Virginia Morell, who has a new book out, with Ai, a chimpanzee and memory-whiz at the Kyoto Primate Research Institute in Japan. Photo by Tetsuo Matsuzawa, courtesy of Virginia Morell.
I was astounded to read in the new book by Virginia Morell, Animal Wise: How We Know Animals Think and Feel, that scientists once believed that animals did not feel emotions.
We have this anthropocentric tendency to deny feelings and consciousness to any beings who don’t speak our language.
Scientists also used to believe that human babies, despite clear indications to the contrary, did not feel pain.
It seems obvious to us now (and has been proven by scientific research): a baby who flinches, screams, curls his toes, or cries out is in pain. But this idea was dismissed by earlier generations of researchers.
Animals feel and express emotions
It seems obvious, too, that animals feel and express emotions.
Anyone who’s seen a puppy cock its head at a beetle on the sidewalk knows that dogs feel curiosity.
Anyone who’s seen video footage of a chimp holding sugarcane, a look of triumph on his face, suspects that primates can feel satisfaction.
In Animal Wise: How We Know Animals Think and Feel, Virginia Morell describes a heartbreaking moment that made me realize just how profound animal emotion is:
Cover of a new book by Virginia Morell, Animal Wise: How We Know Animals Think and Feel
“In Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, ethnologist Sultana Bashir spoke with sorrow about what fate surely lay in store for a male cheetah we were watching.
“Several months prior to my visit, she and other members of the Serengeti Cheetah Project had placed a radio collar on this sleek cat. We’d driven long hours over the plains, while tracking the collars ping, before Bashir spotted the cheetah among the grasses.
“He was standing at the base of a rocky kopje—his lookout—and crying in a piteous tone. Sometimes he climbed his rocks to gaze in the distance, other times he paced away, then suddenly swung about and climbed back to the top of his lookout. ‘Mrrrroow; mrrroowww; mrroww,’ he called, making a low bleating sound, almost like the cry of a wounded sheep.
“‘That’s his distress call,’ Bashir said. ‘He’s looking for his friend. But I’m afraid he’s gone; he was elderly, and I think he’s died. Otherwise he would be here, or nearby.’
“Male cheetahs maintain large territories that overlap those of several females, and they fight other males—sometimes to the death—to secure their borders. In such battles, it helps to have a friend; indeed, a single male cheetah without a partner is almost assured of losing any fight and all his territory. We sat the with unhappy male until late in the afternoon, and he never ceased his cries.
“At last, he left the kopje behind and headed off at a trot into the plain’s tall grasses. What would become of him if his friend did not return, I asked. ‘He’ll go off to die, I think,’ Bashir said. ‘Another male will kill him, or he’ll stop eating, get mange—always a sign of distress in cheetahs—and become too weak to defend his territory. Really, he’ll die of a broken heart.‘” [My emphasis.]
But it is of course the job of scientists to dismiss the obvious as projection and anthropomorphizing until proof in the form of well designed experiments confirms what everyone except those skeptical researchers was pretty sure of all along.
This fascinating book by Virginia Morell is full of the unexpected, information that will intrigue even the most open-minded animal lover.
She writes about a scientists whose experiments show that:
- ? Ants can teach each other new paths to follow;
- ? Rats (rats!) have a sense of humor and actually laugh
- ? Dolphins believe that they are far more intelligent than humans
As interesting as the animals who Virginia Morell describes are, the human animals who study them (aka scientists) are also at the heart of this book.
These scientists are quirky, dogmatic, dedicated, and sometimes almost obsessed in their quest for better understanding of the creatures we share space with on this Earth.
Virginia Morell lives in Ashland, Oregon.
When I first called her up years ago, after reading an article she wrote in National Geographic and finding out—to my delight and surprise—that we lived in the same town, I hurriedly told her how much I admired her work, how she was the kind of writer I wanted to be, and mumbled about getting together for coffee.
She was gracious enough not to think me crazy.
We went to Chozu’s tea house, both talked a mile a minute, and I’ve been blessed to have her as a friend and colleague ever since.
Check out Animal Wise’s page on Facebook.
Buy Virginia Morell’s book on Amazon or, better yet, get it from your local bookstore!
Got a book of your own coming out? Read my bestselling author friend’s rules for book promotion.
Buckaroo, Virginia’s beloved dog, and Virginia Morell celebrating the arrival of the first hardbound copies of ANIMAL WISE. Photo by Michael McRae, courtesy of Virginia Morell.
Green-rumped parrotlet chicks likely learn their signature contact calls (which function like our names do) from their parents. Photo by Karl Berg, courtesy of Virginia Morell.
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Why I charge my friends for advice
15 perfect gifts for the writers in your life
Must-read memoirs you don’t want to miss
Published: Feb 22, 2013
Updated: October 22, 2019
This is a Spotlight Saturday post. Spotlight Saturdays showcase books and authors—both contemporary and classic. If you’re a published author with a new book coming out and you are interested in being showcased on JenniferMargulis.net, please ask your publicist to contact us.
Well you just talked me into buying and reading. I think we assume certain things in animals because it eases our minds. If we decide, for instance that they don’t feel emotion, it’s easier for us to feel good about the practice of taking newborn calves away from their mama cows within days of birth so we can have the milk instead of them. Dozens of examples. Once you realize that they grieve, laugh and do everything we do, it’s harder to feel good about eating them, wearing them and making them do our hard work.
I’ve been following Virginia on FB and this looks like an amazing read.
I had the chance to read a preview copy of the book as well and loved it. My review goes live tomorrow (2/26). So many fascinating details on how researchers figure out what animals know / learn / connect.
This sounds like it could be a really good addition to a homeschool curriculum, no?
I think this would be a great book for homeschoolers, Kris. Absolutely.
Her book sounds amazing. You brought up homeschoolers, but what age children do you think this might be appropriate for?
Kristen – I guess it depends on the child’s reading level but definitely kids age 11 and up. My 11-year-old heard her speak and has been reading the book and enjoying it.
I’m the author of ANIMAL WISE, and am delighted that you’re discussing my book here! Yes, I agree with Jennifer. I think that kids 11 and up will enjoy it. Younger children would probably love to read the chapter about Alex the African Gray Parrot; I have several “quotes” from Alex there. They’d probably laugh, too, to hear or read about the archerfish that shoot “water bullets” into the eyes and nostrils of the scientists (and this visiting writer). There’s a clever dolphin who dumps water on me in one chapter, and a good scene with a researcher teaching a young wolf to look her in the eye in #10. Would love to hear back from the kids who do read it!
That seems like a very interesting book. We have a tendency to not think of ourselves as animals as for many that is a reductionist concept. But we are animals.
However, there is nothing wrong with seeking proof. It wouldn’t be science if it was based upon hearsay and intuition. In time we will know much more about our fellow creatures.