more policymakers totally separated from the reality of what’s happening on the ground, where ideology takes over from practicality.

Q: What are your future plans relating to animal advocacy? What is the next issue that you would like to tackle?

A: I’m an implementer. Somebody has to work on implementing things. I want to continue working with people on practical guidelines that will result in improvements. I spend a great deal of time working with large meat buyers, because economic forces can often bring about great change. One of the things that should be a major criterion in judging welfare is when there are too many lame animals. And lameness is something I can measure. I want things I can measure. Too often we’ve got our best and brightest going into policy, and they haven’t done anything practical. All I can say is, whatever field you’re in, whether it is animals or something else, you need to get out in the field and find out what’s going on in the trenches, so that you don’t make policies that might have unintended, bad consequences. Get away from the lobbyists, get away from all that, get out and visit farms, visit ranchers, because with a lot of issues, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

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

The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind

Ah, the great great ape Kanzi.  If you are a fan of smart animals and you do not know who Kanzi the Bonobo is, you probably should read this book.  I am very excited and pleased to present this book on Kanzi, the ape that learned to understand human’s language.

If you ever wondered if animals had the ability to think, this book will prove that they do without question.  If you ever if humans could ever talk to the animals, Kanzi proves that it is possible.

An example of lexigram symbols

Although Kanzi does not have the ability to speak like humans, Kanzi can certainly communicate in another form of language by using the Lexigram system, which is using symbols that represents a word.

This method of communication may seem strange or unimpressive, but once you see Kanzi in action you will understand how amazing it is.  For example, if the person working with kanzi had a banana in their pocket, Kanzi would probably point to the banana symbol to let them know what he wanted.

Another amazing ability that Kanzi possessed was the ability to understand human’s spoken language.  This is the really amazing thing about kanzi, for he could sit and listen to a human speak and know exactly what that person is saying.  If you look at the video below, you can see that Kanzi fully understands the woman talking.  The reason the woman has a mask over her head is to show you how kanzi does not need to the aid of reading lips, he is just hearing what needs to be done.

If you need an introduction to Kanzi, please view the youtube video to the left.

Ok, good.  Now you know Kanzi!  Back to the book review.

This book is by far the best book written on a great ape learning to communicate with humans.  The author, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh (along with Roger Lewin) is the perfect person to write on this topic because she spent years teaching Kanzi how to use the Lexigram system so that they could communicate with each other.

If you are fascinated with this Bonobo Chimpanzee, you need to check this out.  The middle of the book has a nice selection of black and white photos of Kanzi throughout the years that will make you giggle with delight as you seen him wanting to go for a ride in the van, without anyone giving him the key to unlock the door you can see a photo of Kanzi using a screwdriver he had found on the ground to try to stick it in the keyhole to unlock the door.  There are photos of Kanzi at a very young age, Kanzi playing with the Lexigram charts and many more!

Who should read this book?

If you are interested in learning more about Kanzi, check it out.  If you want to find out how a chimpanzee was taught to communicate with humans, this book is for you!

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! I have recently reviewed Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape which is a must read for bonobo lovers!

What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us About Human Social Evolution

Tree of Origin by Frans de Waal is a  wonderful book that looks to the chimpanzees and other primates to learn about how our early human ancestors probably would have behaved and lived.

If you have ever spent a few minutes watching Chimpanzees, Bonobos, Orangutans or Gorillas at a zoo you may have noticed how they have moments of very “human-like” behavior.  I find this very fascinating and it always makes me wonder if we are in fact related to the Bonobos and Chimpanzees, something i’m quite sure of now.

Tree of Origin, which was published in 2001, is an amazing book with 9 of the world’s top primate experts who each add their own knowledge in explaining how the Great Apes behavior is a hint at how the early humans evolved into what we are today.

Jane Goodall gave a quote on the back of the book, which i think gives you a good idea at how important this book is to the scientific community:

The last few decades have seen enormous progress in the study of primate behavior.  Nine of the world’s leading experts team up tot ell us what it all means, throwing new light on human evolution.

The Similarities Between Humans and Primates

Frans de Waal brings up some interesting topics that us humans have in common with the great apes.  For instance, Tree of origin covers  how different groups of Chimpanzees use different tools suited to their environment.  They also look at how the chimpanzees will set off on hunting parties and patrol their neighborhood for unwanted trespassers.  The book also talks about social customs that set each ape community apart, which sounds very human like too.

Who Should Buy this Book

If you are interested in how humans evolved than this book is deffinitly for you.  If you are fascinated with monkeys and Great Apes at zoos, you should read this book.  If you want to figure out more about the Bonobo Chimpanzees and how human like they are, please pick up this book.

Since this book was published in 2001 it may be a bit difficult to find.  My best suggestion is to try your local library first, and if they do not have it amazon or ebay will surely have it.

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!

My Life with the Chimpanzees Book Review

Jane Goodall’s Book on Working with the Chimpanzees and her Life.

Jane Goodall Book for Kids or anyone looking for a quick introduction to the life and work of one of the most famous person to ever study chimpanzees or any kind of animal!

Jane Goodall talks about her adventures in Gombe National Park in Africa where she spent many years studying the wild animals she grew to love called the Chimpanzees.  From a young age Jane Goodall knew that working around animals was something she had to do and thankfully her parents fully supported her in her life choice.

This book is written like an adventure novel with thrilling stories about living in the wild with her husband and photographer and their son nicknamed Grub.  Jane Goodall’s study of the Chimpanzees has redefined the way humans look at other animals.  In fact, because of Jane Goodall, humans had to re-think what it is to be labeled as an animal.  It used to be known that only humans had the abilities to make tools and use them, but one day Goodall witnessed a chimpanzee using a man-made tool, something chimpanzees are amazing at.  After this discovery there have been many other animals seen in the wild using tools, including the obvious Gorillas and Orangutans, but also including the not so obvious dolphins and birds (view the vultures using a tool).

Why parents should buy this book

I really believe that when you teach your children about animals at an early age they will be more likely to want to help save the animals as they are adults.  Jane Goodall does an amazing job telling people about the importance of saving the chimpanzees and other animals in danger and has devoted her life to it.

With this book, My Life with the Chimpanzees, Jane Goodall brings you on an adventure and totally captures your imagination.  She also explains individual chimpanzees that she has met in her journeys and lets the reader really understand how different Chimpanzees can be, just like humans.

Can Adults Read this Book?

I must say that this is a great book for adults to read.  Although the print is large and it is a rather short book at only 160 pages and the “reading level” at ages 9-12, i can recommend this book to adults because the other option is a 768 page biography called Jane Goodall which is much harder to read than this. Plus, you can find this at most Book stores for the low price of $6.99!

Here is a quote from an amazon reviewer.

The book was purchased for a project learning about Jane Goodall. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t look closely enough before buying the book to realize it was written for young readers. Even though it wasn’t appropriate for my college level project, I read through it anyway and found it to be an excellent book.

Animal Speak, The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small

Learn the Language of the Animals

If you really love animals then Ted Andrew’s Animal Speak is the perfect book for you.  Animal Speak will help you understand and appreciate each and every animal’s amazingly different personality.

Discover the power and spiritual significance of many animals,  birds, insects and reptiles.  Each animal can help you in life once you learn what they are trying to say to you and the world.

This book will also help you create your own animal totem, which was made famous by the Native Americans tall and beautiful Totem Poles which have many animals stacked upon each other.

Animal Speak Overview

Animal Speak is broken into 4 parts which will be explained below.  If you are looking for a book to list most of the popular animals and their spirit meanings, i would recommend Ted Andrew’s other book called Animal Spirit Guide which is more of a reference book.

What this book focuses on is really becoming attuned with the animal spirits by teaching you different methods to spiritually connect with animals.

Part 1: Symbols in the Nature World
In 4 chapters, Ted Andrews sets up the world we live in and how we should live a proper life by observing nature around us.  In big cities we are rarely in nature so we have lost this ability, but Animal Speak does an amazing job of teaching us “City Folk” how to become attune with animals and nature.  Learn how to read signs and omens in nature and understand the meanings of landscapes, which help shape the personalities of each animal that lives in such diverse places in nature.

Part 2: Winged Enchantment
This section of Animal Speak is the largest and most detailed, and it is easy to see why.  Andrews describes the power of the air, feather magic and working with bird medicine.  At the end of the section you can find a dictionary of bird totems, which is quite extensive.  If you are more into birds than animals you should consider this book over Ted Andrew’s Animal Spirit Guide book which focuses more on mammals.

Part 3: Understanding Animal Medicine
This part of the book describes how to create your own animal totems and understanding animal rites.  When trying to understand a certain animal i often like to read the description Ted Andrews describes in detail on each listed animal.  I love to find out a person’s favorite animal and then look up the meanings in this book and also Animal Spirit Guide.  This section also includes a dictionary of animals, which includes it’s keynote (important personality facts) and cycle of power (which season).

Part 4: The Exotic Language of Insects and Reptiles
The smallest section of the book deals with the lives of insects and reptiles.  The last section of Animal Speak explains the two last groups separately and also includes the dictionary of insect totems and reptile totems.