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The Mysteries of Nature #2
The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion—Surprising Observations of a Hidden World
"Like The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben's The Inner Life of Animals will rock your world. Surprising, humbling, and filled with delight, this book shows us that animals think, feel and know in much the same way as we do--and that their lives are, to them, as precious as ours are to us."
—Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus
Through vivid stories of devoted pigs, two-timing magpies, and scheming roosters, The Inner Life of Animals weaves the latest scientific research into how animals interact with the world with Peter Wohlleben's personal experiences in forests and fields.
Horses feel shame, deer grieve, and goats discipline their kids. Ravens call their friends by name, rats regret bad choices, and butterflies choose the very best places for their children to grow up.
In this, his latest book, Peter Wohlleben follows the hugely successful The Hidden Life of Trees with insightful stories into the emotions, feelings, and intelligence of animals around us. Animals are different from us in ways that amaze us—and they are also much closer to us than we ever would have thought.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 13, 2016
1334 people are currently reading
14997 people want to read
About the author
Peter Wohlleben
107 books1,929 followersPeter Wohlleben is a German forester and author who writes on ecological themes in popular language.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,063 reviews
April 27, 2018
Since this book didn't bring any knew knowledge for me, it would really have been a 3/3,5* book. However, since the theme is incredibly important it definitely gets 4*. It's also easily read, well told and Wohlleben's own farm runs as a red thread through the chapters.
It's incredibly daft that people think animals - even mammals - can feel neither pain nor emotions. As mammals we have a similar evolutionary path behind us and a need for social bonding. If you're social, you need emotions or it just isn't going to work. Not just fear! Love, hate, shame, regret and empathy as well. That animals can have fun and spend energy on something that is not a means to an end everyone who has a pet knows. My youngest dog has a ”play bark” and plays with imaginary friends and foes (since my older dog won't accommodate).
This is not a cutting edge book. It mixes anecdotes with empirical and scientific evidence. It's well worth reading anyway. Hopefully this book will increase our level of empathy with the fellow creatures we share this planet with, and that we on a grand scale, treat so ill.
It's incredibly daft that people think animals - even mammals - can feel neither pain nor emotions. As mammals we have a similar evolutionary path behind us and a need for social bonding. If you're social, you need emotions or it just isn't going to work. Not just fear! Love, hate, shame, regret and empathy as well. That animals can have fun and spend energy on something that is not a means to an end everyone who has a pet knows. My youngest dog has a ”play bark” and plays with imaginary friends and foes (since my older dog won't accommodate).
This is not a cutting edge book. It mixes anecdotes with empirical and scientific evidence. It's well worth reading anyway. Hopefully this book will increase our level of empathy with the fellow creatures we share this planet with, and that we on a grand scale, treat so ill.
November 15, 2017
This was more about observation than it was about scientific inquiry. As the title suggests, he sure stuck to it too. So do not expect any trials or proofs here. But those who love stories about peoples' viewing and habits of animals they have experienced! They will like this much more than I did. The stories are primarily one time owned or friend kept animals. But birds of several varieties, domestic and wild pigs, and many domesticated other species (lots of goats) are also included- but beyond that too are some chapters on various insect and slime fungi "observations".
To be really truthful, the Introduction turned me off so much that I almost didn't continue. But I found the rest not as preachy and would just skim read the parts where he got way too precious and or teary upon a worm or some other aspect of hunting or fishing.
This is all opinion upon observation. It does, at times, say more about the author himself, his wife and their offspring than it does about the critters.
I did laugh out loud at his supposition that if humans had never hunted than "what our relationship would be like with them now!"
I can't conceptualize a homo form which did not hunt or scavenge to live. They would never have made it without doing so.
To be really truthful, the Introduction turned me off so much that I almost didn't continue. But I found the rest not as preachy and would just skim read the parts where he got way too precious and or teary upon a worm or some other aspect of hunting or fishing.
This is all opinion upon observation. It does, at times, say more about the author himself, his wife and their offspring than it does about the critters.
I did laugh out loud at his supposition that if humans had never hunted than "what our relationship would be like with them now!"
I can't conceptualize a homo form which did not hunt or scavenge to live. They would never have made it without doing so.
April 1, 2022
DNF, 50%. I think this book lost me when Wohlleben asked me to feel empathy for...ticks. The closest I've ever come to a major car accident was due to these pathogen-and-blood-filled watermelon seeds of doom. There I was, driving home after a field day in Coyote Valley where, despite being covered in DEET, I'd lost count of the number of ticks I had flicked off (they hunker down and cannot be brushed off, but must rather be flicked with vigor) past 30. I had released my hair from its ponytail and was scratching luxuriously at my scalp when what felt like a flat scab...with legs...lodged under my nail. The window was down and my flicking fingers were in action before "TICK" had consciously crossed my mind.
Then a gust of wind blew the tick right back in my window, toward my face. There was some panicked flailing as I tried to locate the tick. Also some swerving. Unkind things were said about the tick's parentage. I never found the tick, but I thought about it every time I got into my car for the next year. (Do not, I implore you, look up 'how long can a tick live without a host?' because I assure you that you will not like the answer.)
I really do not like ticks. In fact, I like them less than their spider cousins (helpful insect-vacuums), leeches (medically useful), mosquitoes (more easily deterred), large social events (more easily avoided), or taxes (more easily pawned off on someone else). I really don't care that they might have feelings. They can have them somewhere else that is not my body and with something else that is not my blood.
The Inner Life of Animals is composed of very brief essays on a variety of topics that approach Wohlleben's non-controversial (in my mind) thesis that other animals are sentient. He picks a topic, offers some anecdotes and cites a study or two to support the conclusions drawn from his anecdotes, the end. I fundamentally agreed with his thesis (longtime vegetarian who loves animals other than humans and ticks), and was on board with, if neither challenged nor fascinated by, his supporting material.
It's not bad. The essays are fairly easy to read, and some of the examples are interesting. But I put it down months ago, even after reading past the tick essay, and feel no compunction to ever pick it up again.
Then a gust of wind blew the tick right back in my window, toward my face. There was some panicked flailing as I tried to locate the tick. Also some swerving. Unkind things were said about the tick's parentage. I never found the tick, but I thought about it every time I got into my car for the next year. (Do not, I implore you, look up 'how long can a tick live without a host?' because I assure you that you will not like the answer.)
I really do not like ticks. In fact, I like them less than their spider cousins (helpful insect-vacuums), leeches (medically useful), mosquitoes (more easily deterred), large social events (more easily avoided), or taxes (more easily pawned off on someone else). I really don't care that they might have feelings. They can have them somewhere else that is not my body and with something else that is not my blood.
The Inner Life of Animals is composed of very brief essays on a variety of topics that approach Wohlleben's non-controversial (in my mind) thesis that other animals are sentient. He picks a topic, offers some anecdotes and cites a study or two to support the conclusions drawn from his anecdotes, the end. I fundamentally agreed with his thesis (longtime vegetarian who loves animals other than humans and ticks), and was on board with, if neither challenged nor fascinated by, his supporting material.
It's not bad. The essays are fairly easy to read, and some of the examples are interesting. But I put it down months ago, even after reading past the tick essay, and feel no compunction to ever pick it up again.
January 3, 2020
"He is writing not as a scientist but as an observant animal lover."
- Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, introduction to Inner Life of Animals
Peter Wohlleben, who brought us the The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World is back with the Inner Life of Animals. My same critiques of his last book are still here. I think Peter tends towards a heavy anthropomorphism when dealing with both trees and animals. I get it still. It is hard to view other species outside of our own viewpoint. In his enthusiasm FOR trees and animals, he wants to give us a reason to love them. We naturally love ourselves, so why not talk about how animals share common traits with man? But I think that can be a dangerous precedent.
That said, Wohlleben is a natural observer. And his enthusiasm is a delight. This book was just not nearly as smooth or as surprising and delightful as the Hidden Life of Trees. Still good, just not great.
Oh, and this is just Part II of Wohlleben's 'The Mysteries of Nature trilogy'. The other books are:
1. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World - my review
3. The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things ― Stories from Science and Observation - my review
- Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, introduction to Inner Life of Animals
Peter Wohlleben, who brought us the The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World is back with the Inner Life of Animals. My same critiques of his last book are still here. I think Peter tends towards a heavy anthropomorphism when dealing with both trees and animals. I get it still. It is hard to view other species outside of our own viewpoint. In his enthusiasm FOR trees and animals, he wants to give us a reason to love them. We naturally love ourselves, so why not talk about how animals share common traits with man? But I think that can be a dangerous precedent.
That said, Wohlleben is a natural observer. And his enthusiasm is a delight. This book was just not nearly as smooth or as surprising and delightful as the Hidden Life of Trees. Still good, just not great.
Oh, and this is just Part II of Wohlleben's 'The Mysteries of Nature trilogy'. The other books are:
1. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World - my review
3. The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things ― Stories from Science and Observation - my review
September 29, 2018
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I was thrilled when I saw Peter Wohlleben had written this book about animals. His Secret Life of Trees was one of the best books I read last year. The way he wrote, and the abundance of facts gave me such an intense appreciation for trees that I had previously lacked.
In The Inner Life of Animals Wohlleben writes with the same love, respect, and appreciation of animals as he wrote about trees. It is more anecdotal than scientific, much of what he wrote is his own observations of animals, both wild and domestic. He strives to open our minds to the inner complexities of non-human animals, showing how they feel many emotions we humans feel and how they are much more intelligent than humans often give them credit for. Anyone who has lived with animals already knows this; we can see that our companion cats and dogs and birds possess an inner life full of thoughts and feelings similar to our own.
I didn't learn much in this book, thus 4 stars instead of 5. It was still an enjoyable and interesting read, despite the lack of new knowledge for me. I think it's an important book, just as is The Secret Life of Trees, and we humans need to start appreciating the depth of feeling and thought most (perhaps all?) animals possess. How can we treat them humanely if we do not recognise their uniqueness and ability to suffer? I think that is exactly why we have looked so long upon them as automatons; if we do not admit their ability to suffer, we can do to them what we wish, including keeping them in ghastly conditions in factory farms.
There are heart-warming stories and touching observations in this book, of many different animals. Wohlleben writes often of his dogs and goats, but also about bees, pigs, wolves, hedgehogs, foxes, and many other animals. Not just of their feeling pain, but also joy and gratitude, fear and courage. The Inner Life of Animals is a must-read for animal lovers, or anyone merely wondering if animals have the ability to feel.
(Photo credit: Blond Hovawart with Lamb, Hovawarts USA, 2017)
I was thrilled when I saw Peter Wohlleben had written this book about animals. His Secret Life of Trees was one of the best books I read last year. The way he wrote, and the abundance of facts gave me such an intense appreciation for trees that I had previously lacked.
In The Inner Life of Animals Wohlleben writes with the same love, respect, and appreciation of animals as he wrote about trees. It is more anecdotal than scientific, much of what he wrote is his own observations of animals, both wild and domestic. He strives to open our minds to the inner complexities of non-human animals, showing how they feel many emotions we humans feel and how they are much more intelligent than humans often give them credit for. Anyone who has lived with animals already knows this; we can see that our companion cats and dogs and birds possess an inner life full of thoughts and feelings similar to our own.
I didn't learn much in this book, thus 4 stars instead of 5. It was still an enjoyable and interesting read, despite the lack of new knowledge for me. I think it's an important book, just as is The Secret Life of Trees, and we humans need to start appreciating the depth of feeling and thought most (perhaps all?) animals possess. How can we treat them humanely if we do not recognise their uniqueness and ability to suffer? I think that is exactly why we have looked so long upon them as automatons; if we do not admit their ability to suffer, we can do to them what we wish, including keeping them in ghastly conditions in factory farms.
There are heart-warming stories and touching observations in this book, of many different animals. Wohlleben writes often of his dogs and goats, but also about bees, pigs, wolves, hedgehogs, foxes, and many other animals. Not just of their feeling pain, but also joy and gratitude, fear and courage. The Inner Life of Animals is a must-read for animal lovers, or anyone merely wondering if animals have the ability to feel.
(Photo credit: Blond Hovawart with Lamb, Hovawarts USA, 2017)
April 29, 2018
Delightful reading, full of interesting observations in both senses of the word!
This book isn't a comprehensive review of all the current science on animals, and it never claims to be. It's an educated, informed, gentle and very open-minded take on whether some of our baseline assumptions might just be wrong.
Questions lead to more questions most of the time here.
The chapters are short, small bites to digest as you wish. There are many keen, moving, funny and just generally fascinating descriptions of wild & domestic animal behaviour, with possible interpretations of it.
The author's enthusiasm and inquisitiveness is disarming and makes it a joy to read, and worth the possible odd glances from laughing out loud.
Having seen the author speak in person, I can say his gentle and curious-about-everything passion was well-translated into this book.
The only "moralizing" (far too strong a term) he makes is that absence of proof isn't proof of absence (of feelings, thoughts etc), so why not err on the side of decency & caution and treat nature a little better, and consume less. This seems such a basic level of reasonableness that I cannot understand the claim that he's "preachy". I'm not a vegetarian & he's not scolding except for some justified skepticism about the vested interests of industrial-scale animal farming having an inordinate effect on policy.
I do find the author's comments that hunting is no longer necessary to be only applicable to Europe, not say the Americas. This is my only complaint, & it may be just a function of the book's (original) intended audience.
I highly recommend reading this in a park if you can manage it, the pages come even further alive :)
Note--I read this in a paperback form, published by The Bodley Head (a division of Vintage Publishing, London) in 2017. It was special-ordered for me as a gift so I don't know if there are variances from a N. American paperback version. The cover & title is the same as the one shown here so I used it!
This book isn't a comprehensive review of all the current science on animals, and it never claims to be. It's an educated, informed, gentle and very open-minded take on whether some of our baseline assumptions might just be wrong.
Questions lead to more questions most of the time here.
The chapters are short, small bites to digest as you wish. There are many keen, moving, funny and just generally fascinating descriptions of wild & domestic animal behaviour, with possible interpretations of it.
The author's enthusiasm and inquisitiveness is disarming and makes it a joy to read, and worth the possible odd glances from laughing out loud.
Having seen the author speak in person, I can say his gentle and curious-about-everything passion was well-translated into this book.
The only "moralizing" (far too strong a term) he makes is that absence of proof isn't proof of absence (of feelings, thoughts etc), so why not err on the side of decency & caution and treat nature a little better, and consume less. This seems such a basic level of reasonableness that I cannot understand the claim that he's "preachy". I'm not a vegetarian & he's not scolding except for some justified skepticism about the vested interests of industrial-scale animal farming having an inordinate effect on policy.
I do find the author's comments that hunting is no longer necessary to be only applicable to Europe, not say the Americas. This is my only complaint, & it may be just a function of the book's (original) intended audience.
I highly recommend reading this in a park if you can manage it, the pages come even further alive :)
Note--I read this in a paperback form, published by The Bodley Head (a division of Vintage Publishing, London) in 2017. It was special-ordered for me as a gift so I don't know if there are variances from a N. American paperback version. The cover & title is the same as the one shown here so I used it!
August 27, 2024
Albeit Peter Wohlleben's Das Seelenleben der Tiere has been both interesting and enlightening (and certainly to and for me considerably less fantastical and strangely new agey than Wohlleben's book on trees), I still have found Das Seelenleben der Tiere (and which is called The Hidden Lives of Animals in its English translation) rather scientifically disappointing as a whole and as such also more than a trifle frustrating. For although Wohlleben's observations on animals and his assertions that they also show emotions and have feelings certainly do make sense, certainly are absolutely and totally true and that indeed, I also must admit that Peter Wohlleben is of course and in fact even kind of preaching to the proverbial choir here (as I personally have always known for a fact that our dogs, our cats and especially our horses not only had souls but also had similar feelings as I, as my family did), I guess I was expecting not just Wohlleben's personal observations with Das Seelenleben der There but equally solidly researched scientific proofs, peer reviewed studies etc. And yes, and indeed, the almost complete lack thereof, while it certainly has not prevented me from enjoying my reading time with Das Seelenleben der Tiere, it definitely has somewhat lowered my reading pleasure, as from the title, I was in fact kind of expecting a bit more scientific rigour, a bit more data and actual hard core proofs/facts and not just what the author, what Peter Wohlleben has personally observed and felt amongst both domestic and wild animals (and in particular since the English translation of Das Seelenleben der Tiere is usually also located in the science and technology sections of local bookstores and my local library). Therefore, although I do definitely and certainly think that Das Seelenleben der Tiere is a worthwhile effort and indeed very easily and immensely readable (I plowed through it in less than four hours), well, that Peter Wohlleben has in Das Seelenleben der Tiere basically and sadly far too often eschewed science in favour of presenting unproven and yes also tinged with his own emotions and feelings animal observations, this does make me rather hesitate to recommend Das Seelenleben der There (either in its German original or in English translation) without in my opinion some necessary and required caveats and warnings.
December 5, 2020
Labai fainas, bet jausmas skaitant ir perskaičius - kaip išplėstas Bored Panda straipsnis. Sudalintas į 40+ dalių, atseit pagal emocijas, kurias gyvūnai jaučia kaip ir mes, bet tas skirstymas gana dirbtinis - perbėgi ir pamiršti, ar čia skaitei apie gėdą, ar apie graužatį.
Patiko:
- Wohllebeno istorijos iš asmeninės miškininkystės ir gyvūnų auginimo patirties
- daug trivios, kurią jau pamiršau, nors baigiau skaityt vakar :D
Nepatiko:
- antropocentrizmas - kad vis tiek jis ieško panašumo į save, tarsi žmogus būtų aukščiausias įmanomas standartas
- chaotiškumas, daug apie viską
- tai kad nėra ten paaiškinta, kaip gyvūnai jaučia ir supranta pasaulį, tik - "turbūt kitaip nei mes, bet biški ir panašiai"
Patiko:
- Wohllebeno istorijos iš asmeninės miškininkystės ir gyvūnų auginimo patirties
- daug trivios, kurią jau pamiršau, nors baigiau skaityt vakar :D
Nepatiko:
- antropocentrizmas - kad vis tiek jis ieško panašumo į save, tarsi žmogus būtų aukščiausias įmanomas standartas
- chaotiškumas, daug apie viską
- tai kad nėra ten paaiškinta, kaip gyvūnai jaučia ir supranta pasaulį, tik - "turbūt kitaip nei mes, bet biški ir panašiai"
February 11, 2017
Was fühlen Tiere? Können Tiere denke wie Menschen? Bei welchen Tieren hört die Empfindsamkeit auf? Bei Fischen oder erst bei Fruchtfliegen? Mit diesen Fragen beschäftigt sich der Förster Autor des erfolgreichen Buchs „Das geheime Leben der Bäume“ in seinem neuesten Werk.
Vorab: Mein Verhältnis zu Tieren bezeichnen manche als „nicht ganz gesund“. Die meisten Tiere sind für mich vor allem eins: unschuldige, süße Babys. Sorry an alle Mütter, die das befremdlich finden. Ich lese keine Romane mit Tieren, weil ich es nicht aushalte, wenn einem Tier darin etwas zustößt. Aus diesem Grund kann ich eine gewisse Voreingenommenheit für dieses Buch nicht leugnen.
Aber auch der neutrale Leser wird zugeben müssen, dass die Beispiele – aus Wissenschaft und eigenen Erfahrungen des Autors – schlüssig sind und darauf hindeuten, dass wir Tieren viel zu wenig zutrauen und gängige Annahmen, etwa dass Fische keinen Schmerz empfinden, heute zumindest als sehr unwahrscheinlich betrachtet werden müssen.
Das ist eine unangenehme Erkenntnis, vor allem wenn ein Tier so hochintelligent und empfindsam ist wie das Schwein, angesichts der qualvollen Massentierhaltung und des enormen Fleischverzehrs.
Das Buch bietet viele verblüffende und kurzweilige Geschichten von den Fähigkeiten der verschiedensten Tiere. Eine Moralpredigt ist das Buch jedoch nicht, es liefert aber einige Denkanstöße und einen Appell für Respekt vor allem Leben. Eine empfehlenswerte Lektüre.
Peter Kaempfe liest das Werk mit angenehmer Stimme und in angemessenem Tempo.
Vorab: Mein Verhältnis zu Tieren bezeichnen manche als „nicht ganz gesund“. Die meisten Tiere sind für mich vor allem eins: unschuldige, süße Babys. Sorry an alle Mütter, die das befremdlich finden. Ich lese keine Romane mit Tieren, weil ich es nicht aushalte, wenn einem Tier darin etwas zustößt. Aus diesem Grund kann ich eine gewisse Voreingenommenheit für dieses Buch nicht leugnen.
Aber auch der neutrale Leser wird zugeben müssen, dass die Beispiele – aus Wissenschaft und eigenen Erfahrungen des Autors – schlüssig sind und darauf hindeuten, dass wir Tieren viel zu wenig zutrauen und gängige Annahmen, etwa dass Fische keinen Schmerz empfinden, heute zumindest als sehr unwahrscheinlich betrachtet werden müssen.
Das ist eine unangenehme Erkenntnis, vor allem wenn ein Tier so hochintelligent und empfindsam ist wie das Schwein, angesichts der qualvollen Massentierhaltung und des enormen Fleischverzehrs.
Das Buch bietet viele verblüffende und kurzweilige Geschichten von den Fähigkeiten der verschiedensten Tiere. Eine Moralpredigt ist das Buch jedoch nicht, es liefert aber einige Denkanstöße und einen Appell für Respekt vor allem Leben. Eine empfehlenswerte Lektüre.
Peter Kaempfe liest das Werk mit angenehmer Stimme und in angemessenem Tempo.
January 28, 2018
Animals of all kinds have played a part in the human story from way back; they have been companions, used for work, providing and actually being the food in a lot of cases too. Whilst some have been cherished, lots have been treated as pure commodities and we have often been quite cruel usually because people thought that they were not capable of communicating or had emotions.
The latest scientific research and observations though is uncovering a very different story. Lots are known about dolphins and whales though we and not very far down the road of understanding what is being said, and it turns out there are a lot of other animals that communicate in one way or another but there is another world that is slowly being revealed. They have discovered instances of animals feeling shame, sadness, regret and as well as the way they can consciously select partners.
I really enjoyed Peter Wohlleben's first book, The Hidden Life Of Trees, a subject he knows a lot about having been a forester for around three decades, and the intimacy of his knowledge there shines like a blade of sunlight through the glade. With this, he is out of his comfort zone somewhat and even though he is drawing on personal experience and scientific research to highlight just how animals behave. Whilst it may have a grounding in science, this is primarily anecdotal evidence and also shows how we as humans project our not fully understood emotions and habits onto all sorts of different species. Still worth reading as some of the stories in here are quite entertaining.
The latest scientific research and observations though is uncovering a very different story. Lots are known about dolphins and whales though we and not very far down the road of understanding what is being said, and it turns out there are a lot of other animals that communicate in one way or another but there is another world that is slowly being revealed. They have discovered instances of animals feeling shame, sadness, regret and as well as the way they can consciously select partners.
I really enjoyed Peter Wohlleben's first book, The Hidden Life Of Trees, a subject he knows a lot about having been a forester for around three decades, and the intimacy of his knowledge there shines like a blade of sunlight through the glade. With this, he is out of his comfort zone somewhat and even though he is drawing on personal experience and scientific research to highlight just how animals behave. Whilst it may have a grounding in science, this is primarily anecdotal evidence and also shows how we as humans project our not fully understood emotions and habits onto all sorts of different species. Still worth reading as some of the stories in here are quite entertaining.
June 11, 2017
[PL] Mam poczucie, że autor nie do końca był pewien, czym ta książka ma być; doniesienia z badań i obserwacji (choć, niestety, z drugiej ręki; odnośniki prowadzą głównie do popularnych gazet) mieszają się z anegdotami z życia leśniczówki i dużymi generalizacjami. Przy czym znajdą się chyba lepsi odbiorcy ode mnie - nie wątpię w umysłowość i uczuciowość zwierząt, mnie Wohlleben nie musi do tego przekonywać. Tak czy owak, to miła, odprężająca lektura, skłaniająca do przemyśleń nad naszą relacją z przyrodą.
January 24, 2018
Would be a helpful book if you’ve never spent any time with animals and the fact that animals experience emotion is a new idea to you. The observations are surface level; there is no actual science in the book, and the author projects his own assumptions using illogical arguments. If you are interested in the subject matter, Carl Safina and Frans de Waal have written extremely interesting animal psychology books backed by excellent research.
May 12, 2018
2.5 Stars
I enjoyed this book for the anecdotes and stories about animal observations.
I did not really enjoy the layout - each short chapter is labelled with a human emotion and then the author sets about explaining how animals exhibit these emotions.
Some of these are pretty obvious and unnecessary.
I would have preferred a more general discussion with more stories and less explanation.
Anyone with an interest in animals is going to have observed animal emotions in some form, no need to spell it out.
I enjoyed this book for the anecdotes and stories about animal observations.
I did not really enjoy the layout - each short chapter is labelled with a human emotion and then the author sets about explaining how animals exhibit these emotions.
Some of these are pretty obvious and unnecessary.
I would have preferred a more general discussion with more stories and less explanation.
Anyone with an interest in animals is going to have observed animal emotions in some form, no need to spell it out.
December 5, 2017
My only problem with this book was that it was too short.
February 25, 2023
U ovoj knjizi autor se bavi ponašanjem životinja, njihovim osjećanjima i sposobnosti da razmišljaju, na bazi ličnog iskustva i posmatranja, pri tome ne zanemarujući ni naučni aspekt.
Kroz brojne primjere, kako svojih ljubimaca, tako i na osnovu ponašanja divljih životinja, Voleben otkriva svijet različitog spektra emocija, razmišljanja i sposobnosti prilagođavanja promjenama nastalim uticajem ljudskog faktora. Takođe, indirektno upućuje čitaoce da ne uzimaju životinje zdravo za gotovo (čak i voćne mušice), da njihova osjećanja ne treba omalovažavati.
"Pre bi se moglo reći da mi je želja da povratimo malo više poštovanja u ophođenju sa živim svetom koji nas okružuje, bilo da se radi o životinjama ili o biljkama. To ne mora da znači odricanje od njihovog korišćenja, ali svakako bi moralo da znači izvesno ograničavanje našeg komfora, a i količine dobara koja trošimo."
Kroz brojne primjere, kako svojih ljubimaca, tako i na osnovu ponašanja divljih životinja, Voleben otkriva svijet različitog spektra emocija, razmišljanja i sposobnosti prilagođavanja promjenama nastalim uticajem ljudskog faktora. Takođe, indirektno upućuje čitaoce da ne uzimaju životinje zdravo za gotovo (čak i voćne mušice), da njihova osjećanja ne treba omalovažavati.
"Pre bi se moglo reći da mi je želja da povratimo malo više poštovanja u ophođenju sa živim svetom koji nas okružuje, bilo da se radi o životinjama ili o biljkama. To ne mora da znači odricanje od njihovog korišćenja, ali svakako bi moralo da znači izvesno ograničavanje našeg komfora, a i količine dobara koja trošimo."
July 22, 2020
Do animals have emotions? Do fish feel pain? How intelligent are pigs? Can animals lie? And more. Nothing deeply scientific, more of an entertaining pop science primer, interspersed with humourous anecdotes. Each emotion gets an entry with several examples of different animals and how they could feel and what researchers have to say about it. The books culminates in the question if animals can think and solve abstract problems. And if animals have a soul. And if they do, can there be a life after death for them? Seriously?
It was mildly interesting in parts, but pretty shallow, a bit monotonous and with a very repetitive structure. Ultimately I was underwhelmed, I expected more.
It was mildly interesting in parts, but pretty shallow, a bit monotonous and with a very repetitive structure. Ultimately I was underwhelmed, I expected more.
March 17, 2023
"Roosters that deceive their hens? Mother deer that grieve? Horses that feel shame? Up until just a few years ago, such ideas would have sounded absurd, mere wishful thinking on the part of animal
lovers who wanted to feel closer to their charges..."
The second installment in "The Mysteries of Nature" series; I enjoyed this interesting short presentation. This is my first from the author, but I have now added the other two in this series to my "to read" list.
Author Peter Wohlleben is a German forester who writes on ecological themes in popular language and has controversially argued for plant sentience. He is also sharply pro-animal rights, and decries a meat-eating diet, as well as hunting, and many other forms of animal treatment that could debatably be called "cruelty."
Peter Wohlleben:
Previously discounted and labeled as "anthropomorphism" by the long-prevailing scientific orthodoxy, the concept of animal emotions, or even intelligence has long been eschewed by most in the scientific establishment.
There are humans, and then there are "animals;" asserts this orthodoxy. The classification of "animal" encapsulating a wide range of creatures - from a tiny ant, all the way up to the higher primates. But most importantly; there is a sharp delineation between the classifications of "animal" and "man."
And although this line of thinking had its roots in religious dogma, from what I can tell, it made its way into the realm of mainstream science largely through the work of B.F. Skinner and his behaviorism; which (roughly) stated that animals had no inborn traits, emotions, feelings, or sentience - and were instead only carrying out fixed action patterns in response to external stimuli.
Orthodoxies are a hell of a drug, and just like many drugs, they can be tough to shake. This book challenges that orthodoxy, one that is bafflingly still alive and well in certain scientific circles. Have these people never had pets?? The author Frans de Waal has written many books on this topic, as well, and I would recommend them to any readers of this review.
Wohlleben continues the quote from the start of this review:
The writing here is well done, and so is the formatting. The author writes in a clear, straightforward, and engaging manner that should have no trouble holding the reader's attention. The book is also broken into a few dozen small but well-defined chapters, to ensure that it has a decent flow.
As the book progresses, Wohlleben debates the concept of gratitude from adopted pets. Anecdotally speaking, as someone who rescued a very sick pet from a high-kill shelter; I can confirm this.
The author examines many other emotions, feelings, and/or beahviours here, previously thought to be strictly confined to humans, including:
• Empathy
• Deception
• Thievery
• “Superorganisms”; ants, bees
• Having fun
• Desire
• Animal pair bonding
• The mirror test
• Grief
• Shame
• Altruism
• Domestication of wild animals; wild cats, wolves, wolf-dog hybrids
• Fear; epigenetic altering of the genome
• Good and evil
• Dreaming
• Do animals have "souls"?
Finally, he ties the writing up with a decent epilogue, and drops this quote:
***********************
The Inner Life of Animals was an easy-going, enjoyable short read. I would definitely recommend it.
5 stars.
lovers who wanted to feel closer to their charges..."
The second installment in "The Mysteries of Nature" series; I enjoyed this interesting short presentation. This is my first from the author, but I have now added the other two in this series to my "to read" list.
Author Peter Wohlleben is a German forester who writes on ecological themes in popular language and has controversially argued for plant sentience. He is also sharply pro-animal rights, and decries a meat-eating diet, as well as hunting, and many other forms of animal treatment that could debatably be called "cruelty."
Peter Wohlleben:
Previously discounted and labeled as "anthropomorphism" by the long-prevailing scientific orthodoxy, the concept of animal emotions, or even intelligence has long been eschewed by most in the scientific establishment.
There are humans, and then there are "animals;" asserts this orthodoxy. The classification of "animal" encapsulating a wide range of creatures - from a tiny ant, all the way up to the higher primates. But most importantly; there is a sharp delineation between the classifications of "animal" and "man."
And although this line of thinking had its roots in religious dogma, from what I can tell, it made its way into the realm of mainstream science largely through the work of B.F. Skinner and his behaviorism; which (roughly) stated that animals had no inborn traits, emotions, feelings, or sentience - and were instead only carrying out fixed action patterns in response to external stimuli.
Orthodoxies are a hell of a drug, and just like many drugs, they can be tough to shake. This book challenges that orthodoxy, one that is bafflingly still alive and well in certain scientific circles. Have these people never had pets?? The author Frans de Waal has written many books on this topic, as well, and I would recommend them to any readers of this review.
Wohlleben continues the quote from the start of this review:
"...I’ve been around animals all my life and I was one of those dreamers. Whether it was the chick in my parents’ garden that picked me out as its mom, the goat at our forest lodge that brightened our days with her contented bleating, or the animals I met on my daily rounds of the woodland I manage, I often wondered what was going on inside their heads. Is it really true, as scientists have long maintained, that people are the only animals capable of enjoying a full range of emotions? Has creation really engineered a unique biological path for us? Are we the only ones guaranteed a life of self-awareness and satisfaction?
If that were the case, this book would be over right now. If human beings were the result of some special biological design, we wouldn’t be able to compare ourselves to other animals."
The writing here is well done, and so is the formatting. The author writes in a clear, straightforward, and engaging manner that should have no trouble holding the reader's attention. The book is also broken into a few dozen small but well-defined chapters, to ensure that it has a decent flow.
As the book progresses, Wohlleben debates the concept of gratitude from adopted pets. Anecdotally speaking, as someone who rescued a very sick pet from a high-kill shelter; I can confirm this.
The author examines many other emotions, feelings, and/or beahviours here, previously thought to be strictly confined to humans, including:
• Empathy
• Deception
• Thievery
• “Superorganisms”; ants, bees
• Having fun
• Desire
• Animal pair bonding
• The mirror test
• Grief
• Shame
• Altruism
• Domestication of wild animals; wild cats, wolves, wolf-dog hybrids
• Fear; epigenetic altering of the genome
• Good and evil
• Dreaming
• Do animals have "souls"?
Finally, he ties the writing up with a decent epilogue, and drops this quote:
"From my personal perspective, I am suggesting that we infuse our dealings with the living beings with which we share our world with a little more respect, as we once used to do, whether those beings are animals or plants. That doesn’t mean completely doing without them, but it does mean a certain reduction in our level of comfort and in the amount of biological goods we consume. As a reward, if we then have happier horses, goats, chickens, and pigs, if we can then observe contented deer, martens, or ravens, if one day we can listen in when the ravens call their names, then a hormone will be released into our central nervous system that will spread a feeling against which we have no defense—happiness!"
***********************
The Inner Life of Animals was an easy-going, enjoyable short read. I would definitely recommend it.
5 stars.
January 2, 2018
In his bestselling book, The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben revealed the fascinating magic and mystery of trees. He spent his childhood close to nature, where he was fascinated by the family of life. In his adult years, he has been a forest manager in Germany, continually striving to nurture the health of the land, and minimize harms. He has spent much of his life outdoors. Consequently, he has developed a perception of reality that is quite different from the herd.
In his new book, The Inner Life of Animals, he directs his attention to animal life, which is also little understood by mainstream society — the folks who spend most of their lives in climate controlled compartments. For them, the natural world is often just a meaningless blur of scenery along the freeway, and wildlife sightings are mostly on glowing screens. The new book is a pleasant voyage into a kinder and gentler mindset. Readers are served a banquet of interesting ideas, mostly.
Wohlleben is a caring man who wishes that humans would cause far less damage and suffering in the world. That’s his message. At his home in the woods, he keeps goats, horses, rabbits, dogs, and chickens. He apparently treats them with kindness until they drop dead from old age, or become terminally ill. He confesses to drinking goat milk and making cheese, but says not a peep about meat (a touchy subject these days). He detests factory farms, hunters, and industrial forest miners.
He has a deep appreciation for the coherence of wild ecosystems, and the remarkable relationships that coevolution has produced. A primary focus of his book is to confront the cult of human supremacy. Like patriarchy, and get-rich-quick fever, human supremacist beliefs intensify the madness of modern society. The cult asserts that anything non-human is below us. It’s perfectly OK to cram 20,000 chickens, shoulder to shoulder, inside a metal shed, without guilt or shame. They are mindless machines that can feel no pain, organisms incapable of thoughts or feelings.
Supremacism has left a boot print on the English language. Throughout the book, there are two categories of critters, “humans” and “animals,” implying that humans are not animals. Of course, that’s not true. Take off your clothes and look in a mirror, and you will see an animal that looks a lot like a chimp or bonobo, our closest living relatives.
In the mirror you will see a furless tropical primate that evolved an upright bipedal stance fine-tuned for long distance running. This enabled us to survive via persistence hunting — chasing animals across the savannah for hours, until they collapsed from exhaustion. Louis Liebenberg wrote about this. Our ancestors have been hunters for several million years, long before we became Homo sapiens. As every gardener knows, our bodies are poorly designed for gathering seeds, nuts, melons, and berries — too much bending and backaches.
Wohlleben hates hunting, which in its current form is “no longer appropriate.” During the season, the woods are crowded with hunters, hiding close to bait piles, with high-powered rifles. Bullets are whizzing all over the place, and up to 650,000 wild boars die every year. Some animals are merely wounded, and suffer agonizing deaths. He doesn’t describe what “appropriate” hunting would be. Society has vigorously exterminated wild carnivores, whilst growing staggering amounts of boar food. Is boar overpopulation appropriate?
Wohlleben owns a number of domesticated animals, and they spend their days in locations enclosed by electric fences. They cannot go where they please, and the fences discourage the indigenous wild lynx from dining on his exotic invasive critters. This disturbs him a bit. “Nature didn’t intend for goats and horses to spend their whole lives as prisoners behind a fence. Let’s not pretend: these animals would hightail it in a heartbeat if they could.” (Did nature intend the existence of domesticated animals?) The best he can do is treat them respectfully.
He lives in the twenty-first century, when many people own domesticated animals, a source of wealth and status. For these folks, wild predators are evil. Chickens are fox food, and foxes are demonic anti-capitalist anarchists. Many also plant large fields of boar food, and get quite upset when boars come to enjoy their generous offering. Some farmers surround their corn fields with electric fences to keep them out. In the good old days, before domestication, nobody owned the large game and edible plants. Nobody got upset when wild predators consumed wild herbivores, because nobody’s status was diminished. In egalitarian societies, all people were equal, and status consciousness was totally inappropriate.
In The Others, Paul Shepard brilliantly described how important it is for all humans to spend their entire lives in healthy wild ecosystems, surrounded by many species of wild animals. He also explained the many ugly consequences of capturing, confining, and domesticating “goofies” and “hooved locusts.” Civilized primates are seriously deformed and traumatized by spending their lives in isolation from their wild relatives.
It’s easy to gobble a Big Mac when you have been taught that animals are like rutabagas, dumb organisms. Now, we’re learning how sensitive and intelligent animals are. To complicate matters, in his tree book, Wohlleben revealed that plants are also not dumb machines. How can we feed ourselves in a morally acceptable manner? Chimps and bonobos happily beat small animals to death, eat them raw, with no guilt at all. A robin eating a worm is not evil. We all feed one another.
Wohlleben is a fountain of stories. Foxes lie down, tongues out, and play dead to attract hungry crows. Goats move away from the herd when it’s time for them to die, because their corpse will attract predators. Hives of bees with insufficient honey for the winter will attack weaker hives, kill defenders, and swipe their stash. Swifts rarely stand on the ground, they sleep while soaring. The book is loaded with hundreds of anecdotes like these. I shall let you discover them on your own.
According to the human supremacist myths, animals do not have consciousness, self-awareness, or emotions. They cannot feel pain, communicate, remember events, grieve, express gratitude, or recognize individual humans. Today, the core of the controversy over animal intelligence is whether or not they are capable of thinking.
Humans, of course, can think like crazy. In our brains, the neocortex is the engine of self-awareness, consciousness, and thinking — and humans have the greatest neocortex of all. Oddly, while most of the book is dedicated to challenging human supremacy, Wohlleben refers to our neocortex as the “crowning achievement of creation.” Indeed, no other species is capable of experiencing so much cognitive dissonance.
Folks who understand environmental history and ecological sustainability, and have learned how to engage in critical thinking, can readily detect enormous flaws in the core myths of our culture. The view from their mountaintop, far above the thick smog of dodgy beliefs, perceives that thinking is at least as much of a curse as a blessing. We can live without glowing screens, but we can’t live in a toxic wasteland, with a hostile climate. Supremacist myths trump common sense. You can lead the herd to the pool of knowledge, but you can’t make them think.
“Mommy?” “Yes, dear?” “What is intelligence?” “Sweetheart, intelligence is turning old growth forests into money, destabilizing the climate, acidifying the oceans, driving many species to extinction — and not caring. Intelligence is speeding across the land in motorized wheelchairs, dumping trash on the moon, creating vast coastal dead zones, and developing miracle cures for the infectious and degenerative diseases that emerged with the birth of civilization.” “Mommy?” “Yes, dear?” “I don’t want to be intelligent. Can I be wild, free, and happy?”
In his new book, The Inner Life of Animals, he directs his attention to animal life, which is also little understood by mainstream society — the folks who spend most of their lives in climate controlled compartments. For them, the natural world is often just a meaningless blur of scenery along the freeway, and wildlife sightings are mostly on glowing screens. The new book is a pleasant voyage into a kinder and gentler mindset. Readers are served a banquet of interesting ideas, mostly.
Wohlleben is a caring man who wishes that humans would cause far less damage and suffering in the world. That’s his message. At his home in the woods, he keeps goats, horses, rabbits, dogs, and chickens. He apparently treats them with kindness until they drop dead from old age, or become terminally ill. He confesses to drinking goat milk and making cheese, but says not a peep about meat (a touchy subject these days). He detests factory farms, hunters, and industrial forest miners.
He has a deep appreciation for the coherence of wild ecosystems, and the remarkable relationships that coevolution has produced. A primary focus of his book is to confront the cult of human supremacy. Like patriarchy, and get-rich-quick fever, human supremacist beliefs intensify the madness of modern society. The cult asserts that anything non-human is below us. It’s perfectly OK to cram 20,000 chickens, shoulder to shoulder, inside a metal shed, without guilt or shame. They are mindless machines that can feel no pain, organisms incapable of thoughts or feelings.
Supremacism has left a boot print on the English language. Throughout the book, there are two categories of critters, “humans” and “animals,” implying that humans are not animals. Of course, that’s not true. Take off your clothes and look in a mirror, and you will see an animal that looks a lot like a chimp or bonobo, our closest living relatives.
In the mirror you will see a furless tropical primate that evolved an upright bipedal stance fine-tuned for long distance running. This enabled us to survive via persistence hunting — chasing animals across the savannah for hours, until they collapsed from exhaustion. Louis Liebenberg wrote about this. Our ancestors have been hunters for several million years, long before we became Homo sapiens. As every gardener knows, our bodies are poorly designed for gathering seeds, nuts, melons, and berries — too much bending and backaches.
Wohlleben hates hunting, which in its current form is “no longer appropriate.” During the season, the woods are crowded with hunters, hiding close to bait piles, with high-powered rifles. Bullets are whizzing all over the place, and up to 650,000 wild boars die every year. Some animals are merely wounded, and suffer agonizing deaths. He doesn’t describe what “appropriate” hunting would be. Society has vigorously exterminated wild carnivores, whilst growing staggering amounts of boar food. Is boar overpopulation appropriate?
Wohlleben owns a number of domesticated animals, and they spend their days in locations enclosed by electric fences. They cannot go where they please, and the fences discourage the indigenous wild lynx from dining on his exotic invasive critters. This disturbs him a bit. “Nature didn’t intend for goats and horses to spend their whole lives as prisoners behind a fence. Let’s not pretend: these animals would hightail it in a heartbeat if they could.” (Did nature intend the existence of domesticated animals?) The best he can do is treat them respectfully.
He lives in the twenty-first century, when many people own domesticated animals, a source of wealth and status. For these folks, wild predators are evil. Chickens are fox food, and foxes are demonic anti-capitalist anarchists. Many also plant large fields of boar food, and get quite upset when boars come to enjoy their generous offering. Some farmers surround their corn fields with electric fences to keep them out. In the good old days, before domestication, nobody owned the large game and edible plants. Nobody got upset when wild predators consumed wild herbivores, because nobody’s status was diminished. In egalitarian societies, all people were equal, and status consciousness was totally inappropriate.
In The Others, Paul Shepard brilliantly described how important it is for all humans to spend their entire lives in healthy wild ecosystems, surrounded by many species of wild animals. He also explained the many ugly consequences of capturing, confining, and domesticating “goofies” and “hooved locusts.” Civilized primates are seriously deformed and traumatized by spending their lives in isolation from their wild relatives.
It’s easy to gobble a Big Mac when you have been taught that animals are like rutabagas, dumb organisms. Now, we’re learning how sensitive and intelligent animals are. To complicate matters, in his tree book, Wohlleben revealed that plants are also not dumb machines. How can we feed ourselves in a morally acceptable manner? Chimps and bonobos happily beat small animals to death, eat them raw, with no guilt at all. A robin eating a worm is not evil. We all feed one another.
Wohlleben is a fountain of stories. Foxes lie down, tongues out, and play dead to attract hungry crows. Goats move away from the herd when it’s time for them to die, because their corpse will attract predators. Hives of bees with insufficient honey for the winter will attack weaker hives, kill defenders, and swipe their stash. Swifts rarely stand on the ground, they sleep while soaring. The book is loaded with hundreds of anecdotes like these. I shall let you discover them on your own.
According to the human supremacist myths, animals do not have consciousness, self-awareness, or emotions. They cannot feel pain, communicate, remember events, grieve, express gratitude, or recognize individual humans. Today, the core of the controversy over animal intelligence is whether or not they are capable of thinking.
Humans, of course, can think like crazy. In our brains, the neocortex is the engine of self-awareness, consciousness, and thinking — and humans have the greatest neocortex of all. Oddly, while most of the book is dedicated to challenging human supremacy, Wohlleben refers to our neocortex as the “crowning achievement of creation.” Indeed, no other species is capable of experiencing so much cognitive dissonance.
Folks who understand environmental history and ecological sustainability, and have learned how to engage in critical thinking, can readily detect enormous flaws in the core myths of our culture. The view from their mountaintop, far above the thick smog of dodgy beliefs, perceives that thinking is at least as much of a curse as a blessing. We can live without glowing screens, but we can’t live in a toxic wasteland, with a hostile climate. Supremacist myths trump common sense. You can lead the herd to the pool of knowledge, but you can’t make them think.
“Mommy?” “Yes, dear?” “What is intelligence?” “Sweetheart, intelligence is turning old growth forests into money, destabilizing the climate, acidifying the oceans, driving many species to extinction — and not caring. Intelligence is speeding across the land in motorized wheelchairs, dumping trash on the moon, creating vast coastal dead zones, and developing miracle cures for the infectious and degenerative diseases that emerged with the birth of civilization.” “Mommy?” “Yes, dear?” “I don’t want to be intelligent. Can I be wild, free, and happy?”
January 19, 2022
Bütün her şey bir yana hayvan severler için tam bir ziyafet kitabı.
Hayvanları anlamak için başlangıç noktası aslında insanları anlamak. İnsan türü ile hayvanlar arasında çok büyük bir kopuş noktası görünmüyor. Onlarında acıları, kederleri ve mutlulukları var ve biz onları görmemezlikten gelemeyiz. Kitapta keçileri, atları, köpekleri, kedileri, domuzları bir çok insani duygu ile karşılaştırıp okuyoruz. Hem de Wohlleben bütün yazdıklarını bilimsel referanslar vererek bizlere sunuyor.
Evimizin içerisinde bir kedi olduğu için ve hayvan sever biri olduğum için kitabı keyifle okudum. Tavsiye ederim.
Hayvanları anlamak için başlangıç noktası aslında insanları anlamak. İnsan türü ile hayvanlar arasında çok büyük bir kopuş noktası görünmüyor. Onlarında acıları, kederleri ve mutlulukları var ve biz onları görmemezlikten gelemeyiz. Kitapta keçileri, atları, köpekleri, kedileri, domuzları bir çok insani duygu ile karşılaştırıp okuyoruz. Hem de Wohlleben bütün yazdıklarını bilimsel referanslar vererek bizlere sunuyor.
Evimizin içerisinde bir kedi olduğu için ve hayvan sever biri olduğum için kitabı keyifle okudum. Tavsiye ederim.
December 7, 2018
This is a surprising and fascinating book that I’d recommend to anyone, even (especially) those who might not know much to begin with about animals. From magnificent megafauna to the most humble creatures most of us pay no mind to at all, Wohlleben studies a huge variety of creatures and comes away with amazing, amusing, and thought-provoking facts and theories.
In any discussion of animal intelligence and sentience, there’s that proverbial elephant in the room—the fact that the human being doesn’t have a very friendly track record with most of the species roaming earth. Wohlleben doesn’t fly the banner of the animal cause, lecture his audience or tell them what to think, which no doubt helps get this book into the hands of mainstream audiences who could most use the information.
At the same time, he doesn’t shy away from discussing the intelligence, sensitivity, and natural instincts still retained by farm animals such as pigs and chickens—and asks us to simply consider the effects the factory farming system has upon these minds and bodies.
Right now, my part of the country is in the midst of hunting season, and I can’t visit the grocery store or the gym without overhearing guys shout-questioning each other as to whether they “got” any deer. Even those who may feel discomfort with the idea of sport hunting often act as though they must grin and go along with it. Yet behind this macho façade stands some stark facts about the capacity of these “game” animals for thought and emotion. Wohlleben sheds some light on emotions such as fear and even grief in deer and other hunted animals.
This book also brought up a thought regarding hunting I haven’t had before. Hunters typically argue that they are simply taking the place of natural predators (who were also once hunted out of existence, funny how that works). But predatory animals usually hunt huge swaths of land, are highly territorial, and aren’t everywhere at once like humans on opening day. Prey animals go from having to worry about that puma or that grizzly to having to face the possibility of death from up every tree and behind every blind. There are never thousands of wolves or lions in the forest at once. It’s no wonder the stress hormone levels of “game” species go through the roof when hunting commences.
Facts sometimes put a damper on fun, tradition, and convenience, but that’s simply indication that we need to find new, less damaging ways of enjoying our fun, traditions, and conveniences.
In any discussion of animal intelligence and sentience, there’s that proverbial elephant in the room—the fact that the human being doesn’t have a very friendly track record with most of the species roaming earth. Wohlleben doesn’t fly the banner of the animal cause, lecture his audience or tell them what to think, which no doubt helps get this book into the hands of mainstream audiences who could most use the information.
At the same time, he doesn’t shy away from discussing the intelligence, sensitivity, and natural instincts still retained by farm animals such as pigs and chickens—and asks us to simply consider the effects the factory farming system has upon these minds and bodies.
Right now, my part of the country is in the midst of hunting season, and I can’t visit the grocery store or the gym without overhearing guys shout-questioning each other as to whether they “got” any deer. Even those who may feel discomfort with the idea of sport hunting often act as though they must grin and go along with it. Yet behind this macho façade stands some stark facts about the capacity of these “game” animals for thought and emotion. Wohlleben sheds some light on emotions such as fear and even grief in deer and other hunted animals.
This book also brought up a thought regarding hunting I haven’t had before. Hunters typically argue that they are simply taking the place of natural predators (who were also once hunted out of existence, funny how that works). But predatory animals usually hunt huge swaths of land, are highly territorial, and aren’t everywhere at once like humans on opening day. Prey animals go from having to worry about that puma or that grizzly to having to face the possibility of death from up every tree and behind every blind. There are never thousands of wolves or lions in the forest at once. It’s no wonder the stress hormone levels of “game” species go through the roof when hunting commences.
Facts sometimes put a damper on fun, tradition, and convenience, but that’s simply indication that we need to find new, less damaging ways of enjoying our fun, traditions, and conveniences.
May 3, 2020
As Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson summarized in the introduction of The Inner Life of Animals, Peter Wohlleben is "writing not as a scientist but as an observant animal lover.". Fun, easy, thoughtful, a delight indeed.
April 19, 2023
DNF w połowie.
Dowody anegdotyczne na bambinizm i uosabianie zwierząt. Tam dosłownie padają tego typu sformułowania: "nie wiem co na to naukowcy i badania naukowe, ale ja uważam, że jest tak, bo widziałem jak zwierzę x robi y" a wnioski oparte na ekwiwokacji.
Jedno wielkie XD
Dowody anegdotyczne na bambinizm i uosabianie zwierząt. Tam dosłownie padają tego typu sformułowania: "nie wiem co na to naukowcy i badania naukowe, ale ja uważam, że jest tak, bo widziałem jak zwierzę x robi y" a wnioski oparte na ekwiwokacji.
Jedno wielkie XD
November 16, 2025
Peter Wohlleben lo ha vuelto a hacer.
Se que ya había escrito otros libros después de su exitoso, pero también adorable y fascinante libro “La vida secreta de los árboles”, pero este es el texto que sus admiradores esperábamos como la continuación natural del texto por el que le conocimos.
Para quienes no han leído nada de Wohlleben, estamos hablando aquí de un guardabosques que un día, acicateado por conocidos y algún editor visionario, le dio por escribir datos y reflexiones sobre la vida de los organismos con los que interactúa en su trabajo, salpimentados por anécdotas entretenidas precisamente sacadas de su experiencia como guardabosques.
El resultado es, con este nuevo libro “La vida interior de los animales”, algunas de las piezas de divulgación biológica y ambiental más entretenidas e informativas de leer que he tenido entre manos. Pero no solamente eso, algunas de las reflexiones más genuinas sobre el valor de la vida con la que convivimos en el planeta.
En este nuevo libro, como su nombre lo anticipa, Wohlleben nos sumerge en la vida interior de algunos animales, en especial de aquellos que habitan los bosques del norte de europa en los que vive y trabaja: jabalíes, corsos, cuervos, ardillas, etc. Pero no solo de esos animales sino también de aquellos con los que hemos establecido cooperaciones duraderas y fructíferas, perros, caballos, cantas, gatos, etc.
Con capítulos cortos y fáciles de leer, el libro hace un recorrido muy completo por casi todo el espectro de los sentidos y emociones animales: dolor, sabor, vejez, amor maternal, miedo, comunicación, asco, etc. El resultado no dejo de sorprenderme y esto a pesar de que por mi interés por el tema ya había leído un par de buenos libros sobre los sentidos o la inteligencia de animales no humanos escrito por autoridades en la materia.
Aunque este no es un libro escrito por un reconocido etólogo o un biólogo profesional, Wohlleben acompaña muchos de los datos o afirmaciones que nos entrega con referencias a la literatura especializada en la forma de enlaces al pie de página. Aunque la mayoría de las referencias están en alemán no dudo que de interesarse por cualquiera de ellas cualquiera de nosotros podría buscar la fuente original.
El único defecto que le encontré al libro, que hoy no entiendo porque no tiene una valoración mejor aquí en GoodRead -a la fecha en que escribo esta reseña el puntaje promedio es un sorprendente 3.76- pero creo que es en parte por la reacción de muchas personas a la mal llamada “humanización de los animales”, son algunos defectos de redacción que hacen que algunas frases estén construidas de forma extraña y difícil de leer. No se si es un defecto del original o es de la traducción.
Termino diciendo que comparto con Wohlleben el corazón de su postura: no es que estemos humanizando a los animales, es que los humanos somos animales y deberíamos tener la sensibilidad para aceptar que no somos excepcionales en todos los aspectos de nuestra vida.
La labor de divulgación de personajes como este guardabosques es fundamental para que entendamos que solo admitiendo que los animales no humanos tienen una vida interior en su mayoría idéntica a la nuestra, podremos empezar a protegerles de ese virus mental que se instaló en la humanidad llamado “excepcionalidad humana” y que lleva siglos convirtiendo a la Tierra en un planeta de dolor y sufrimiento.
Se que ya había escrito otros libros después de su exitoso, pero también adorable y fascinante libro “La vida secreta de los árboles”, pero este es el texto que sus admiradores esperábamos como la continuación natural del texto por el que le conocimos.
Para quienes no han leído nada de Wohlleben, estamos hablando aquí de un guardabosques que un día, acicateado por conocidos y algún editor visionario, le dio por escribir datos y reflexiones sobre la vida de los organismos con los que interactúa en su trabajo, salpimentados por anécdotas entretenidas precisamente sacadas de su experiencia como guardabosques.
El resultado es, con este nuevo libro “La vida interior de los animales”, algunas de las piezas de divulgación biológica y ambiental más entretenidas e informativas de leer que he tenido entre manos. Pero no solamente eso, algunas de las reflexiones más genuinas sobre el valor de la vida con la que convivimos en el planeta.
En este nuevo libro, como su nombre lo anticipa, Wohlleben nos sumerge en la vida interior de algunos animales, en especial de aquellos que habitan los bosques del norte de europa en los que vive y trabaja: jabalíes, corsos, cuervos, ardillas, etc. Pero no solo de esos animales sino también de aquellos con los que hemos establecido cooperaciones duraderas y fructíferas, perros, caballos, cantas, gatos, etc.
Con capítulos cortos y fáciles de leer, el libro hace un recorrido muy completo por casi todo el espectro de los sentidos y emociones animales: dolor, sabor, vejez, amor maternal, miedo, comunicación, asco, etc. El resultado no dejo de sorprenderme y esto a pesar de que por mi interés por el tema ya había leído un par de buenos libros sobre los sentidos o la inteligencia de animales no humanos escrito por autoridades en la materia.
Aunque este no es un libro escrito por un reconocido etólogo o un biólogo profesional, Wohlleben acompaña muchos de los datos o afirmaciones que nos entrega con referencias a la literatura especializada en la forma de enlaces al pie de página. Aunque la mayoría de las referencias están en alemán no dudo que de interesarse por cualquiera de ellas cualquiera de nosotros podría buscar la fuente original.
El único defecto que le encontré al libro, que hoy no entiendo porque no tiene una valoración mejor aquí en GoodRead -a la fecha en que escribo esta reseña el puntaje promedio es un sorprendente 3.76- pero creo que es en parte por la reacción de muchas personas a la mal llamada “humanización de los animales”, son algunos defectos de redacción que hacen que algunas frases estén construidas de forma extraña y difícil de leer. No se si es un defecto del original o es de la traducción.
Termino diciendo que comparto con Wohlleben el corazón de su postura: no es que estemos humanizando a los animales, es que los humanos somos animales y deberíamos tener la sensibilidad para aceptar que no somos excepcionales en todos los aspectos de nuestra vida.
La labor de divulgación de personajes como este guardabosques es fundamental para que entendamos que solo admitiendo que los animales no humanos tienen una vida interior en su mayoría idéntica a la nuestra, podremos empezar a protegerles de ese virus mental que se instaló en la humanidad llamado “excepcionalidad humana” y que lleva siglos convirtiendo a la Tierra en un planeta de dolor y sufrimiento.
January 5, 2022
Wohlleben’s first book describes how trees, in a typical beechwood say, communicate with one another, feed their saplings, care for their sick, warn others about and defend themselves against both herbivores and parasites, and a range of other behaviours besides—trees, it turns out, are social organisms. It distilled into a couple of hundred pages all the things he had observed himself and read about during his twenty years working as a forester in the Eifel region of northwest Germany. Not surprisingly, The Hidden Life of Trees was a bestseller.
The Inner Life of Animals was his follow-up. This one deals, not only with the intelligence and emotions of other animal species, but various other abilities and behaviours culled from the scientific literature, as well as his own observations of deer, jays and so on at work and his family’s collection of dogs, rabbits, goats and horses at home. As in the first book, he comes across as mild-mannered, amiable, and impatience only surfaces anytime he mentions human hunters with their rifles, traps, fishing lines and trawls, who he clearly detests. In contrast to the first book, I’d met much of the material here before; and, while the original took shape in his mind over two full decades, this follow-up was written only a year later. So, simply cashing in on his success then?
I don’t think so actually. What I’d guess instead is that the whole experience of writing that first one was so thrilling he just couldn’t resist doing it all again. Imagine: first observing, mulling over, absorbing facts and ideas out on your daily round for years on end; then putting it all together as a book; then this unlikely manuscript, not only finding a publisher, but becoming an internationally-acclaimed bestseller. I mean, who could resist living through all that a second time?
So this isn’t a criticism of the author himself (the “cashing in” part sounds more like the publisher jogging his elbow) and this book is an enjoyable read too, so long as you don’t go into it expecting to be as astonished as you were by the first.
The Inner Life of Animals was his follow-up. This one deals, not only with the intelligence and emotions of other animal species, but various other abilities and behaviours culled from the scientific literature, as well as his own observations of deer, jays and so on at work and his family’s collection of dogs, rabbits, goats and horses at home. As in the first book, he comes across as mild-mannered, amiable, and impatience only surfaces anytime he mentions human hunters with their rifles, traps, fishing lines and trawls, who he clearly detests. In contrast to the first book, I’d met much of the material here before; and, while the original took shape in his mind over two full decades, this follow-up was written only a year later. So, simply cashing in on his success then?
I don’t think so actually. What I’d guess instead is that the whole experience of writing that first one was so thrilling he just couldn’t resist doing it all again. Imagine: first observing, mulling over, absorbing facts and ideas out on your daily round for years on end; then putting it all together as a book; then this unlikely manuscript, not only finding a publisher, but becoming an internationally-acclaimed bestseller. I mean, who could resist living through all that a second time?
So this isn’t a criticism of the author himself (the “cashing in” part sounds more like the publisher jogging his elbow) and this book is an enjoyable read too, so long as you don’t go into it expecting to be as astonished as you were by the first.
July 3, 2023
nie wiem czy to wynika z lektora czy po prostu z mojego słabnącego zainteresowania tematem, ale wymęczyłam trochę :// Forma moim zdaniem, nie wiem, jakaś za luźna, mało merytoryczna, a jednocześnie czuć tę pasję u autora. Konkluzja tego, że zwierzęta faktycznie odczuwają całą gamę emocji - w tym także realne cierpienie - za to nadrabia, bo napisana jest w kontekście wykorzystywania zwierząt w celach hodowlanych i to daje do myślenia.🙏🏻
April 15, 2021
pisano jednostavnim, popularnim stilom, autor povezuje iskustvo promatranja i skrbi za životinje na svojoj farmi sa znanstvenim spoznajama o emocijama i svijesti životinja, a povremeno ubaci i koju osobnu, neutemeljenu pretpostavku. po struci šumar, čovjek s iskustvom u življenju s prirodom, ne pretjerano literarno vješt, ali dovoljno čitak da te drži uz knjigu i da ti na pristupačan način otkriva manje znane pojedinosti iz životinjskog svijeta. pomalo zbrčkano i površno za moj ukus, stavlja temelj za vlastito daljnje istraživanje ove teme.
January 7, 2019
Ši knyga patiks tiems, kam norisi lengvo skaitinio apie gyvūnus. Skaitosi greitai ir lengvai, yra nemažai įdomybių iš laukinių ir naminių gyvūnų gyvenimo, įdomių autoriaus įžvalgų, bet...
Labai trūksta nuoseklumo. Į skyrius suskirstyta lyg ir logiškai, bet kas dedasi skyriaus viduje, sunku sugaudyti. Autorius neretai pats sau prieštarauja, neatsako į skyriuje keliamus klausimus.
Itin mažai moksliškumo. Kažkiek cituojami moksliniai straipsniai, bet labai liberaliai. O šiaip absoliuti dauguma knygoje pateikiamų minčių -- asmeniniai autoriaus samprotavimai, remiantis naminių gyvūnų stebėjimu. Nemažai vietų, kur išvis konfrontuojamas mokslas, kas irgi nekelia pasitikėjimo. Silpnoka.
Knyga parašyta su meile ir atjauta gyvūnams, tik apmaudu, kad taip nuslystama paviršiumi. Tai, kad ji skirta "paprastiems mirtingiesiems", o ne mokslininkams, nėra pasiteisinimas, nes tikrai yra labai stipriai parašytų knygų atitinkamai auditorijai. Pvz., "Mother nature is trying to kill you".
Labai trūksta nuoseklumo. Į skyrius suskirstyta lyg ir logiškai, bet kas dedasi skyriaus viduje, sunku sugaudyti. Autorius neretai pats sau prieštarauja, neatsako į skyriuje keliamus klausimus.
Itin mažai moksliškumo. Kažkiek cituojami moksliniai straipsniai, bet labai liberaliai. O šiaip absoliuti dauguma knygoje pateikiamų minčių -- asmeniniai autoriaus samprotavimai, remiantis naminių gyvūnų stebėjimu. Nemažai vietų, kur išvis konfrontuojamas mokslas, kas irgi nekelia pasitikėjimo. Silpnoka.
Knyga parašyta su meile ir atjauta gyvūnams, tik apmaudu, kad taip nuslystama paviršiumi. Tai, kad ji skirta "paprastiems mirtingiesiems", o ne mokslininkams, nėra pasiteisinimas, nes tikrai yra labai stipriai parašytų knygų atitinkamai auditorijai. Pvz., "Mother nature is trying to kill you".
August 18, 2020
¿Los animales tienen emociones? ¿Los peces sienten dolor? ¿Pueden los animales mentir? ¿Pueden sentir vergüenza? Entre estas tantas y otras preguntas trata el autor en este maravilloso libro. Resulta de una lectura deliciosa, llena de observaciones a la cual más interesantes. No es una revisión exhaustiva de toda la ciencia actual sobre animales, y nunca pretende serlo.
Los capítulos son breves y en ellos se pueden apreciar muchas descripciones agudas, divertidas, conmovedoras y fascinantes del comportamiento de los animales con posibles interpretaciones del mismo.
Lo que más me encandiló es el entusiasmo y curiosidad del autor que hace que leer sea un placer y hace que nuestro nivel de empatía aumente con las criaturas con las que compartimos este planeta y que, a gran escala por desgracia, tratamos tan mal.
Los capítulos son breves y en ellos se pueden apreciar muchas descripciones agudas, divertidas, conmovedoras y fascinantes del comportamiento de los animales con posibles interpretaciones del mismo.
Lo que más me encandiló es el entusiasmo y curiosidad del autor que hace que leer sea un placer y hace que nuestro nivel de empatía aumente con las criaturas con las que compartimos este planeta y que, a gran escala por desgracia, tratamos tan mal.
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