Becoming Wild: How Animals Learn to be Animals

‘[A] bracing and enlightening book… Safina’s writing on the watery depths and its denizens is sublime… [challenging] us to be more acutely aware of species whose social lives have much to teach us.’ -- SCIENCE ‘In this superbly articulate cri de coeur, Safina gives us a new way of looking at the natural world that is radically different.’ -- Washington Post ‘Safina, the ecologist and author of many books about animal behavior, here delves into the world of chimpanzees, sperm whales and macaws to make a convincing argument that animals learn from one another and pass down culture in a way that will feel very familiar to us.’ * New York Times, 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2020 * ‘A smorgasbord of compelling details . . . Becoming Wild could easily become a television series.’ * Fortean Times * ‘Fascinating… [Becoming Wild] gives the reader a sense of being near these creatures and experiencing some of the most seductive environments on Earth… Safina’s prose achieves the elusive goal of being both informative and luminously evocative.’ * Wall Street Journal * ‘Carl Safina combines his passion for the natural world with absorbing, sometimes breathtaking prose, transporting us into the intimate, nuanced worlds of some of the planet’s most charismatic beings.’ -- Jonathan Balcombe, author of What a Fish Knows ‘Eloquent… This revelatory work sheds as much light on what it means to be human as it does on the nature of other species.’ -- Publishers Weekly ‘Few readers will doubt that these magnificent creatures need urgent attention. Enthralling.’ -- Kirkus, starred review ‘[Safina] turns the human view of animal cultures on its head… Becoming Wild demands that we wake up and realise that we are intrinsically linked to our other-than-human neighbours.’ * Telegraph * ‘Dr. Safina is a terrific writer, majestic and puckish in equal measure.’ * New York Times * ‘[Safina] is a font of research, his wonder contagious.’ * Elle * ‘Safina puts forward several eye-opening and previously-overlooked implications of animal culture… a pleasure to read… another jewel in the crown of Safina’s work that packs fascinating field studies, interesting theoretical ideas, soul-searching questions, and probing reflections on human and animal nature into a book that is as profound as it is moving.’ * Inquisitive Biologist *