Animal Passions and Beastly Virtues: Reflections on Redecorating Nature

Who hasn't wondered what it's like to be a dog or bird? Such questions seem unanswerable because we have no way of getting into an animal's mind. Marc Bekoff's work on animal behavior and mind draws world-wide attention for its originality and its probing into what animals might know as well as what skills (mental and physical) are needed to live life successfully as a member of a particular species. Convinced that individuals of every species have some level of self-awareness, Bekoff embarks on fascinating (and often amusing) observations of animals playing, leaving and detecting scent-marks, solving problems, and behaving fairly toward each other. Animal Passions and Beastly Virtues brings together some of his path-breaking research papers, essays on science and ethics, and popular articles in order to reveal a remarkable range of animal behaviors but also to argue that the ethical treatment of animals is an especially significant issue now.