Reviews

To care about animal welfare is to care about the environment in which animals live. In Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, Dr. Suzanne Simard puts it simply: “Mistreatment of one...

With We Are All Whalers: The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility, Dr. Michael Moore proves definitively that he is no ivory tower scientist. He speaks with passion about his decades-long research on whales and...

In Living Planet: The Web of Life on Earth—a fully updated edition of Sir David Attenborough’s 1984 book that accompanied the BBC’s Living Planet documentary series—the famed naturalist takes readers on a journey through the...

Susan Orlean is a gifted and well-read writer. I enjoyed reading The Library Book and therefore approached On Animals with eager anticipation. Less than a quarter of the way through it, my eager anticipation changed...

In 2005, hundreds of thousands of companion animals died or were left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. Pictures of abandoned pets taking refuge on the roofs of cars and houses flooded the media. This tragedy highlighted...

Eloquence of the Sardine: Extraordinary Encounters Beneath the Sea by Bill François, a French physicist and naturalist, is full of fascinating and thought-provoking information about life beneath the waves. Through science and storytelling, François explores...

Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, by Michelle Nijhuis, is a cross between a Ken Burns–style historical documentary and the 2016 film Hidden Figures, bringing to life the history of key...

More and more, advances in animal cognition research are changing the ways in which people perceive animals. Belinda Recio’s latest book, When Animals Rescue: Amazing True Stories about Heroic and Helpful Creatures, powerfully contributes to...

There are only nine known species of caracaras. And though their populations are small and confined, they “refuse to behave like a species on the verge of extinction.” What seems like the most important idea...

From Lewis and Clark shooting the first ones they encountered, to sport hunters today killing hundreds in Alaska each year, humans have long persecuted North America’s brown (a.k.a. grizzly) bears. The bears, often acting in...