What are animals thinking and feeling?
2,565,078 views |
Carl Safina |
Mission Blue II
• October 2015
What's going on inside the brains of animals? Can we know what, or if, they're thinking and feeling? Carl Safina thinks we can. Using discoveries and anecdotes that span ecology, biology and behavioral science, he weaves together stories of whales, wolves, elephants and albatrosses to argue that just as we think, feel, use tools and express emotions, so too do the other creatures – and minds – that share the Earth with us.
What's going on inside the brains of animals? Can we know what, or if, they're thinking and feeling? Carl Safina thinks we can. Using discoveries and anecdotes that span ecology, biology and behavioral science, he weaves together stories of whales, wolves, elephants and albatrosses to argue that just as we think, feel, use tools and express emotions, so too do the other creatures – and minds – that share the Earth with us.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
About the speaker
Carl Safina's writing explores the scientific, moral and social dimensions of our relationship with nature.
Carl Safina | Henry Holt and Co., 2015 | Book
This is the book upon which Carl Safina’s TED talk is based.
Bernd Heinrich | Harper Perennial, 2005 | Book
G. A. Bradshaw | Yale University Press, 2010 | Book
The main take-away from this book for me is the author’s argument that emotional trauma in elephants is identical—not just analogous—to emotional trauma in humans, because the brain structure and chemistry that facilitates emotional bonding and responds to trauma in both species is essentially identical. That idea prompted me to ask myself a question about why I feel differently about certain animals such as fish than others such as elephants, dolphins, or apes.
Erich Hoyt | Camden House, 1990 | Book
I believe this is the first book about killer whales (also called orcas). The author has worked with them in captivity and then, for most of his career, as free-living creatures in charge of their own lives. He has deep knowledge and insights, first-hand experience and broad historical perspective on humanity’s very mixed relationship with this astonishing being.
Frans de Waal | W. W. Norton & Company, 2016
| Book
This is his latest book, due to come out in 2016.
Elizabeth Kolbert | Picador, 2015 | Book
After we better understand who we are here on Earth with—as exemplified in the books above—we need to know what we are doing to our co-voyagers. There are many books and many sites about conservation, as well as constant news stories. But for book form, this is a good summary of the main message. A good website about conservation news, by the way, is Mongabay.com.
Bernd Heinrich | Harper Perennial, 2007 | Book
Eckart Altenmuller et al. | Oxford University Press, 2013 | Book
Maddalena Bearzi and Craig B. Stanford | Harvard University Press, 2008 | Book
Joanna Burger | Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2002 | Book
Frans de Waal | W. W. Norton & Company, 2014 | Book
Frans de Waal | Princeton University Press, 2009 | Book
Iain and Oria Douglas-Hamilton | Bantam Books, 1976 | Book
Denise L. Herzing | St. Martin's Griffin, 2012 | Book
Erich Hoyt | Camden House, 1990 | Book
Janet Mann et al. | University Of Chicago Press, 2000 | Book
Alexandra Morton | Ballantine Books, 2004 | Book
Cynthia Moss and Martyn Colbeck | William Morrow & Co, 1993 | Book
Cynthia J. Moss et al. | University Of Chicago Press, 2011 | Book
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy | Delta, 1996 | Book
Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm | St. Martin's Press, 2013 | Book
Bernd Wursig and Melany Wursig | Academic Press, 2009 | Book
In particular, the chapter "A Large-Brained Social Mammal"
Joyce Poole | Hyperion, 1997 | Book
Diana Reiss | Mariner Books, 2012 | Book
Douglas Smith and Gary Ferguson | Lyons Press, 2012 | Book
J.E. Reynolds III and S.A. Rommel | Smithsonian Books, 1999 | Book
John Vaillant | Vintage, 2011 | Book
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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.