Inside the Animal Mind [Hardcover]

George Page (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1999

In the past, scientists have refused to acknowledge that animals have anything like human intelligence. But a growing body of research reveals otherwise. We've discovered ants that use leaves as tools to cross bodies of water, woodpecker finches that hold twigs in their beaks to dig for grubs, and bonobo chimps that can use sticks to knock down fruit or pole-vault over water. Not only do animals use tools--some display an ability to learn and problem-solve, as well.

Based on the latest scientific and anecdotal evidence culled from animal experts in the field and in the labs, Inside the Animal Mind is an engrossing look at animal intelligence, cognitive ability, problem solving, and emotion. George Page, originator and host of the long-running PBS series Nature, offers us an informed, entertaining, and humanistic investigation of the minds of predators and scavengers, birds and primates, rodents, and other species.

In the bestselling tradition of The Hidden Life of Dogs, When Elephants Weep, and Dogs Don't Lie About Love, Inside the Animal Mind is a fascinating narrative explaining the nature and depth of animal intelligence.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

George Page, creator and long-time host of television's Nature, knows animals well. He has written Inside the Animal Mind, a broad look at how birds, apes, and others solve problems without the advantages of the human brain, as a companion to the three-episode series covering the world of animal intelligence. Exploring the natural world and the laboratory, he comes up with some interesting insights into intelligence and (more importantly) how we see it. Though the reader occasionally wishes for greater depth, Page's breadth offers interconnections that we would never find elsewhere (moving from the Sun King's gamekeeper to Stephen Jay Gould is beyond most writers).

Page is clearly sympathetic to his subjects, speaking for them where most of them cannot. Investigating tool use and language, he finds the competition not so barren as we had once thought, with finches and gorillas merely heading the lists of nonhuman animals learning clever tricks. Interwoven with his descriptions of bright animals is a story of our own species' long, slow coming to terms with our non-unique status. Perhaps intelligence is not distributed equally, even among humans, but it seems fair to say that we've lost our monopoly. Page's warm, gentle prose also reminds us of our responsibilities to those whose capacity for suffering has been quietly ignored for centuries. Inside the Animal Mind ends with a call to treat animals with respect. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly

Do cats get depressed? "Does the beaver have the dam in mind?" Can we say animals think and feel as we do? If so, which animals? If not, why not? Such questions, and the relations among them, prompt the wide-ranging essays in this volume, which condense and synthesize, in language meant for laypeople, research on intellection, emotion and learning in species from pigeons to porpoises to people. Following in particular Donald Griffin's Animal Minds, Page also brings in Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's compelling if anecdotal writings on dogs; hummingbirds' "intentional planning"; cognitive tests (does your dog see itself in the mirror?); mimicry and deception in fireflies' codes; primatologist Jane Goodall's "reports that chimpanzees sometimes make threatening gestures against thunderstorms"; famous apes who communicate in sign languages; and assorted other evidence that some animals (not just chimps, either) deserve to be considered conscious beings. A brisk final chapter addresses the political and ethical implications of animal minds. Page hosts the long-running PBS TV show Nature, and his book arrives as a tie-in to three Nature episodes that share its title. (The episodes air in January 2000.) Always personable and often casual, Page's writing (like that in most other educational-TV tie-ins) may frustrate his most informed readers. Many more, though, will welcome his surveys of this immense topic, one that appears with increasing frequency as philosophers, ethicists, cognitive scientists, animal-behavior experts and specialists on various species and habitats find themselves asking, and answering, similar questions. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (December 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038549291X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385492911
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,554,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Outside the Animal Mind: Suppositions of a casual observer, March 5, 2001

By 

Jonathan G. Pearl (Racine, WI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside the Animal Mind: A Groundbreaking Exploration of Animal Intelligence (Paperback)

George Page is a journalist, not a researcher. Unfortunately, that does not save him from taking the posture of one who knows better. He dismisses whole fields of discourse with offhand remarks, for example: "Eventually behaviorism melded with the equally notorious sociobiology as formulated by E. O. Wilson." (p. 29) For an accessible yet scholarly exploration of animal cognition, I recommend Marc Hauser's "Wild Minds." Hauser is a scientist, who specializes in primate cognition. His writing is more lucid, and less affected. He addresses the same questions as Page, with an appreciation for subtle variaritions in the possible interpretations of evidence, which is lacking in Page's presentation. One comparison between the books: Page's bibliography is 3 pages long; Hauser's spans 30.

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Another sentimental overinterpretation, March 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Inside the Animal Mind (Hardcover)

This book, like so many others in this genre, does not help us appreciate how animals think. It merely reports what they do, and then overinterprets. Although Page's enthusiasm for the field is great, his lack of understanding of the theoretical issues in this field shows, and leads him to make many inappropriate claims. For those interested in what animals think, as seen through the eyes of those who really do the work, I highly recommend Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth's "How Monkeys See the World" and Marc Hauser's recent book "Wild Minds".

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For animal lovers everywhere!, April 26, 2000

By 

Betti Trapp - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside the Animal Mind (Hardcover)

This is a terrific, heartwarming book. Filled with incredible facts, a great sense of humor, and a lot of interesting verbs, George Page does a super job of making the subject even more interesting than it is on it's own. Do animals think? Feel? Communicate? The answers to these and other fascinating questions can be found inside these pages. You will be amazed at what you learn. I think George Page knows his stuff, and I think his years with the PBS Nature series has paid off in a fabulous display of animal empathy, inquisitiveness, and knowledge. After perusing this book, you will never look at an animal in the same way, be it house pet, zoo creature, or wild beast. Take the time to explore each wonderful page, and learn a lot about animal nature, and maybe even human nature. I would read this book again and again and again!