Beyond Words

What Animals Think and Feel

By: Carl Safina

Narrated by: Carl Safina

Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Weaving decades of field observations with exciting new discoveries about the brain, Carl Safina's landmark book offers an intimate view of animal behavior to challenge the fixed boundary between humans and nonhuman animals. In Beyond Words listeners travel to Amboseli National Park in the threatened landscape of Kenya and witness struggling elephant families work out how to survive poaching and drought, then to Yellowstone National Park to observe wolves sort out the aftermath of one pack's personal tragedy and finally plunge into the astonishingly peaceful society of killer whales living in the crystalline waters of the Pacific Northwest.

Beyond Words brings forth powerful and illuminating insight into the unique personalities of animals through extraordinary stories of animal joy, grief, jealousy, anger, and love. The similarity between human and nonhuman consciousness, self-awareness, and empathy calls us to reevaluate how we interact with animals. Wise, passionate, and eye opening at every turn, Beyond Words is ultimately a graceful examination of humanity's place in the world.

©2015 Carl Safina (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This book breathes love of and respect for animals and is rich with observations and extraordinary travel experiences." (Frans de Waal, author of The Bonobo and the Atheist)

A truly beautiful must-read book

This book is quite informative, well written and enthusiastically read. The author really helped me understand how much I've not understood about humanity through a better understanding of other species. This is a must read book for everyone. But for me it is a call to do some serious soul searching as to what my action item is based on what i've learned. I promise I will do something.

Compelling read

There are only a handful of books that I ever reread but this will be one of them. The author has created a window to the world of intelligent and social animals.

Wonderful!

This is a must-read for anyone who loves our fellow travelers on this planet, but even more importantly for those who still maintain that only humans matter. Carl's observations and the eloquent telling of them are by turns awe inspiring and heartbreaking, and so absolutely crucial for everyone to hear before it is too late.

Wonder-full (as in filled with wonder!!)

This is a fascinating account of the history of, and relationships we have with some of the world's most endangered animals.
An amazing recounting of false beliefs, discoveries and the ensuing change in attitudes of many people worldwide. I'd like to say that we humans have seen the light and have the political will to change, but I fear that like the black rhino, human greed, and the desire for power will inevitably put us "on the eve of destruction".
I hope I am wrong.
EVERYONE should read or listen to this book- especially young people since they are our best hope for changing the world!!!

Many awe inspiring stories

This book is full of wonderful examples of animals behaving in amazing, and familiar behaviors. I love this book for its diversity of animal stories. I did not always agree with the author's positions, but still found the book to be, overall, rewarding.

Where science meets art

Safina’s writing is succinct yet poetic. That he can write about scientific finding so movingly is a true feat; the stories he tells — about other species, and human’s relationship with the natural world — are both fascinating and vital. Laypeople and academics alike will immediately be drawn into his stories.

makes you think

I really liked this book and hope many people will read it to understand animals better. They have intelligence and rich emotional lives.

Animals as they are

This book read in the author’s measured tones brings an immediacy to the stories of elephants wolves and cetaceans and made me love them more.

Passionate, beautiful, fascinating

The stories Safina tells are compelling and fascinating. One about a wolf defending her cubs against her violent big sister is heart-wrenching. The other wolves would usually side with the dominant female, but in this case, they take the young mother's side instead. It shows complexity of mind and social structure that just makes me want to learn more.

But by far the best part is his take-downs of some of the stupidest ideas held by behavioural scientists. Recognizing a red dot on oneself in a mirror proves whether an animal is conscious? No, it proves the animal knows how to use mirrors.

Dehaene's "Consciousness and the Brain" is a good follow-up to this book, because it goes a long ways to provide neuroscience data to backup what Safina is saying here. Higher animals absolutely are conscious and they lead complex lives—and we need to do so much more if we want to continue sharing a world with them.

amazing. spectacular. astonishing.

this book is amazing. fantastic insights into the animal world that we are apart of!