Amazon.com: Parrot's Lament, The: And Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intellig: And Other True Stories of Animal Courage, Compassion, and Wisdom: Eugene Linden: Books

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When Eugene Linden was writing The Parrot's Lament--a book subtitled "And Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity"--he enjoyed joking around with his 2-year-old daughter Sofia. "Are you a rutabaga?" "I'm not a rutabaga!" she would giggle. "Are you a waterbug?" "I'm not a waterbug!" Soon, Sofia learned to riff off her father's teasing: "I'm not a rutabaga; Daddy is a rutabaga!" or the truly insightful, "I'm not a rutabaga; the baby is a rutabaga. I'm a waterbug!"

As a passionate and accomplished student of animal intelligence since the '70s, Linden--of course--couldn't resist comparing Sofia's reasoning to that of an ape, puzzling over the cognitive cusp upon which she teetered. And it's this affectionate but knowledgeable analysis, the gentle transition from rutabagas to metacognition and emergent symbolic ability, that makes The Parrot's Lament so satisfying, sentimental but still scientifically solid. The science of consciousness and animal intelligence is contentious, but many in the field--Linden included--deeply suspect that animals know more than we can verify. Linden lays down the science with clarity and good humor, but he leaves it to his animal coauthors, the amorous dolphins, escape-artist orangs, enigmatic cats, and lying hyenas that populate the book's scores of anecdotes, to make his argument. --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly
Since the 1970s, Linden (Apes, Men and Language) has argued that many animals possess humanlike intelligence. Here, he drives that point home by presenting more than 100 anecdotes "about attempts by animals to deceive or manipulate their keepers or each other, stories about games, stories of understanding and trust across the vast gulf that separates different species, stories of animal heroism, and, especially... stories about escape." Linden's sources include vets, trainers, zookeepers, field biologists and researchers. Most of the accounts involve animals that live in complex and fluid social groupsAapes, elephants, parrots, dolphinsAand that exhibit a wide range of humanlike behaviors, from trust and cooperation to deception and greed. Prominently featured are orangutansAvirtuoso escape artists with an amazing facility for using human tools; they continually test their keepers and try to outwit them. In one case, an orangutan named Fu Manchu used a piece of wire, which he had hid in his mouth, to jimmy a door lock and "effect a series of nighttime escapes at the Omaha Zoo." Other animals invent gamesApolar bears at the San Diego Zoo simulate a seal hunt, and a pair of elephants at the Bronx Zoo play hide and seek with their keepers. Linden discusses the programs that zoos have devised to enrich the lives of their animal inhabitants and the use of dolphins by the military. If the scientific community remains skeptical about the quality of animal intelligence, Linden leaves no doubt about where he stands. He accepts evidence of animal consciousness and, at the end of his brisk, detailed report, so will many readers. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Parrot's Lament, The: And Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intellig: And Other True Stories of Animal Courage, Compassion, and Wisdom (Hardcover)

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