Books like Walking with the Great Apes — picked by fans

I loved this book for its adventure and humor, but mostly for its authenticity (aside from some artistic license).

In the 1940s, Canadian and provincial governments were looking to scapegoat wolves for caribou declines. Mowat, a young biologist (like I was when I read it), was sent to prove the assumption, documenting an excuse to kill wolves. Instead, he confirmed indigenous knowledge while running afoul of the scientific orthodoxies and political aims of his government employers.

The authenticity that struck me in this book, apart from Mowat’s stick in the eye of the Establishment, came from Mowat’s research method: living for extended periods with his subjects. The idea of immersing yourself in your subject, whether as a biologist or a wildlife artist, made an indelible impression on me.

When an elephant family wanders outside the bounds of the Amboseli Reserve in Kenya, an adolescent daughter is shot by poachers. Cynthia Moss has spent decades studying these creatures in the wild and was among the first to document their rituals of mourning and burial so similar to human rites of parting. “They stood around Tina’s carcass, touching it gently with their trunks and feet. Because it was rocky and the ground was wet, there was no loose dirt, but... when they managed to get a little earth up they sprinkled it over the body.” Even more poignant because Moss describes the ceremony in the most scientific terms.  

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!”

I met Jane Goodall in Washington on her birthday 25 years ago. At that time, all I knew of her came from her beginnings as a chimpanzee researcher. It was hard to believe this slight, elderly woman had found the courage to strike out alone into the deepest part of the African forest and even harder to believe her discovery there had changed the world.

This draws on her decades of work since that time by the world’s most famous living ethologist and environmentalist. It’s an uplifting journey around the globe that highlights the good work that will inspire people to make a difference in the world around them. As one of the UN’s Ambassadors of Peace, she offers four pillars of hope drawn from her unique experience: the amazing human intellect, the resilience of nature, the power and dedication of young people, and the indomitable human spirit.

If you… show more.

I read this book as a young adult and immediately passed it on to all my friends. This book is a popular explanation of sociobiology (sometimes called behavioral ecology) that focuses on how evolution might be selected for aggression. 

It is one of the most compelling explorations of why evolutionary biology is so important for the average person to understand. Ironically, it is exactly the kind of thing that Stephen Jay Gould hated–he was a staunch opponent of sociobiology, partly because he feared the potential social implications.

But here, I think Gould was wrong and Wrangham largely correct. It is simply a fact that males are more violent (in every society ever studied), and understanding why so that we can attenuate its effect might be one of the most important things a society can do. In a clear and reasonable voice, this book makes the argument for sociobiology difficult to… show more.

This is a highly readable and fun book published back in 1982 by one of the leading primatologists of our era. A close student of ape behavior, Frans de Waal shows how smart apes are and what we can learn about ourselves by studying their behavior. He demonstrates that, contrary to common belief, it is not by physical strength alone that an alpha ape hangs onto its power at the top of the social pyramid. More important than their muscles is their ability to form coalitions with others.  

If your mental image of an alpha ape is a brawny male, forget it. De Waal profiles one female ape, Mama, who manages for years to dominate a group by exercising power more prudently than her male rivals, who shriek and throw tantrums when they don't get their way. This is the good news. The bad news… show more.

A graphic novel about three intrepid, ground-breaking scientists, working far from home.

Although aimed at kids of 12+ this is well worth reading with younger kids, too. Wicks’ cartooning is clear and vivid, and Ottaviani captures the distinct voices of his three subjects beautifully. Wicks keeps the page grids simple and uses colour effectively to tell the reader which of her subjects they’re ‘hearing’ on the page.

It’s easy to follow and the ethological work of Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas truly benefits from comics’ ability to depict sequential movement and, in this case, behaviour.

Bonus: Wicks worked on a book about Mary Anning, too (text by Sarah Glen Marsh)!

This is my guilty pleasure, a book that is a mega movie/TV franchise with several iterations.

But I highly recommend the source book, not just because of its brilliant and original premise, but because it entertains, whilst dealing with some of the most profound issues we face as a species.

Its truth is that it plays with reality to make us look in the mirror and ask ourselves painful questions: about how we treat other species; about how impermanent we are in the great scheme of things; about how oppressive we are whilst thinking we are always superior to everything around us. We should be humbler and respect far more than we do.

John Green combines the spirited curiosity of an investigative reporter with the incisive logic of the argument of a rhetorician and the articulation of a wordsmith.

I found that he skillfully painted the historical and anecdotal context for this intriguing mystery as an adept journalist, drawing me into the very scene, to become part of the actual experience. He also went to lengths to make the evidentiary case for the scientists to acknowledge and seriously consider the proposition. With that determination, he promoted and sponsored the launch of a venue to provide a platform for the dissemination of scholarly publications exploring the question of relict hominoids, with me as the editor-in-chief.

This is my only other fiction pick. I read this many years ago, when it was new, but it stayed with me. We see a lot of relationships between people and dogs or people and horses, but this is a novel about a girl and a group of bonobos. That’s an interesting twist on the human/animal relationship, because other primates are so similar to us in their intelligence and approach to the world. They are mostly helpless against human forces, but then again so are young girls. The bonds formed in this book are worth the price of admission, and the suspense is high throughout.