Earlier this month the nations of the world met to decide on how to deal with the sale of wild animals and their parts. Yes, that is still the relationship we have with them. Highest on many minds was the most acute driving force behind the most talked-about, most widely cared-about conservation issue on Earth […]
animals
Birds “Common” in Name but Not in Nature Make an Appearance
In decades of birding, the best viewing two naturalists have ever seen of a very rare bird Photos by Carl Safina, text by John Turner Tipped off by a phone message from Carl Safina who was watching Common Nighthawks foraging over the Seatuket Mill Pond on Long Island, I headed down around 5:00 o’clock in the […]
Personality; Not Just For People Anymore – Part II
It’s easier to accept that elephants, dolphins, wolves, and dogs have personalities. What’s surprising — until you make individual acquaintances — is how deep and widespread the phenomenon of personality is. When you work with hawks, say, you see that each responds a little differently, each hunts a bit differently. I define personality as individually […]
Animal Thought and Emotion: A Glossary
A handy guide to the words you need to know to talk about the ways animals think and feel. Try to discuss non-human animals’ thoughts or emotions, and you quickly run into trouble. The main problem: there are no widely agreed-to definitions of things like consciousness or sentience. So people talk past each other. Often, people […]
The Social Brain
Why the social brain is the most intelligent brain Dolphins and humans have not shared a common ancestor for tens of millions of years. Yet for all the seeming estrangement of lives lived in liquid, when they see us they often come to play, and we can recognize in those eyes that someone very special is […]
Personality; Not Just for People Anymore
We are watching “elephants,” true enough. But I realize, embarrassed, that I know nothing of how these beings live, of who they are. I scarcely know what it means to be “watching elephants.” Cynthia Moss knows, because she’s been here, watching, for forty years—more time than any other human has ever watched elephants. “When you […]