Read my latest article “Where Are Zoos Going—or Are They Gone?“–just published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science.
Blog
Mirror, mirror
Last month, a team of six Japanese and one German scientist released a paper in the free online prepress server bioRxiv suggesting that a small reef fish called a cleaner wrasse had self-awareness because it passed what’s called a “mirror test.” The mirror test involves marking an animal’s face before introducing it to a mirror. […]
To native birds’ benefit, conservationists declare South Georgia clear of invasive rodents for first time in more than 200 years
Celebrated sea captain James Cook implanted a British flag down into the rocky, icy ground on the shore of South Georgia in 1775. When he did so, he claimed ownership of the icy, mountainous Antarctic island not only for his country’s humans, but, inadvertently, also for its rodents. From the arrival of Cook onward, ships […]
Congratulations to Carl Safina, 2018 Indianapolis Prize Finalist!
Carl Safina is one of six conservation heroes in the running for the quarter million-dollar Indianapolis Prize INDIANAPOLIS – Officials from the Indianapolis Prize today named the Safina Center’s Carl Safina as one of six Finalists for the world’s leading award for animal conservation. Carl Safina joins conservation heroes Dr. Joel Berger, Dr. P. Dee Boersma, […]
The Power Forest
In the course of writing a book about what free-living animals learn from each other, I find myself on the Tambopata River in southeast Peru. The nearest town is Puerto Maldonado but from there the trip is all upriver. Wheeled vehicles are useless in this forest, and there are none. The surrounding forest has […]
Tilikum. A Killer Whale’s Tragic Life
Tilikum has died. Involved in the killing of three humans, the focus of the movie Blackfish, and the book A Death at SeaWorld, Tilikum was certainly the most famous whale, and quite possibly the most noted and notorious non-human being, in the world.He was above all a performer. But beneath all, he was a killer whale. It’s a […]