Extraordinary Books on the Wisdom of Animals
The Hidden Wisdom of Animals is a beautiful book for young readers to celebrate over 40 creatures worldwide, and in lyrical reflections, focus on one amazing quality or skill from each that we can learn.
Young readers age 9 and up will enjoy this book, which celebrates over 40 creatures from around the world, with lyrical 100 to 500 word reflections, that each focus on one amazing skill or quality that the animal embodies – and that we can learn from.
Author Alison Davies lives in Colorado (USA) where she writes books on National Parks, and environmental issues in the world’s wild and remote places.
The Internet of Animals (communication of other creatures)
The Internet of Animals is an illuminating account of the untapped knowledge of the animal kingdom, from animal migration to how elephants can detect tsunamis. What do animals know that we don’t?
In this book, scientist Martin Wikelski argues that animals have a unique ‘sixth sense’. If we give animals a voice, our perception of the world could change forever.
As they tag animals around the world with tiny tracking devices and link their movements to the International Space Station, this taps into the ‘internet of animals’, an astonishing network of information made up of thousands of creatures communicating with each other and their environments.
This project ICARUS is poised to change the world. We learn how barnyard animals become restless when earthquakes are imminent, African animals sense when poachers are on the move and frigatebards in South America depart before hurricanes arrive.
We also now know that animal migrations are not triggered by genes encoded in DNA but by elaborate cultures. By learning from them, we can better prepare for earthquakes, floods and hurricanes – and also learn to live alongside animals in harmony.
Martin is director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour and honorary professor of ornithology at University of Konstanz.
Cry of the Wild (life through eyes of eight animals)
Cry of the Wild is a unique book on eight animals who have had to learn to adapt to the way humans build modern life.
A fox (grown strong on pepperoni pizza from East End dustbins) dances along a railway track towards Essex.
An orca (mourning the loss of her mother on the Isle of Sky) knows she must now lead the pod as matriarch.
At moonrise in a West Country river, an otter floats slowly downstream. Also read of geese ‘flying in from the north with snow falling from their wings’ and life imagined through the eyes of a young rabbit and a white owl.
This book gives us the chance to inhabit the lives of a cast of wild creatures as they navigate a changed world. By turns tragic and joyful, every story yields fascinating insights into the way our fellow earthlings make their way through life:
- Fox
- Orca
- Human
- Mayfly
- Rabbit
- Gannet
- Otter
- Eel
Charles Foster is a Wainwright-shortlisted nature writer. He is a fellow of Exeter College and University of Oxford and has particular passions for Greece, waves, mountains and swifts.
