"Why do we do the things we do? Over a decade in the making, this game-changing book is Robert Sapolsky's genre-shattering attempt to answer that question as fully as perhaps only he could, looking at it from every angle. Sapolsky's storytelling concept is delightful but it also has a powerful intrinsic logic: he starts by looking at the factors that bear on a person's reaction in the precise moment a behavior occurs, and then hops back in time from...

Drawing on the latest research and her own work, Grandin identifies the core emotional needs of animals and explains how to fulfill them for dogs and cats, horses, farm animals, and zoo animals.

The natural world is full of amazing and surprising stories. In this fascinating two-disc set, National Geographic recounts some incredible, heartwarming, and occasionally hilarious pairings of creatures who have put aside their differences to establish very unusual friendships. Watch as a hippo and a tortoise become pals, a lioness ₁adopts₂ an Oryx calf and an elephant in a sanctuary decide her best friend is a dog.

"In 2009, Marc Bekoff was asked to write on animal emotions for Psychology Today. Some 500 popular, jargon-free essays later, the field of anthrozoology, the study of human-animal interactions, has grown exponentially, as have the data showing how smart and emotional nonhuman animals are. Here Bekoff updates selected essays that showcase animal cognitive abilities as well as empathy, grief, humor, and love. Humpback whales protect gray whales from...

This fascinating book, written by a world authority on animal intelligence, brings together the cumulative research on the comparative intelligence levels of nonhuman "smart" species. Sally Boysen reveals how these intelligent animals communicate, learn behavior, show feelings and emotions and, for some species, how they use tools, count and sometimes pick up a foreign language.

"A lively exploration of animal behavior in all its glorious complexity, from tiny wasps to lumbering elephants--and humans. It's time to leave behind the tired nature-versus-nurture debate. In Dancing Cockatoos and the Dead Man Test, Marlene Zuk asks a more fascinating question: How does behavior evolve, and how is that process similar--and different--in people and animals? Drawing from a wealth of research, including her own on insects, she explores...

"Join "America's funniest science writer" (Peter Carlson, Washington Post) Mary Roach on an irresistible investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet. What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A grizzly bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? As New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict,...

Studying animal behavior to understand human behavior.

Thieving macaques using psychology to pull off scams. Delinquent cockatoos vandalizing urban residences. Swaggering peacocks lying about their sexual exploits. These are nature's greatest rebels, succeeding by breaking all the rules. Despite how it appears on the surface, researchers are discovering the complex and fascinating science behind why these animals behave the way they do.