Archives de catégorie : Animals

WILD GRIEF d’Emily Polk

A window of light into the strange, poignant, and sometime hilarious habits of other creatures, and what humans can take away from these practices—leaving readers with a sense of relief, comfort, and hope; perfect for fans of Ed Yong and Sy Montgomery.

WILD GRIEF: Animal Lessons on Loss
by Emily Arden Polk
Putnam, Fall 2027
(via The Friedrich Agency)

WILD GRIEF explores how wild animals experience and respond to loss, while revealing how the customs and rituals of grief in the more-than-human world can help us process our own personal and ecological pain. Blending personal narrative, cultural mythologies, and folklore with the most recent science from leading experts in comparative thanatology—the emerging scientific field on nonhuman animal responses to the dead and the dying—Emily Polk takes readers to animal sanctuaries, the world’s largest pet cemetery, a falconry training center, and the Cavy Clubs Championship Guinea Pig Show, to name a few.

WILD GRIEF presents cutting-edge research while taking readers by the hand with humor and hope to illuminate how connecting with the world outside ourselves can allow us to better take care of one another, and our ailing planet.

Emily Polk currently serves on the faculty of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University and as the Writing and Arts Coordinator for Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Before Stanford, she worked internationally as a human rights and environment-focused writer and editor.

SLEEP ACROSS THE ANIMAL KINGDOM de Barrett Klein, Niels Rattenborg, and John Lesku

An incredibly exciting and totally enlightening book about the dazzling range of sleeping habits of animals – mammals, birds, fish and insects – and how this can inform us about the evolution and benefits of human sleep.

SLEEP ACROSS THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
by Barrett Klein, Ph.D., Niels Rattenborg, Ph.D. and John Lesku, Ph.D.
Harvard University Press, 2026
(via The Martell Agency)

Written with wit, clarity, total narrative accessibility, and a keen sense of scientific adventure by three experts in the field, this project represents the best of popular science writing that readers today crave, joining together two subjects that are endlessly fascinating and relevant: the mysteries of sleep and animal behaviors. Perfect for readers of Ed Yong.

The book will cover such topics as:

• What is sleep? (vs. hibernation, or other forms of immobility)

• The diversity of sleep (from birds and mammals to roundworms, jellyfish, and the possibility for sleep in plants or single-celled organisms)

• Sleeping in strange ways and places (the strange locations where animals sleep and the unusual postures they can adopt, including sleep in flight, or while vertically-suspended underwater

• When sacrificing sleep is worth it (new recognition of the remarkable ability of some animals to sleep little, and yet side-step, or possibly endure, the negative consequences commonly observed in sleep-restricted humans)

• The comforts and dangers of sleeping with others (animals that sleep with other animals, such as parasites and social sleeping insects)

• Who else dreams?

• Sleeping in a disturbed world (both for screen-loving humans and urban wildlife living with light pollution).

Barrett Anthony Klein is Professor, Biology Department, University of Wisconsin – La Crosse, conducting research about sleep, learning, and communication, primarily with insects, and teaching courses in Animal Behavior, Entomology, Scientific Visualization, General Biology, and Organismal Biology. He is one of the featured scientists for a documentary about sleep (aired in Germany and on David Suzuki’s Nature of Things in Canada, and soon to come to the USA), and served as consultant for COSMOS: Possible Worlds. He has appeared on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television. Starting in 2023, he will lead a year-long series of online workshops through Johns Hopkins University, free and open to the public, on visualizing science and participate in a five-year effort, funded by the National Science Foundation, to help find solutions to the biodiversity crisis.

Dr. Niels Rattenborg, the leading world expert on sleep in birds, heads the Avian Sleep research group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany. Rattenborg mission is to gain insight into the evolution and functions of sleep through studying birds. He is particularly interested in understanding how birds reconcile the inherent need for sleep with ecological demands for wakefulness, such as avoiding predation, competing for mates, and flying non-stop for weeks at a time. Rattenborg’s research has been published in top scientific journals, including Nature and Science, and is regularly featured in the international press (interviews for web, print, radio, and TV), spanning 25 languages (see detailed lists below). This includes, The New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Scientific American, Discover Magazine, Popular Science, The Wall Street Journal, The Times (London), The Guardian, Audubon, Greenpeace Magazine, Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Time Magazine, and Business Week.

John Andrew Lesku is Associate Professor and Lab Head, Sleep Ecophysiology Group School of Agriculture, Biomedicine and Environment at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. His work has been featured in Science and Current Biology and BBC News, Discover Magazine, LiveScience, NBC News, New Scientist, Science and CBC Radio (interview on As It Happens)

THE RETURN OF THE OYSTERCATCHER de Scott Weidensaul

From the New York Times best-selling author of A World on the Wing, an exploration of the efforts led by scientists, conservationists, and Indigenous peoples to save birds around the world.

THE RETURN OF THE OYSTERCATCHER:
Saving Birds to Save the Planet
by Scott Weidensaul
W. W. Norton, April 2026
(via Sterling Lord Literistic)

As populations fall and once-great migration multitudes wither away, the future of birds may seem grim. But surprisingly, around the world, bird conservation is making things better. From the hyperlocal to the hemispherically immense, The Return of the Oystercatcher explores the recovery efforts that are not only preventing declines in bird populations but are helping them to thrive. Scott Weidensaul compiles amazing stories of hope and progress in some of the most unlikely places—from the resurgence of ducks in North America to the return of ospreys nesting in Southern Britain—to provide a road map of breathtaking environmental resilience. Because birds are so diverse, so ubiquitous, and cover virtually every square mile of the Earth’s surface, Weidensaul argues that by saving the birds we can also save the world. The result is an inspiring story of what’s working in bird conservation, recovery, and reintroduction, and what can work for the rest of the planet.

“Scott Weidensaul ranks among an elite group of writer-naturalists—Bruce Chatwin, John McPhee and David Quammen come to mind—whose straightforward eloquence elevates ecology to the level of philosophy.” —The Los Angeles Times Book Review

Scott Weidensaul is a Pennsylvania-based naturalist, most recently the New York Times bestseller A World on The Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds, and one of the most respected natural history writers in the country. He was a finalist for the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction for his book Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere With Migratory Birds, and has written more than 30 other books on birds. He is a contributing editor to Audubon magazine and a columnist for Bird Watcher’s Digest. For the past 20 years Weidensaul has overseen one of the largest owl-migration research projects in the country, and he is one of fewer than 200 licensed hummingbird banders in the world.

OCTOPUS X de Kenna Hughes-Castleberry

A fascinating narrative about “citizen science” and the discovery of the mysterious creature that has been called “the Bigfoot of Octopuses” – perfect for readers of Sy Montgomery and Ed Yong

OCTOPUS X
by Kenna Hughes-Castleberry
Island Books, 2026
(via The Martell Agency)

OCTOPUS X will be an exploration of passionate “citizen science” in the person of diver and artist Arcadio Rodaniche, who, along with his mentor and famed cephalopod behavioralist Martin Moynihan, found a mysterious colony of social octopuses off the coast of Panama. These octopuses were unlike any previously described, as they lived in mated pairs, constantly laid eggs, mated beak-to-beak, and exhibited unique hunting strategies, all of which went against the norm for octopus behavior.

Fascinated by these creatures, Rodaniche studied them at his Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) laboratory. He tried to present his findings at a Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) symposium but was laughed out of the event as few believed his claims about this bizarre octopus (it didn’t help that he didn’t have an academic background in cephalopod research but instead had an electrical engineering degree). Rejected, his paper and findings sat untouched for decades, with only his drawing of the animal accompanying them, adding to the allure of this creature.

Then, some years later, a team of researchers at U.C. Berkeley obtained samples of Rodaniche’s mysterious octopus, and their observations validated everything Rodaniche found. They asked Rodaniche to co-author their paper, and in 2016, they released their findings to the world. Even with this validation, Rodaniche’s story has never been fully told. Unfortunately, Rodaniche died only five months after seeing his work validated.

Currently, this octopus (known commonly as the Larger Pacific Striped Octopus or LPSO) is being genetically analyzed by a separate team from U.C. Berkeley working to classify it as its own species scientifically. If this happens, the lead researcher, Dr. Gul Dolen, plans to name the animal Octopus rodaniche, giving a further victorious ending to Rodaniche’s story. Kenna also plans to highlight ongoing research to study the LPSO in its wild habitat, which has never been done before.

Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is the Science Communicator at JILA (a world-leading physics research institute established by CU Boulder and NIST) and a freelance science journalist. She focuses on animal intelligence, specifically in corvids and cephalopods. Her work has appeared in such publications as National Geographic, Scientific American, New Scientist, and Discover Magazine. She holds several degrees, including undergraduate degrees in English and Biology from Colorado State University and a Master’s degree in Science Communication from Imperial College London.

BIRD BRAIN d’Andreas Nieder

A future classic about the science of the natural world that illuminates the brilliance of crows and their kin, by one of the world’s foremost experts on corvid intelligence, and Professor of Animal Physiology at the University of Tübingen in Germany.

BIRD BRAIN:
The Incredible Intelligence of Crows, and What it Means to Have a Mind
by Prof. Andreas Nieder
Transworld, publication date TBD
(via Randle Editorial & Literary Consultancy)

Crows, magpies, jays and ravens are among the planet’s most intelligent creatures, rivalling even our closest primate relatives. Yet, they couldn’t be more different from us. Cloaked in sleek dark feathers, wielding sharp beaks instead of hands, and soaring effortlessly on the wind, they seem like emissaries from another world—alien minds hidden in plain sight. But we don’t need to search the cosmos to find extraordinary intelligence. It’s right here, perched on power lines, gliding through our city parks, and watching us silently from the heights of ancient trees. These extraordinary birds are masterful toolmakers and astute problem-solvers. They communicate through complex vocalizations, exchanging detailed information and warnings. Their intricate social structures rival the dynamics of a bustling human town. Crows have been seen solving multi-step puzzles, grasping abstract concepts, and even planning for the future—cognitive abilities we don’t typically associate with creatures whose brains are no larger than a walnut.

The more scientists study them, the more crows upend our understanding of cognition, memory, and what it means to have a “mind.” Each discovery shatters preconceived limits of intelligence, proving that evolution has shaped brilliance in astonishingly varied forms—sometimes cloaked in feathers, observing us from the treetops. When we call crows and their corvid kin intelligent, we do so as one thinking mind reflecting on another. But our perception of them is never purely observational—it’s steeped in projection. As humans, we can’t help but filter their behaviours through the prism of our own emotions, assigning them motives, feelings, even inner lives that may not exist. Like the narrator in Poe’s ‘The Raven’, we see in corvids not just what they are, but what we imagine them to be—creatures imbued with meanings that align with our own thoughts and biases, as shown in corvid strewn folklore all around the world, from European myths to Asian symbolism to omens in Ancient Greece.

This impulse to assign meaning—to ascribe to other beings, or even inanimate objects, purpose and emotion—is fundamental to how we relate to the world. When we observe crows, we aren’t just studying them—we’re also revealing how our minds build narratives to make sense of the unknown. In exploring their intelligence, we uncover not only the brilliance of these birds but also the human tendency to see reflections of ourselves in the natural world—and how that
shapes the stories that we tell about life itself.

BIRD BRAIN invites readers on a captivating journey into the fascinating world of the corvid mind. Drawing on Nieder’s personal experiences in hand-raising crows, alongside his unparalleled academic expertise, it promises to not only showcase the astonishing cognitive abilities of crows and their kin, but also to reflect upon the nature of intelligence itself, sitting naturally alongside international bestsellers and classics explorations of animal (and human) intelligence, such as Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith, Jennifer Ackerman’s The Genius of Birds, or The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montogomery. In challenging the reader to see the natural world in a new light, it also brings to mind The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben or Ed Yong’s An Immense World.  Furthermore, as the book is cleverly scaffolded and animated by following the journey of Edgar, a single representative crow raised and nurtured to adulthood, BIRD BRAIN provides a narrative that will also resonate with a secondary audience, readers who appreciated the intimate human-animal bond in Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton or Featherhood by Charlie Gilmour.  

Professor Andreas Nieder is a biologist and Professor of Animal Physiology and Director of the Institute of Neurobiology at the University of Tübingen, one of Germany’s renowned “Elite Universities.” With more than 15 years of dedicated work studying crows he has become a preeminent authority in the field of corvid cognition, and animal cognition more widely. A member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina – one of the highest honours for a researcher in Germany – his groundbreaking research has redefined our understanding of animal intelligence. He has published nearly 50 peer-reviewed studies on crows in some of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals, including a Science cover feature. Nieder is also widely recognized in the media for his groundbreaking research in crow cognition. He has appeared on NPR and BBC Radio 4, and his research has been highlighted in leading science outlets including New Scientist and Quanta. In 2019, his academic book A Brain for Numbers – The Biology of the Number Instinct was published by MIT Press (with no other translation editions). He lives in Tübingen, Germany, with his wife and their three children.