Animal Minds

Animal Minds
Author: Donald R. Griffin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2013-03-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 022622712X

In Animal Minds, Donald R. Griffin takes us on a guided tour of the recent explosion of scientific research on animal mentality. Are animals consciously aware of anything, or are they merely living machines, incapable of conscious thoughts or emotional feelings? How can we tell? Such questions have long fascinated Griffin, who has been a pioneer at the forefront of research in animal cognition for decades, and is recognized as one of the leading behavioral ecologists of the twentieth century. With this new edition of his classic book, which he has completely revised and updated, Griffin moves beyond considerations of animal cognition to argue that scientists can and should investigate questions of animal consciousness. Using examples from studies of species ranging from chimpanzees and dolphins to birds and honeybees, he demonstrates how communication among animals can serve as a "window" into what animals think and feel, just as human speech and nonverbal communication tell us most of what we know about the thoughts and feelings of other people. Even when they don't communicate about it, animals respond with sometimes surprising versatility to new situations for which neither their genes nor their previous experiences have prepared them, and Griffin discusses what these behaviors can tell us about animal minds. He also reviews the latest research in cognitive neuroscience, which has revealed startling similarities in the neural mechanisms underlying brain functioning in both humans and other animals. Finally, in four chapters greatly expanded for this edition, Griffin considers the latest scientific research on animal consciousness, pro and con, and explores its profound philosophical and ethical implications.

Animal Wise

Animal Wise
Author: Virginia Morell
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2013
Genre: Animal behavior
ISBN: 0307461440

Explores the frontiers of research on animal cognition and emotion, offering a surprising examination into the hearts and minds of wild and domesticated animals.

Self-Awareness in Animals and Humans

Self-Awareness in Animals and Humans
Author: Sue Taylor Parker
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 464
Release: 1994-05-27
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0521441080

This is a collection of original articles on self-awareness in monkeys, apes, humans and other species. This book focuses on controversies about how to measure self-awareness, which species are capable of self-awareness and which are not, and why. The focus of the chapters is both comparative and developmental.

Advances in Animal Welfare Science 1984

Advances in Animal Welfare Science 1984
Author: M.W. Fox
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9400949987

This book, the first in an annual series, written by academicians scientists, philosophers and others-is not intended exclusively for an imal welfarists and conservationists. Since it is written* by scholars, it will appeal to a wide range of academic and professional readers who are involved with animals for scientific, economic, altruistic, and other reasons. While this first volume cannot cover the entire spectrum of animal welfare science-related topics, it does, in its diversity of con tributions, demonstrate the multi-faceted and interdisciplinary nature of the subject of this new series. Indeed, animals are as much an integral part of society as we are dependent upon them. The many interfaces between us and the billions of animals under our dominion (as well as the environment upon which the welfare of human and non-human animals alike is ultimately de pendent) have their separate features: trapping and wildlife manage ment; laboratory animal research; whaling and fishing; veterinary practice; agriculture and farm animal husbandry; horse racing and the ownership of animal companions; the propagation of captive wildlife and their preservation in the wild; the use of animals as companions and for the purposes of vicarious entertainment.

Beyond Words

Beyond Words
Author: Carl Safina
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2015-07-14
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0805098887

Hailed conservationist Carl Safina examines animal personhood as told through the inspired narrative portraits of elephants, wolves, and dolphins

Wild Minds

Wild Minds
Author: Marc Hauser
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2001-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780805056709

" ... an essential examination of how animals assemble the basic tool kit that we call the mind: the ability to count, to navigate, to recognize individuals, to communicate, and to socialize."--Jacket.

Key Questions in Animal Behaviour and Welfare

Key Questions in Animal Behaviour and Welfare
Author: Paul A. Rees
Publisher: CABI
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2022-03-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1789248973

An understanding of animal behaviour and welfare is an important requirement of a wide range of programmes of study including biology, zoology, animal welfare, animal behaviour, psychology and zoo biology. This book is intended as a study and revision guide for students following programmes of study in which animal behaviour and welfare are an important component. It contains 600 multiple-choice questions (and answers) set at three levels - foundation, intermediate and advanced - and grouped into 10 major topic areas. The book has been produced in a convenient format so that it can be used at any time in any place. It allows the reader to learn and revise the meaning of terms used in the study of animal behaviour and welfare, methods of recording behaviour and assessing welfare, the physiology of behaviour, learning, memory, cognition, behavioural ecology, animal rights and much more. Many of the questions require students to use their knowledge to interpret information provided in the form of graphs, data or photographs.

How Animals Grieve

How Animals Grieve
Author: Barbara J. King
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2013-03-28
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 022604372X

“A touching and provocative exploration of the latest research on animal minds and animal emotions” from the renowned anthropologist and author (The Washington Post). Scientists have long cautioned against anthropomorphizing animals, arguing that it limits our ability to truly comprehend the lives of other creatures. Recently, however, things have begun to shift in the other direction, and anthropologist Barbara J. King is at the forefront of that movement, arguing strenuously that we can—and should—attend to animal emotions. With How Animals Grieve, she draws our attention to the specific case of grief, and relates story after story—from fieldsites, farms, homes, and more—of animals mourning lost companions, mates, or friends. King tells of elephants surrounding their matriarch as she weakens and dies, and, in the following days, attending to her corpse as if holding a vigil. A housecat loses her sister, from whom she’s never before been parted, and spends weeks pacing the apartment, wailing plaintively. A baboon loses her daughter to a predator and sinks into grief. In each case, King uses her anthropological training to interpret and try to explain what we see—to help us understand this animal grief properly, as something neither the same as nor wholly different from the human experience of loss. The resulting book is both daring and down-to-earth, strikingly ambitious even as it’s careful to acknowledge the limits of our understanding. Through the moving stories she chronicles and analyzes so beautifully, King brings us closer to the animals with whom we share a planet, and helps us see our own experiences, attachments, and emotions as part of a larger web of life, death, love, and loss.