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The Internet of Animals: Discovering the Collective Intelligence of Life on Earth
For readers of An Immense World, this thrilling book unveils a new scientific technology that tracks animal movements from space and ‘could fundamentally reshape the way we understand the role of mobility on our changing planet’. —The New York Times
Animal senses are finely tuned to their environments. Rats are known to flee hours before an earthquake and birds to take flight before a tornado. Yet animal movements themselves are rarely glimpsed by humans, save for a flattened patch of grass here or a snapped twig there. What if we could track secret animal movements all over the world? What would they tell us about how our planet is changing? Would humans be more prepared for natural disasters and disease? Could we prevent further species loss and climate catastrophe?
These questions are closer to being answered than ever before. As part of a groundbreaking new project called ICARUS, scientists all over the world have begun equipping animals with tracking devices that weigh less than 5 grams and are solar-powered. The data they collect feeds up to satellites and back to computers on the ground, creating a living map of animal behaviour previously thought impossible to obtain. In this page-turning book, the founder of ICARUS, Martin Wikelski, shares this compelling story for the first time.
In witty, heartfelt prose, Wikelski reveals intimate and delightful insights into the behavior of animals, from lone foxes in the Arctic to wild elephants in Thailand. He describes the exciting process of getting his project off the ground, from securing funding from NASA to tagging animals himself in remote corners of the world. Finally, he reveals what his research means for our future. ICARUS may usher in a new epoch more hopeful than the Anthropocene — an epoch that Wikelski calls the Interspecies, when humans finally listen to animals and respond to what they have to say about the health of our world.
Animal senses are finely tuned to their environments. Rats are known to flee hours before an earthquake and birds to take flight before a tornado. Yet animal movements themselves are rarely glimpsed by humans, save for a flattened patch of grass here or a snapped twig there. What if we could track secret animal movements all over the world? What would they tell us about how our planet is changing? Would humans be more prepared for natural disasters and disease? Could we prevent further species loss and climate catastrophe?
These questions are closer to being answered than ever before. As part of a groundbreaking new project called ICARUS, scientists all over the world have begun equipping animals with tracking devices that weigh less than 5 grams and are solar-powered. The data they collect feeds up to satellites and back to computers on the ground, creating a living map of animal behaviour previously thought impossible to obtain. In this page-turning book, the founder of ICARUS, Martin Wikelski, shares this compelling story for the first time.
In witty, heartfelt prose, Wikelski reveals intimate and delightful insights into the behavior of animals, from lone foxes in the Arctic to wild elephants in Thailand. He describes the exciting process of getting his project off the ground, from securing funding from NASA to tagging animals himself in remote corners of the world. Finally, he reveals what his research means for our future. ICARUS may usher in a new epoch more hopeful than the Anthropocene — an epoch that Wikelski calls the Interspecies, when humans finally listen to animals and respond to what they have to say about the health of our world.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 30, 2024
24 people are currently reading
560 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 6, 2025
this is about project to attach devices on animals, insects, to see where they go and do when humans aren't there. By sending signals bounced off the international space station and tracked globally, it was learned birds, butterflies etc. don't just rely on instinct, but are able to adjust their migratory journeys to changing conditions and communicate not only to themselves, but to other species they interact with. The researcher/author also recounts how animals are even able to change their behavior around humans, such as a wild arctic fox retrieving a stick and a young sea lion running into his tent and putting its head at his feet after it was chased by bull sea lion on a remote island where animals hadn't learned fear of humans. .
June 12, 2024
Apparently, this is my year to read books that don't seem to be exactly as advertised. I loved Ed Yong's An Immense World. I thought this would have a similar vibe. And parts of it did. But I found the entire middle section, which talked about the development of the antenna and the relationship with the Russians to get it to the ISS, to be far afield from what I was expecting. And the more interesting part--the development of the CubeSat--is barely discussed at all. Again, this is on me--not the author. It just wasn't what I thought it was going to be.
August 19, 2024
This was interesting, but felt like it was missing something. The author's stories with animals were unique and the history of Icarus was interesting. I would have liked to know more about how the findings can be used and combined.
January 7, 2025
Relevant to my research, and easy to read. I liked the first half more, where he included stories of field research and lessons learned from animals. The end was boring to me, too much political / business stuff. But still an interesting book
July 16, 2024
Maybe I should have read the jacket more closely, but I thought this was going to be about interconnections between animals and animals and humans. It was really more about trying to launch a global animal tracker in space - and that's not exactly been successfully pulled off yet. It's not that well organized, especially towards the end. The author doesn't really credit this, but reading between the lines this is a good example of how groundbreaking work is not just about one individual with genius ideas. In addition to hard work, it requires more than a bit of luck, being well networked (most of this wouldn't have been possible without ongoing collaboration with some big-name mentors), being well resourced (students and funds - you need a small army of people zipping around last minute to do this work), and likely a very supportive and understanding family (I hope... daughter is only mentioned once?).
August 9, 2024
The author is a wildlife biologist and Director of the Max Planck Institute in Germany. He and his colleagues have devised the concept of an Internet of Animals as the title calls it, which is essentially a global tracking system for animals both wild and domesticated. They have worked for decades toward this goal and partially implemented it through Project Icarus jointly with Russian scientists. The system consists essentially of three parts: a tagging system to put on animals, a satellite to receive signals from the tags, and a database to record and analyze the information. The satellite was mounted on the ISS and began operation, but the Ukraine War ended the cooperation of the Russians and the program was short-lived. But it has since been restored to life with a new plan to launch a new satellite later this year without the need for Russia or the ISS. Although this is a lifelong dream of the author and his inner circle, I'm not sure the scientific community as a whole, or the general public at all, would consider this quite as lofty an achievement.
Nevertheless, the book is fascinating throughout, at least most of the time. It details the author's many expeditions and biological discoveries, anecdotes of meeting helpful (or not) local people all over the world, and some often amusing stories. The descriptions of the obstacles involved in fashioning tags and how those have been overcome especially intrigued me. The tags alone are a truly incredible engineering feat but it also has to be combined with a range of protocols for how and where to install them on a wide variety of animals from elephants to dragonflies. You may think it's impossible to make a small electronic tag that will fit comfortably on a bird and yet be powerful enough to collect and transmit data to a passing satellite, but it has already been done.
The book centers on Icarus, but is more than that. Much of it is about how the author connected with others who have been instrumental in the project, and described their many unrelated clever research triumphs (and not-so-clever failures). The author tends toward the egotistical, but can be self-deprecating such as when he describes how he got a horrible case of poison ivy climbing a tree because he is so bad at plant identification. Anyone who enjoys wildlife stories or field research will enjoy this book.
Nevertheless, the book is fascinating throughout, at least most of the time. It details the author's many expeditions and biological discoveries, anecdotes of meeting helpful (or not) local people all over the world, and some often amusing stories. The descriptions of the obstacles involved in fashioning tags and how those have been overcome especially intrigued me. The tags alone are a truly incredible engineering feat but it also has to be combined with a range of protocols for how and where to install them on a wide variety of animals from elephants to dragonflies. You may think it's impossible to make a small electronic tag that will fit comfortably on a bird and yet be powerful enough to collect and transmit data to a passing satellite, but it has already been done.
The book centers on Icarus, but is more than that. Much of it is about how the author connected with others who have been instrumental in the project, and described their many unrelated clever research triumphs (and not-so-clever failures). The author tends toward the egotistical, but can be self-deprecating such as when he describes how he got a horrible case of poison ivy climbing a tree because he is so bad at plant identification. Anyone who enjoys wildlife stories or field research will enjoy this book.
February 25, 2024
Das Internet bietet uns unendliche Möglichkeiten, schnell an Informationen aus aller Welt zu gelangen und diese für unseren Alltag zu nutzen. Doch dies sind Informationen von Menschen für Menschen. Was wäre, wenn es ein speziesübergreifendes Internet gäbe, welches uns vor Katastrophen warnt, noch bevor unsere Messgeräte darauf hinweisen? Wer Tiere mag, mit ihnen lebt oder sie intensiv beobachtet weiß, dass sie über erstaunliche Fähigkeiten verfügen. Ich selbst schnappe mir zum Beispiel sofort eines meiner Haustiere und renne zum Tierarzt, wenn mein Hund dieses Tier plötzlich anknurrt. So haben wir schon Krankheiten erkannt, für die selbst der Tierarzt absolut keine Anzeichen sah. Die besonderen Fähigkeiten von Wildtieren müssen uns doch auch helfen können und da setzt das Projekt ICARUS an.
Seit ich davon gehört habe, bin ich von ICARUS begeistert und so habe ich mich sehr über dieses Buch gefreut, welches detailliert vom Beginn des Projektes bis jetzt erzählt. Interessante Begegnungen, wie Zugvögel, die auf offener See pausieren, Störche, die Menschen erziehen und freche Ratten zeigen, dass es so viel zu entdecken gibt. Obwohl schon länger an ICARUS gearbeitet wird, so steckt es ja doch noch in den Kinderschuhen, wenn man an all die Möglichkeiten denkt, die sich noch bieten. Man denke nur an die Früherkennung von durch Zoonosen verursachte Pandemien. Gerade nach Corona sollte auch Menschen, die nicht zu den Tierfreunden zählen, bewusst sein, was da für ein Potential dahintersteckt. Ebenso faszinierend fand ich aber auch die Entwicklung der Sender und den Weg ins All. Für mich als Laien war es unglaublich interessant, dies wirklich detailliert zu erfahren, wusste ich doch nicht, was da dahintersteckt.
Ein wirklich faszinierendes Buch, welches dem Projekt ICARUS hoffentlich die Aufmerksamkeit beschert, das es braucht. Was im Buch nicht erwähnt wurde: auf der Homepage des Projektes gibt es eine Animal Tracker App, mit der jeder Smartphonebesitzer seine Tierbeobachtungen mit ICARUS teilen kann.
Seit ich davon gehört habe, bin ich von ICARUS begeistert und so habe ich mich sehr über dieses Buch gefreut, welches detailliert vom Beginn des Projektes bis jetzt erzählt. Interessante Begegnungen, wie Zugvögel, die auf offener See pausieren, Störche, die Menschen erziehen und freche Ratten zeigen, dass es so viel zu entdecken gibt. Obwohl schon länger an ICARUS gearbeitet wird, so steckt es ja doch noch in den Kinderschuhen, wenn man an all die Möglichkeiten denkt, die sich noch bieten. Man denke nur an die Früherkennung von durch Zoonosen verursachte Pandemien. Gerade nach Corona sollte auch Menschen, die nicht zu den Tierfreunden zählen, bewusst sein, was da für ein Potential dahintersteckt. Ebenso faszinierend fand ich aber auch die Entwicklung der Sender und den Weg ins All. Für mich als Laien war es unglaublich interessant, dies wirklich detailliert zu erfahren, wusste ich doch nicht, was da dahintersteckt.
Ein wirklich faszinierendes Buch, welches dem Projekt ICARUS hoffentlich die Aufmerksamkeit beschert, das es braucht. Was im Buch nicht erwähnt wurde: auf der Homepage des Projektes gibt es eine Animal Tracker App, mit der jeder Smartphonebesitzer seine Tierbeobachtungen mit ICARUS teilen kann.
April 28, 2025
Probably 3.75 stars, bumped upward.
Per others, yeah, the title is misleading — well, until at least the last chapter, which I'll get to.
What this is actually about is the invention of modern GPS monitoring tags for animals to replace the old radiocollars that work fine in medium and large mammals, but obviously not on small ones, or birds — where, in the past, non-monitored leg banding was the only option.
Today, we have that and more — GPS tags (with photo in book) are small enough to even be on dragonflies. What inspired Wikelski to push to go there, and the actual trek to get there, is the subject of the book.
In addition to the science, especially since Wikelski didn't go too far down the road of picking sides, I liked the part about the struggles he and his German tech company had at times in dealing with Roscosmos.
Now, that last chapter? Wikelski gets heavily into futurism, with ideas about how there will be, indeed, an "Internet of Animals" predicting the weather, drought, earthquakes, avian flu, etc. (It should be noted that animals aren't necessarily perfect at predicting earthquakes, cannot predict tornadoes and other things.)
Besides being overblown in general, China not figuring a way to block health data on ducks at Poyang Lake comes to mind as a way in which this futurism scenario is probably overblown.
And, per one other reviewer, let's wait another year or two on how these Cube satellites do before saying this is working as well as Wikelski hopes.
Nonetheless, I'll still give this four stars, not three.
Per others, yeah, the title is misleading — well, until at least the last chapter, which I'll get to.
What this is actually about is the invention of modern GPS monitoring tags for animals to replace the old radiocollars that work fine in medium and large mammals, but obviously not on small ones, or birds — where, in the past, non-monitored leg banding was the only option.
Today, we have that and more — GPS tags (with photo in book) are small enough to even be on dragonflies. What inspired Wikelski to push to go there, and the actual trek to get there, is the subject of the book.
In addition to the science, especially since Wikelski didn't go too far down the road of picking sides, I liked the part about the struggles he and his German tech company had at times in dealing with Roscosmos.
Now, that last chapter? Wikelski gets heavily into futurism, with ideas about how there will be, indeed, an "Internet of Animals" predicting the weather, drought, earthquakes, avian flu, etc. (It should be noted that animals aren't necessarily perfect at predicting earthquakes, cannot predict tornadoes and other things.)
Besides being overblown in general, China not figuring a way to block health data on ducks at Poyang Lake comes to mind as a way in which this futurism scenario is probably overblown.
And, per one other reviewer, let's wait another year or two on how these Cube satellites do before saying this is working as well as Wikelski hopes.
Nonetheless, I'll still give this four stars, not three.
October 29, 2024
A delightful little book that made me smile as I read. We, living in so-called "Western" civilization, have long lost our innate connection with the planet. I recall that the circle, the cliched Disney "circle of life, has long been a universal symbol of all cultures throughout time and space on Earth.
Unfortunately in the "Western" world that circle has been chopped and commodified in the name of dominion over nature and the irrational worship of the wonders of the "free market," that will make us all rich without breaking a sweat. That is utter nonsense, but there are many, too many, in who believe this nonsense as an act of faith. I am convinced the currently held fallacious belief in a "flat Earth" is a libertarian Capitalist fantasy, concocted to lure the foolish into believing all resources on our spherical, closed system planet, are infinite, and, therefore, can be wasted and abused.
Many of the vignettes Martin Wikelski sites as examples of animal behavior, seem so familiar to what I have personally experienced, on a far smaller level, over my life. I have noticed that my cat seems to understand complete sentences when I talk to her. I have a friend who has a bilingual rescue dog, who understands both English and Spanish!
What this planet needs are fewer humans and more animals!
Unfortunately in the "Western" world that circle has been chopped and commodified in the name of dominion over nature and the irrational worship of the wonders of the "free market," that will make us all rich without breaking a sweat. That is utter nonsense, but there are many, too many, in who believe this nonsense as an act of faith. I am convinced the currently held fallacious belief in a "flat Earth" is a libertarian Capitalist fantasy, concocted to lure the foolish into believing all resources on our spherical, closed system planet, are infinite, and, therefore, can be wasted and abused.
Many of the vignettes Martin Wikelski sites as examples of animal behavior, seem so familiar to what I have personally experienced, on a far smaller level, over my life. I have noticed that my cat seems to understand complete sentences when I talk to her. I have a friend who has a bilingual rescue dog, who understands both English and Spanish!
What this planet needs are fewer humans and more animals!
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December 22, 2024Like Merlin Sheldrake’s Entangled Life did for mushrooms and Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees for trees, The Internet of Animals invites readers to think about communication and intelligence in ways that subvert a human-centered system of hierarchy. From his initial description of a sea lion sophisticated enough to register complex human interactions to his mapping of birds’ “information superhighway,” Wikelski’s sense of wonder comes through on every page, always grounded in his scientific knowledge. He offers deep analyses of animal social networks in order to show readers how much we can discover about our place in the world when we recognize the intelligence of other species’ approaches to navigating their physical environments, thereby demonstrating the value of letting go of old paradigms and learning to listen closely to the world around us, whether through satellite systems or a dragonfly in one’s own backyard.
Read
November 13, 2024Biologist Wikelski explains the world of animal tracking in this short volume. His inventive ways of tracking animals is the best part of the book. He was one of the first to find evidence for songbirds floating on the sea to rest during their epic flights of migration. The Icarus system which put an antenna on the International Space Station to track animals from space was a project 20 plus years in the making with Wikelski a major player. He details the politics of this. There is also much in here on the history of tracking devices for animals. They are small enough today that they can be attached to insects. Unfortunately Wikelski lectures us on how misguided western society has been in rampant development. I'm not sure this fits with someone so intimately involved in a field dependent on technology. Still, this offshoot aside its an entertaining book from a fascinating field.
September 13, 2024
Read this as a hardback from my library, but couldn't find that choice in reading form. Read an English version.
Overall, a well written book. Probably 3.5 stars though. The author gets preachy and condescending at times. Is an interesting retelling of the problems with international research in general, cooperating with the Russians in particular. Did learn interesting things about animal behavior along the way. And the book is fairly short. So, worth the read overall. My husband also picked up this book and finished it during our loan period.
Overall, a well written book. Probably 3.5 stars though. The author gets preachy and condescending at times. Is an interesting retelling of the problems with international research in general, cooperating with the Russians in particular. Did learn interesting things about animal behavior along the way. And the book is fairly short. So, worth the read overall. My husband also picked up this book and finished it during our loan period.
April 15, 2025
A non-fiction book about a biologist on a quest to track animals, with the idea that animals movements are the best way that we can really understand how they live.
The story spans many decades of work using various technologies. I love how different species and parts of the world were described, it was really cool to learn about the unique behaviours of these diverse animal groups.
Read as a physical book. Love the cute drawings of animals that start every chapter.
The story spans many decades of work using various technologies. I love how different species and parts of the world were described, it was really cool to learn about the unique behaviours of these diverse animal groups.
Read as a physical book. Love the cute drawings of animals that start every chapter.
March 23, 2024
Ein tolles Buch über eine zukunftsweisende Vision und die konsequente, schrittweise Umsetzung trotz etlicher Hürden und Rückschläge. Wikelski gibt ein realistisches Bild von Forschung, ein fortschreitendes Scheitern und Verbessern für den nächsten Anlauf. Sehr sympathisch und gut geschrieben.
January 22, 2025
Fascinating and maybe just the answer we need in our ever crumbling planet! Well worth the read!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews