Morell’s chapters bring yet more news from these old friends, but I was more curious about the pioneering work of lesser-known scientists working with less charismatic species. More recently, Irene Pepperberg rocked the scientific establishment with news that her African gray parrot, Alex, could count, add, joke, and understand the concept of zero-the bird told her so in plain English. Jane Goodall, renowned for her research with the chimpanzees of Gombe, Tanzania, demonstrated that, like people, animals make and use tools, wage war, purposely deceive one another, and form powerful political alliances. Elephants look into mirrors and realize they are seeing a reflection of themselves, not another elephant. Female crickets remember the courtship songs of different males. Morell, a correspondent for Science magazine, pulls her examples from the findings of researchers who are revolutionizing our understanding of “what was once one of the most forbidden realms on earth”: the animal mind. Then, for page after exciting page, she shows them making decisions, remembering the past, planning the future, and helping others in distress. “Animals have minds,” Morell proclaims in the book’s first sentence. The notion that humans are the pinnacle of evolution is as outdated as the pocket protector, and so is its corollary, that we alone possess intelligence. “We are not more highly evolved-either physically or mentally-than our closest genetic ancestor, the chimpanzee”-or any other animal, for that matter, she writes in Animal Wise. Gathering his thoughts, he began with a comment with which he thought everyone would agree: “Of course, I recognize that humans are a higher form of life than animals …”īullhockey, says Virginia Morell. Recently, at a public hearing I attended about an agriculture bill in my state, a man rose to speak.

Alex the parrot (Photo courtesy Irene Pepperberg)Īnimal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures, By Virginia Morell, Crown, 291 pp., $26

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