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276 reviews for:
The Secret Life of Animals: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discovering a Hidden World
Peter Wohlleben
3.68 AVERAGE
276 reviews for:
The Secret Life of Animals: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discovering a Hidden World
Peter Wohlleben
3.68 AVERAGE
informative
medium-paced
This story focuses on how animals, even insects, have emotions, souls, and thoughts. It is a mixture of scientific fact and anedotes, and is written in a rather colloquial way. The author lives surrounded by forest, and he is very intuned with the world around him. He also keeps many animals, such as goats, horses, dogs, and chickens. His arguments are well presented, and very persuasive. I found his knowledge of deer, especially the behavior amongst a group of doe, to be particularly interesting. There is a group of doe who often visit my parents' yard. There are times when I, accidentally, have gotten very close to them. They don't see me as a threat. With the knowledge of this book, I see this group of doe differently. Overall, I would definitely recommend this book!
Some fascinating anecdotes and research presented in this book. I read this right after "Mama's Last Hug", another book on animal behavior. Everyone should read these books to see how complex the emotions and intelligence of many animals really are, even those thought to not be intelligent or sentient.
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Animal cruelty
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
Super important topic and one that I’m very passionate about which is why I have to give 4 stars. I just didn’t like all the anecdotes.
I picked "The Inner Life of Animals" by Peter Wohlleben as a book to read for #scienceseptember. I love animals. I am interested in science. It seemed like the perfect pick! Little did I know...there is not much actual science in this book.
"The Inner Life of Animals" is an interesting and very readable book. It has 41 short chapters about how animals experience the world and whether they feel different emotions; chapters like "Gratitude," "Lies and Deception," "Grief," "Pain," "Just for Fun," and "Good and Evil." Wohllenberg's underlying thesis is that animals experience the world very similarly to humans.
But each chapter is mostly just a series of anecdotes, many from Wohllenberg's own life. Wohllenberg is clearly knowledgeable about animals; he is a forest manager in Germany who cares for domestic animals like goats, horses, and dogs, as well as having the opportunity to observe many wild animals like red deer, boar, wood mice, and various birds. But the anecdotes are just anecdotes. He occasionally will refer to an actual experiment or vetted research on one of the topics, but the book is mostly his pleasant, enthusiastic observations. For example, the chapter on "Grief" is a story about how mother deer will return again and again to the spot where a fawn died, even if the body is no longer there. Touching? Yes. Does it convince me that deer feel grief the same way humans do? No.
But hey! I still enjoyed the book. Even though it wasn't what I was expecting. I feel like I have a bunch of random conversation starters about animals now. (Me, by the punch bowl at a party: "Ma'am, did you know that there are carnivorous mice on Gough Island that team up to attack and eat albatross chicks 200 times their size? Excuse me...where are you going, ma'am?")
"The Inner Life of Animals" is an interesting and very readable book. It has 41 short chapters about how animals experience the world and whether they feel different emotions; chapters like "Gratitude," "Lies and Deception," "Grief," "Pain," "Just for Fun," and "Good and Evil." Wohllenberg's underlying thesis is that animals experience the world very similarly to humans.
But each chapter is mostly just a series of anecdotes, many from Wohllenberg's own life. Wohllenberg is clearly knowledgeable about animals; he is a forest manager in Germany who cares for domestic animals like goats, horses, and dogs, as well as having the opportunity to observe many wild animals like red deer, boar, wood mice, and various birds. But the anecdotes are just anecdotes. He occasionally will refer to an actual experiment or vetted research on one of the topics, but the book is mostly his pleasant, enthusiastic observations. For example, the chapter on "Grief" is a story about how mother deer will return again and again to the spot where a fawn died, even if the body is no longer there. Touching? Yes. Does it convince me that deer feel grief the same way humans do? No.
But hey! I still enjoyed the book. Even though it wasn't what I was expecting. I feel like I have a bunch of random conversation starters about animals now. (Me, by the punch bowl at a party: "Ma'am, did you know that there are carnivorous mice on Gough Island that team up to attack and eat albatross chicks 200 times their size? Excuse me...where are you going, ma'am?")
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
An excellent book concerning the emotional lives of animals that we otherwise discount. For pet owners and those who observe animals frequently the conclusions and arguments of the book will be non-controversial, but it is nice to see the scientific backing for it.
Možda sam očekivala malo više stručnosti, a malo manje priča iz dvorišta. Knjiga je dobra i zanimljiva, u to nema sumnje, ali se tvrdnje ne zasnivaju previše na naučnim činjenicama.
3.5/5 ⭐️
3.5/5 ⭐️