The most recommended books on Ethology

Dr. Grandin’s personal struggle with autism and her love of animals have combined to revolutionize our current understanding of animal behavior and human interactions with our animal partners.

Her body of work is not only impressive but has informed both my career as an animal scientist and my fiction. This book is exemplary of her profound impact on people who love animals.

I have chosen this book about dogs and cats, simply because the cat chapters are so good. It is sad that many animal behaviour experts concentrate on dogs and think they can use the same methods for cats. If you are studying animal behaviour with a view to becoming a behaviourist, this is worth reading for its cat chapters. The dog's ones are good too.

Among the biggest frustrations in my life are the moments I call “commuter questions”. These are the sorts of ponderings that pop into my head when I’m making the 90-minute drive from my home to the university where I teach, and when — safe driver that I am — I can’t simply hop online to hunt for an answer. Inevitably, by the time I’ve found a parking spot on campus, the question has disappeared from my mind. But where do those questions go? Well, apparently, they somehow wind up in Bristol, England, where science writers Matin Durrani and Liz Kalaugher are based. In Furry Logic, Durrani and Kalaugher address in-and-out-of-your-head questions like “Can mosquitoes fly in a rainstorm?” and “How do eels generate electricity?” And the answers are delightful. 

We’ve often been inspired by the insights that Sapolsky has drawn from his years of fieldwork with baboons in Africa, but this book is grander in scope than his previous work, it’s a tour de force examination of human nature and behaviour.

From one of the best natural history writers of our time, neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky draws on his deep expertise to trace the biological and evolutionary origins of our human capacity for two different kinds of behavioural strategy:  morality, reconciliation and peace versus aggression, tribalism, and war. 

I love this book, and I want to buy one for every animal lover I know. Chapters feature Temple Grandin’s unique observations of dogs, cats, horses, pigs, chickens, and cattle. Temple Grandin pushes back on popular methods of dog management. Grandin thinks like a scientist and states observable facts.

Most Americans keep one dog. A single dog living in a family compares to a child living with parents. Dogs see their roles as puppies, wanting to please. Dogs watch people’s faces for clues on how they should behave. Dogs’ wild ancestors, wolves, live in small families, never in massive packs. Neither wolves nor dogs display a need for fights over dominance.

Farley Mowat once declared: “I never let facts get in the way of a good story.” I have read Never Cry Wolf as fiction many times, even though its author pretended it was factual. As a writer interested in Canada’s north, Mowat’s universe is an obvious choice for me. The inclusion of Inuit characters is also quite appealing. In this book, a naturalist studies Arctic wolves in a makeshift camp in northern Manitoba and deals with the ridiculous expectations of the bureaucrats who sent him out there to fend for himself. He discovers that contrary to public opinion, wolves are not responsible for the decimation of caribou herds, humans are. Some elements are exaggerated for comic effect, and as one of Canada’s best storytellers, Mowat delivers on laughs. 

Slavery used to be the economic engine of the Americas. Only a few could clearly see that keeping other humans in bondage was a horrible crime. Ingrid Newkirk has a similar clarity of vision when it comes to animal rights. I believe that in the future, most of us look back with horror at industrial husbandry and the use of hormones to cultivate ever larger beasts for the slaughterhouse. You may not entirely agree with Newkirk, but you have to take her seriously. She’s also a genius at publicizing her cause of animal rights, helping to popularize veganism and the banning of fur and leather products as well as many kinds of animal research.

This is a favorite of mine. Masson’s keen observations into what we emotionally need from cats and what they need from us are not only heart-warming but insightful: ‘We need cats to need us,’ he writes. ‘It unnerves us that they do not. However, if they do not need us, they nonetheless seem to love us.’ Beautifully written and drawing from both literature and scientific research, the book brings to life the delights and mysteries of the feline heart.

This German zoologist discovered “imprinting” in birds and was often photographed waddling in his backyard, followed by a gaggle of goslings who mistook him for their mother. Lorenz was convinced that avian species experience emotions like love and grief, describing the mating rituals of jackdaws in terms touchingly evocative of human sweethearts. “Remarkable and exceedingly comical is the difference in eloquence between the eye-play of the wooing male and that of the courted female: the male jackdaw casts glowing glances straight into his loved one’s eyes, while she apparently turns her eyes in all directions other than that of her ardent suitor. In reality, of course, she is watching him all the time!”

This is a fabulous, edgy tale that features a beech marten as the main character. 

Folktales and fairy tales are full of animal characters that make difficult moral choices. But I’ve never read anything quite like Zannoni’s novel. It’s unique. 

The protagonist, Archy, suffers from his earliest days, as many animals do. After being run off by a more powerful male marten, he hitches his fortune to that of Samuel the Fox, a ruthless forest dealmaker who wishes to be human.

What follows is a drama of love, power, and revenge that echoes the biblical in grief and revelation. What hard choices must creatures make to survive? Who can be trusted in the wild? What solace can love bring, and how can death be faced? 

This is no child’s story. It’s smart and sharp and inventive—like a Wind In The Willows without mercy. I couldn’t put it down.

This is another amazing nonfiction book by ecologist and New York Times bestselling author Carl Safina.

With his usual exquisite prose, the author delves deep into the lives and feelings of other beings, from elephants to dolphins. And once again, Safina does an outstanding job in uncovering the secrets of the natural world that surrounds us using many of his personal experiences in the wild and his wonderful ability to tell stories to the general public.

Social insects live in close communities, often of several thousand individuals. We often imagine the animals as small robots that perform their tasks as if automated. But this is far from the case. Honeybees are models for the study of learning and can also make complex decisions based on previous experience. However, it becomes particularly difficult when all the animals of a hive have to agree. And bees of a swarm have this difficult task ahead of them when they are looking for real estate. They inspect the nesting opportunities in the surroundings and advertise them in the swarm.

But how do these social insects make their collective decisions? About this question goes the book, written by an expert in the field, in an exciting and easy-to-understand manner. It turns out that the animals actually listen to many opinions and vote. Who wants to know more about honeybee democracy, read… show more.

This is about dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, but it’s unique and unusual.

Author Dean Lomax has run to ground some of the most extraordinary fossils ever found, and artist Bob Nicholls turns them into stunning reconstructions. Here you can read about a beetle within a lizard within a snake, a giant beaver that made huge corkscrew burrows 3 meters deep, the mammal that ate dinosaurs, insects caught in the act of mating, and dinosaurs with cancer.

What I like is that, weird and wonderful as each story may be, each is based strictly on the fossils and reasonable interpretations of those fossils. Dinosaurs may spark the imagination, but as scientists, it’s important to show people how we come to our conclusions, and that needs evidence and reason in a discussion.

After hearing Mary Roach describe research for this book during an NPR interview, I couldn’t wait to hear more of her bizarre, funny, sometimes unbelievable stories about animals “breaking the law.”

These are human laws, of course, that animals are heedless of and not bound by; however, human-animal conflicts are on the rise, and we must be aware of how to lessen negative interactions as we continue to move into territory where animals previously roamed freely. Humans are more often the problem in these encounters, but we can provide solutions too.

A must-read for all who love wildlife and spend time in nature!

I loved this book because it brought me back to the time I started beekeeping on the roof of the San Francisco Chronicle. Like Jukes, I was enthralled, enchanted, and curious. And 100 percent totally freaked out. Could I keep these creatures alive? What if they swarmed to a nearby office building or restaurant?

Jukes does her homework before being gifted a colony of honey bees. Through many trips to the library, she shares the ancient history, weird science, and mythological admiration humankind has always had for Beekind. Jukes is going through a difficult time in her life when she gets her bees, and her new hive ends up helping her find purpose and recenter herself.

I love how her memoir delves into the intelligence and wonder of bees yet also respects their wildness and how, as beekeepers, we need to support the honey bees’ natural instincts rather than force… show more.

Are you ready to change the way you see the world forever? Reading Peter Wohlleben’s three-book Mysteries of Nature series will do just that.

This second volume focuses on animal emotions and making connections with human behavior. Until fairly recently, most serious scientists focused only on observable behavior and didn’t try to imagine or determine what animals’ actions tell us about their feelings.

However, all animal lovers can benefit, as I did, from questioning our assumptions, better understanding our similarities, and becoming more aware of how much there is to learn about the inner life of animals. Get ready for some surprises!

Horses are central to human history, but they have a history of their own. Budiansky explores equine history using biological science, animal behavior, and evolutionary history. How did horses evolve? How did horses and humans come together to co-evolve? Why do horses and humans get along so well? What are horses like? How do horses do what they do? After setting horses in historical context Budiansky takes up issues of communication, social behaviors, intelligence, the senses, the mechanics of movement, and the production of power and speed. This book shows that horses are not magical or mystical creatures, but serious fellow beings who have co-evolved with us through biology and history.

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be another species. How would you experience the world if you were a dog, a cat, or even a squid? Ed Yong considers these questions in this information packed, easy to read science book.

I found myself getting lost in the world of unusual animals. My favorite? The bay scallop who has dozens of bright blue eyes lining its shell. Yong’s description of the way it might “see” was fascinating.

Fans of Mary Roach will enjoy this exploration of the animal world. I devoured the book whole, footnotes and all!

Joshua has a really unique sense of humor that’s accompanied by absolutely stunning art.

The comics are really worth admiring in print, not to get lost amongst the sea of online ‘content’.

Both Joshua and I write comics that give readers a glimpse into the animal kingdom and I love seeing how our interpretations of the same world can differ, through our comedic voices and art… and yes, his work is art.

Another winner by Karen Pryor! In this book, Karen talks about the methodology of clicker training and why it is such an important teaching tool. With the sound of an audible signal (the click), we can teach the animal that what he/she did, at that moment in time, is the reason why they are receiving reinforcement. As Bob Bailey once said, “The clicker is used as a scalpel to carve out behavior.” 

Scattered throughout the text are video URLs to demonstrate some of the concepts. For example, a reader can go to the URL and watch a cat do agility!

Whatever canine sport you are in, the clicker can be a valuable tool in your toolbox.

I love this book because, as a dog trainer, I want to use tools that communicate effectively to the dog. This book talks about clicker training and why it can be used to pinpoint… show more.