Is Anyone Listening? connects research on dolphin communication to findings from Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Dian Fossey on mountain gorillas, Cynthia Moss on African elephants, and others driving today’s exploration of possible animal languages. Although humans have long attempted to crack animal communication codes, only now do the advanced machine-learning tools exist to help. As Herzing reveals, researchers are finding fascinating hints of language in non-human species, including linguistic structures, vowel equivalents, and complex repeated sequences. By looking at the many ways animals use and manipulate signals, many humans have only just begun to appreciate the diversity of animal intelligence and the complicated and subtle aspects of animal communication. Considering dolphins and other non-human animals as colleagues instead of research subjects, Herzing asks readers to meet animals as both speakers and listeners, as mutually curious beings, and to listen to what they are saying.

Descended from shy, solitary North African wild cats, domestic cats set up homes with devoted humans all over the world by learning how to talk to them. A renowned cat behavior scientist of over thirty years, Sarah Brown has been at the forefront of research in the field, discovering how cats use tail signals to interact with each other and their owners. Now, she reveals the previously unexplored secrets of cat communication in a book that is both scientifically grounded and utterly delightful. Each chapter dives into a different form of communication, including vocalizations, tail signals, scents, rubbing, and ear movements. Through observing the behavior of two cat colonies in rural England, readers will also have the opportunity to glimpse into the lives of some of the cats behind Brown’s science. Can a person understand what cats’ meows and other signals mean? How do cats actually perceive humans? And how can this knowledge inform how humans talk back to felines? Referencing historical records, exploring modern scientific studies of cat-human communication, and including simple, elegant line drawings, The Hidden Language of Cats is perfect for any cat lover who wants to learn more about their companion.

In Carnivore Minds, G. A. Bradshaw challenges the myth of predators as emotionless killers, revealing the complex emotional lives of carnivorous animals. Through examples like great white sharks showing maternal affection, rattlesnakes forming social bonds, and orcas following a moral code, Bradshaw uses natural history, neuroscience, and psychology to demonstrate that predators share human-like emotions, including psychological trauma. Drawing from her expertise in PTSD research, Bradshaw criticizes wildlife policies that demonize carnivores and advocates for a more ethical approach to coexisting with these animals, emphasizing the need for empathy and understanding in conservation practices.

In Deep Thinkers, cetacean biologist Janet Mann gathers a gam of the world’s leading whale and dolphin researchers to illuminate vital questions about what humans think they know about dolphins, whales, and porpoises, exploring the astounding capacities of cetacean brains. Deep Thinkers reveals how incredibly sophisticated these mammals are—and how much humans can learn about other animal minds by studying cetacean behavior.

Across the pages of In the Company of Bears, Ben Kilham shares his decades of studying wild black bears in Northern New Hampshire. He raises orphaned cubs and reintroduces them to the wild, gaining unique access to their lives. Kilham’s observations challenge the belief that black bears are solitary, revealing complex social behaviors, including friendships, alliances, and cooperation. He suggests these behaviors may reflect early forms of human communication. Kilham’s dyslexia, which initially hindered his academic career, turned out to enhance his observational skills, making him a unique interpreter of bear behavior. His work advocates for diverse approaches in science and education.

In The Shadow Of Man (originally published in 1971) tells the story of primatologist, conservationist, and humanitarian Jane Goodall’s account of her life among the wild chimpanzees of Gombe. Goodall’s adventure began when the famous anthropologist Louis Leakey suggested that a long-term study of chimpanzees in the wild might shed light on the behavior of humanity’s closest living relatives. Accompanied by only her mother and her African assistants, she set up camp in the remote Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve in Tanzania. For months the project seemed hopeless; out in the forest from dawn until dark, she had but fleeting glimpses of frightened animals. But gradually she won their trust and was able to record previously unknown behavior, such as the use—and even the making—of tools, until then believed to be an exclusive skill of man. As she came to know the chimps as individuals, she began to understand their complicated social hierarchy and observed many extraordinary behaviors, which have forever changed what humans understand about the profound connection between humans and chimpanzees.

In this account of thirty years of living with dogs, wolves, and dingoes and of the ways their lives intertwined with her own, the novelist and anthropologist Elizabeth Marshall Thomas reveals to readers the nature of pack dynamics, leading to a completely new understanding of dogs and their desires. Her ethological writing is a loving yet absolutely unsentimental chronicle of the lives of a dozen dogs based on hundreds of thousands of hours of observation.

At every stage of research human observers have underestimated the baboon. These intelligent, curious, emotional, and long-lived creatures are capable of employing stratagems and forming relationships that are not easily detected by traditional research methods. In the process of unraveling their complex social relationships, Smuts has revealed that these masters of strategy and aggressive competition are equally capable of patience, tenderness, and concern.

Two filmmakers offer an intriguing look at wolf behavior as they describe their six years living among and filming an Idaho wolfpack and reveal new facts about one of the world’s most complex, intelligent, and misunderstood animals.

In January 1990, Cynthia Moss, the founder of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, and wildlife photographer Martyn Colbeck set out to record eighteen months in the life of one elephant family in Amboseli National Park in Kenya. Echo of the Elephants describes their findings while offering, in words and pictures, fascinating insights into elephant behavior. As time passes, the personalities of the individual elephants emerge, accompanied by a remarkable understanding of the complex rules and customs that govern elephant behavior. By the end of the book, the reader has discovered the most intimate details of elephant life, including birth, death, courtship, mating, fighting, playing, and survival. Echo of the Elephants, which accompanies a major PBS Nature program, is a unique and beautifully illustrated account of an elephant family.

Gorillas in the Mist is the account of Dian Fossey’s thirteen years in a remote African rain forest with the greatest of the great apes. Fossey’s efforts to ensure the future of the rainforest and its remaining mountain gorillas are captured in her own words and in candid photographs of this fascinating endangered species. Fossey combined her personal adventure story with groundbreaking scientific reporting in an unforgettable portrait of one of humanity’s closest primate relatives. Although Fossey’s work ended tragically in her murder, Gorillas in the Mist remains an invaluable testament to one of the longest-running field studies of primates and reveals her undying passion for her subject.

The Education of Koko describes the scientific genesis and first nine years of Project Koko, the most far-reaching ape language experiment yet conducted–the only one with a gorilla. This book chronicles Penny Patterson’s experience as Koko’s dedicated teacher, mentor, and surrogate mother, from PhD dissertation to life-long study and relationship. Koko’s education gives readers a glimpse into the mind of human’s closest relative, and sheds important new light on the nature of the human beast.