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Spying on Whales
- The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures
- Narrated by: Nick Pyenson
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
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Publisher's Summary
“A palaeontological howdunnit...[Spying on Whales] captures the excitement of...seeking answers to deep questions in cetacean science.” (Nature)
Called “the best of science writing” (Edward O. Wilson) and named a best book by Popular Science, a dive into the secret lives of whales, from their four-legged past to their perilous present. Whales are among the largest, most intelligent, deepest diving species to have ever lived on our planet. They evolved from land-roaming, dog-size creatures into animals that move like fish, breathe like us, can grow to 300,000 pounds, live 200 years, and travel entire ocean basins.
Whales fill us with terror, awe, and affection - yet there is still so much we don't know about them. Why did it take whales over 50 million years to evolve to such big sizes, and how do they eat enough to stay that big? How did their ancestors return from land to the sea - and what can their lives tell us about evolution as a whole? Importantly, in the sweepstakes of human-driven habitat and climate change, will whales survive?
Nick Pyenson's research has given us the answers to some of our biggest questions about whales. He takes us deep inside the Smithsonian's unparalleled fossil collections, to frigid Antarctic waters, and to the arid desert in Chile, where scientists race against time to document the largest fossil whale site ever found. Full of rich storytelling and scientific discovery, Spying on Whales spans the ancient past to an uncertain future - all to better understand the most enigmatic creatures on Earth.
Critic Reviews
“A palaeontological howdunnit embedded in a travelogue devoted to chasing living and extinct whales...[Spying on Whales] captures the excitement of suction-cup tagging of humpback whales, and of digs in Panama, seeking answers to deep questions in cetacean science.” (Nature)
“Spying on Whales represents the best of science writing. The subject is inherently fascinating, the author is an authentic scientist by virtue of his personal research on the subject, and the text reads like the epic it truly is.” (Edward O. Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-winner and New York Times best-selling author of The Origin of Creativity and The Meaning of Human Existence)
"Pyenson sheds light on the mystery of life below the seas without dimming its majesty.” (Library Journal, starred)
"Contagiously enthusiastic.... A fascinating and entertaining look at whales and the scientists who study them." (Publishers Weekly)
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What listeners say about Spying on Whales
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Max Farrar
- 08-27-18
The title of this book should be Catfish
I heard this guy on NPR and got the book because I thought it would actually dive into the mysterious and differing habits of whales and dolphins... he hardly talks about their communication, family structures, and historical relationship to humans (beyond whaling). This book was more about him and "the science" and beaurocracy of bone hunting. I'm glad he contextualized his passion and the work that goes into it but come on... there was never enough detailed about what whales do, why they behave the way they do, how they interact with us and other animals, and what we can learn from them.
28 people found this helpful
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- KJ
- 01-09-19
Not really what I was expecting...
Whales are fascinating creatures, and with this book I was hoping to learn more about them. But this book is missing so much information. The author barely touches on the phenomenon of whale song, their family and pod structure, their migrating habits or really much information about LIVING whales. The book is mostly about prehistoric species of whales, bone hunting, the science of fossils and the evolution of whales. It's not a bad book, but it's not really want I wanted. The author reads the book and I had to speed his voice up because he speaks so slowly it drones on and on. Overall, if you want to learn about modern whales skip this, if you want to learn about fossils and evolution, give it a go.
18 people found this helpful
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- Hayden Ripple
- 09-05-20
Too much Nick Pyenson, not enough whales
The author's narration grated on me at certain points. He comes off a little too self-satisfied for my tastes. His accounts of his own research are interesting, but he presents them in, my opinion, a kind of smug way. Whales are great, though. I guess I was expecting more whales and less Nick Pyenson.
6 people found this helpful
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- Didem G.
- 06-16-19
Didem
I have an incredible love to whales. While I see how important his research and efforts are. I have been tortured emotionally on some part of the book. I have so much mixed feelings towards research on a whaling ships. Yes, thanks to him we understand some physical attributes of whales better and yes whaling was not his decision. Still, I do not need to approve it. I have learned a few new things about whales without no so much their behaviors, emotions, communication skills etc. jaw bones were not my real interest really.
3 people found this helpful
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- Brendah
- 07-06-18
wow. love this book! informative, engaging,
love this book! informative, engaging, inspiring, relevant to our current world, i.hope to read more from this author! I will see the whale exhibition at the Smithsonian with new eyes!
3 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 10-12-18
A Whale of a Story About Whales
Whales are huge and they are cool!
But what else to we really know about them. Dr. Pyenson's book tells us that whales have been studied extensively and a lot is known about them. But, for every fact uncovered there seems to be 10 or more questions that arise that require further research.
Dr. Pyenson obviously is fascinated with whales and has the skill to explain them to just about anyone. This book has been written to be understood by laymen. If you like whales, you should read/listen to this book as you will probably find it just as fascinating as I did.
A couple of parts that I found particularly interesting are:
The research that took place to determine whether a baleen whale controls the flow of water into its throat when feeding or is the throat expanded due to shear volume without any control of the water by the whale. Doesn't sound to significant until you realize that the amount of water taken in during each jaw opening is the equivalent volume of a nominal living room in a house and that from opening to closing of the jaw takes place in less than 15 seconds. Amazing! Btw, the research calculated that the whale must control the flow as the forces are so significant that if they didn't control it the back of their throat would blow out.
The second item was about a whale graveyard found in South America. Just before reading "Spying on Whales", I had finished "This Is Your Brain on Parasites", which identifies just how much impact micro-organisms can have in our world in the past, presently and in the future. Regarding the whale graveyard, this impact was in the past.
The whale graveyard is unique in that there are several layers of whale fossils/bones in this graveyard. Each event that caused the whales to die (referred to as a whale fall) are thousands of years apart. The quality and quantity of the whale remains indicates that the cause of death was quite rapid. The theory is that the weather pattern had changed and caused substantial rain in the mountains which caused a micro-organism that inhabited the mountains to be washed out to the ocean shore. Much like a red tide is today, the micro-organism quantity proved to be substantial enough to cause the water that the whales were swimming in to become toxic. It is amazing that one of the smallest living organisms can kill one of the largest living creatures on the planet.
There are plenty of other things to learn about whales in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it to anyone who has an interest in whales. I listened to the audio version and recommend it to those that like listening to a very good story.
2 people found this helpful
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- Jef Szi
- 11-30-22
Moving narrative with nerdy detail
i love whales, so this book suits my inclination
It fostered the depths of my understanding and my connection to how much magnificence there is as well as fragility for whales. It’s also a very good testimony about how science works and can work to help us understand the world we share with cetaceans💕🐋
1 person found this helpful
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- Michael
- 01-22-20
Less then Expected
There was not much spying on the whales. I did not learn much and most who already have an interest in whales will not learn much. There is basic information on the evolution of whales and how baleen evolved and works. I expected a lot more on intelligence, whale song, communication, and socializing.
The narration was clear and reasonable but not outstanding.
1 person found this helpful
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- Dale Poteet
- 04-22-21
Evolutionary evangelism!
5% interesting facts
95% romantic speculation presented as facts
Very disappointing!
The guy is obviously well traveled and could have given so much more valid information.
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- valerie k. smith
- 03-18-21
So much to learn about the world’s life largest mammal
I thought I’d be in over my head following a paleontologist’s passionate worldwide search into the mystery of whales evolution, but I learned to go with the flow and enjoy the ride. The author took us out of th
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- Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife
- By: Lucy Cooke
- Narrated by: Lucy Cooke
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Mary Roach meets Sam Kean and Bill Bryson in this uproarious tour of the basest instincts and biggest mysteries of the animal world. In The Truth About Animals, Lucy Cooke takes us on a worldwide journey to meet everyone from a Colombian hippo castrator to a Chinese panda porn peddler, all to lay bare the secret - and often hilarious - habits of the animal kingdom. Charming and at times downright weird, this modern bestiary is perfect for anyone who has ever suspected that virtue might be unnatural.
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Great listen, highly recommend
- By Thomas on 06-26-18
By: Lucy Cooke
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How to Speak Whale
- A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication
- By: Tom Mustill
- Narrated by: Tom Mustill
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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What if animals and humans could speak to one another? Tom Mustill—the nature documentarian who went viral when a thirty-ton humpback whale breached onto his kayak—asks this question in his thrilling investigation into whale science and animal communication.
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Beautifully Performed Narrative
- By whoispoppe on 11-06-22
By: Tom Mustill
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The Breath of a Whale
- The Science and Spirit of Pacific Ocean Giants
- By: Leigh Calvez
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Leigh Calvez has spent a dozen years researching, observing, and probing the lives of the giants of the deep. Here, she relates the stories of nature's most remarkable creatures, including the familial orcas in the waters of Washington State and British Columbia; the migratory humpbacks; and the ancient, deep-diving blue whales, the largest animals on the planet.
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I couldn't handle the narration
- By Anonymous User on 04-06-20
By: Leigh Calvez
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Fathoms
- The World in the Whale
- By: Rebecca Giggs
- Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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When writer Rebecca Giggs encountered a humpback whale stranded on her local beachfront in Australia, she began to wonder how the lives of whales reflect the condition of our oceans. Fathoms: The World in the Whale is “a work of bright and careful genius” (Robert Moor, New York Times best-selling author of On Trails), one that blends natural history, philosophy, and science to explore: How do whales experience ecological change? How has whale culture been both understood and changed by human technology?
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Eating whale with author .
- By Private Person on 03-22-21
By: Rebecca Giggs
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Emperors of the Deep
- Sharks - The Ocean's Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood, and Most Important Guardians
- By: William McKeever
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In this remarkable, groundbreaking audiobook, a documentarian and conservationist, determined to dispel misplaced fear and correct common misconceptions, explores in-depth the secret lives of sharks - magnificent creatures who play an integral part in maintaining the health of the world’s oceans and ultimately the planet.
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I wanted to like this book, but...
- By Lissa on 08-05-19
By: William McKeever
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War of the Whales
- A True Story
- By: Joshua Horwitz
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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War of the Whales is the gripping tale of a crusading attorney who stumbles on one of the US Navy’s best-kept secrets: a submarine detection system that floods entire ocean basins with high-intensity sound - and drives whales onto beaches. As Joel Reynolds launches a legal fight to expose and challenge the Navy program, marine biologist Ken Balcomb witnesses a mysterious mass stranding of whales near his research station in the Bahamas.
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Legal Drama - better than fiction
- By W. P. Brown on 08-23-14
By: Joshua Horwitz
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The Truth About Animals
- Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife
- By: Lucy Cooke
- Narrated by: Lucy Cooke
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Mary Roach meets Sam Kean and Bill Bryson in this uproarious tour of the basest instincts and biggest mysteries of the animal world. In The Truth About Animals, Lucy Cooke takes us on a worldwide journey to meet everyone from a Colombian hippo castrator to a Chinese panda porn peddler, all to lay bare the secret - and often hilarious - habits of the animal kingdom. Charming and at times downright weird, this modern bestiary is perfect for anyone who has ever suspected that virtue might be unnatural.
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Great listen, highly recommend
- By Thomas on 06-26-18
By: Lucy Cooke
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How to Speak Whale
- A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication
- By: Tom Mustill
- Narrated by: Tom Mustill
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What if animals and humans could speak to one another? Tom Mustill—the nature documentarian who went viral when a thirty-ton humpback whale breached onto his kayak—asks this question in his thrilling investigation into whale science and animal communication.
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Beautifully Performed Narrative
- By whoispoppe on 11-06-22
By: Tom Mustill
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Soundings
- Journeys in the Company of Whales: A Memoir
- By: Doreen Cunningham
- Narrated by: Doreen Cunningham
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In this striking blend of nature writing, whale science, and memoir, Doreen Cunningham interweaves two stories: tracking the extraordinary northward migration of the grey whales with a mischievous toddler in tow and living with an Iñupiaq family in Alaska seven years earlier. Throughout the journey she explores the stories of the whales and their young calves—their history, their habits, and their attempts to survive the changes humans have brought to the ocean.
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Fantastic
- By M. Adams on 04-27-23
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The Whale
- In Search of the Giants of the Sea
- By: Philip Hoare
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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The whale is the largest, loudest, oldest animal ever to have existed. It is improbable, amazing, and - as anyone who has seen an underwater documentary or visited the display at the American Museum of Natural Historycan attest - a powerful source of wonder and delight to millions. The Whale is an extraordinary journey into the world of this fascinating and mysterious animal.
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DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME OR MONEY ON THIS
- By RT on 02-17-10
By: Philip Hoare
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Squid Empire
- The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods
- By: Danna Staaf
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Before there were mammals on land, there were dinosaurs. And before there were fish in the sea, there were cephalopods - the ancestors of modern squid and Earth's first truly substantial animals. Cephalopods became the first creatures to rise from the seafloor, essentially inventing the act of swimming. With dozens of tentacles and formidable shells, they presided over an undersea empire for millions of years. But when fish evolved jaws, the ocean's former top predator became its most delicious snack. Cephalopods had to step up their game.
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Affected and tedious
- By Kate on 07-28-18
By: Danna Staaf
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Some Assembly Required
- Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA
- By: Neil Shubin
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Over billions of years, ancient fish evolved to walk on land, reptiles transformed into birds that fly, and apelike primates evolved into humans that walk on two legs, talk, and write. For more than a century, paleontologists have traveled the globe to find fossils that show how such changes have happened.
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Interesting but thin. ANNOYING narration
- By MSB on 04-10-20
By: Neil Shubin
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Skeleton Keys
- The Secret Life of Bone
- By: Riley Black (Brian Switek)
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Brian Switek is a charming and enthusiastic osteological raconteur. In this natural and cultural history of bone, he explains where our skeletons came from, what they do inside us, and what others can learn about us when these wondrous assemblies of mineral and protein are all we've left behind.
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Awesome Book, Read Very Well
- By Christine on 04-30-19
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Other Minds
- The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
- By: Peter Godfrey-Smith
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Although mammals and birds are widely regarded as the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes.
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Mischief and Craft
- By Darwin8u on 08-10-17
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The Genius of Birds
- By: Jennifer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Margaret Strom
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. In fact, according to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. Like humans, many birds have enormous brains relative to their size. Although small, bird brains are packed with neurons that allow them to punch well above their weight.