How perceptive are cats to the good (or bad) behaviour of humans? How do they differ from breed to breed? Are some left handed and some right-handed? How can you tell if your pet is lonely? And just how similar is your cat to a tiger? In WHAT YOUR CAT IS THINKING the researcher, biologist and author Bo Söderström weaves together fascinating facts we're only just learning about man's best friends, with highly practical tips to help us better understand and care for the animals in our life. Resear...
One reason cats fascinate us is that they are so unlike us: Their ears, more than eyes, show their feelings. On our laps, they are purring lovebugs; on the prowl, they are fearsome apex predators - with territorial instincts to match. This makes it hard for us humans to understand our cats as well as we love them. Thank goodness feline behaviorist Liesbeth Puts is here to help! - 120 colour photos throughout set this ahead of the competition - Abundant subheads steer readers to the answers they...
When seeking to understand animals, context is key. Humans have a habit of viewing the animal kingdom through the prism of our own narrow existence. Zoologist and documentary filmmaker Lucy Cooke is fascinated by the myths people create about animals to fill in the gaps in our understanding, and how much they reveal about the mechanics of discovery and the people doing the discovering. In this book she has gathered together the biggest misconceptions and mistakes made about the animal kingdom, a...
How did wolves evolve into dogs? When did this happen, and what role did humans play? Oxford geneticist Bryan Sykes used the full array of modern technology to explore the canine genetic journey when our ancestors first learned to hunt together with wolves. In the process, he discovered that only a handful of genes have created the huge range of shapes, sizes, and colors in modern dogs. Providing insight into these adaptive stages in "prose both scientific and poetic" (Booklist), Once a Wolf als...
BBC R4 Book of the Week 'Brilliant' Guardian 'Fascinating and often delightful' The Times What if intelligent life on Earth evolved not once, but twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter? In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself - a story...
An Introduction to Human–Animal Relationships is a comprehensive introduction to the field of human–animal interaction from a psychological perspective across a wide range of themes. Hollin examines the topic of the relationships between humans and animals as seen in owning a companion animal alongside more indirect relationships such as our approaches to eating meat. The core issues under discussion include the moral and ethical issues raised in using animals for entertainment, in therapy, to...
Imitation (The Basics)
by Naomi Van Bergen, Allard R. Feddes, Liesbeth Mann, and Bertjan Doosje
Imitation: The Basics is an engaging introduction to the topic of imitation behavior in humans, providing a summary of existing scientific research on imitation, covering everything from examples of imitation across each developmental stage to animal imitation such as monkeys imitating each other. The authors argue that imitation forms the foundation of long-lasting relationships, including those between children and parents, as well as intimate partners. Structured to resemble a human lifetime...
Become a moggy mastermind with nine fun and easy-to-score personality tests. From cat speak to curious quirks, discover your feline’s true nature to better nurture your bond. It begins with a simple question: what are your cat's classic behaviours? Whether they're testily knocking over your mug of piping hot tea or affectionately cuddling into your arms for a morning squeeze, each of these enigmatic actions and strange habits, pet peeves and preferences, tells us something about who they are an...
Evolution and the Human-Animal Drive to Conflict examines how fundamental, universal animal drives, such as dominance/prevalence, survival, kinship, and "profit" (greed, advantage, whether of material or social nature), provide the basis for the evolutionary trap that promotes the unstable, conflictive, dominant-prone individual and group human behaviours. Examining this behavioural tension, this book argues that while these innate features set up behaviours that lean towards aggression influe...
An Introduction to Ethorobotics
This pioneering text explores the emerging discipline of ethorobotics which brings together the fields of animal behaviour and robotics. It encourages closer collaboration between behavioural scientists and engineers to facilitate the creation of robots with a higher degree of functionality in animal/human environments, and to broaden understandings of animal behaviour in new and intriguing ways. Utilizing the knowledge of key ethologists and roboticists in the field today, the book is divided...
The Face in the Mirror
by Julian Keenan, Gordon G Gallup, and Professor Dean Falk
Pandemonium, the home and bird sanctuary that Raffin shares with some of the world's most remarkable birds, is a conservation organization dedicated to saving and breeding birds at the edge of extinction, with the goal of eventually releasing them into the wild. Raffin discusses her crusade to save precious lives, and offers rare insights into how following a passion can transform not only oneself but also the world.
Wolves and Dogs (Fascinating Life Sciences)
by Friederike Range and Sarah Marshall-Pescini
Various parallels have been drawn between wolves and humans from the perspective of their social organisation. Therefore, studying wolves may well shed light on the evolutionary origins of complex human cognition and, in particular, on the role that cooperation played in its development. Humans closely share their lives with millions of dogs – the domesticated form of wolves. Biologically, wolves and dogs can be considered to be the same species; yet only dogs are suitable living companions in h...
Multispecies Gastronomy (Contemporary Food Studies: Economy, Culture and Politics)
by Dr Kelly Donati
In Kindred Spirits, Anne Benvenuti visits with individuals and groups working in animal conservation, rescue, and sanctuary programs around the world. We meet not only cats and dogs but also ravens, elephants, cheetahs, whales, farm and circus animals, monkeys, even bees. A psychologist and storyteller, Benvenuti focuses on moments of transformative contact between humans and other animals, portraying vividly the resulting ripples that change the lives of both animals and humans. Noting that we...
