Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior

• Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior By Temple Grandin
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc 2005-01-01 | ISBN: 1400101468 | Language English | Audio CD in MP3 | 169 MB
• Summary: Remarkable Insights and Inspiration
• Rating: 5
• Temple Grandin was profiled in a BBC Horizon documentary a year or two back as `the woman who thinks like a cow'. A somewhat uncomplimentary portrayal you might think, until you appreciate that Grandin is a gifted professor of animal science and champion for autism, and that cows are far more interesting creatures than might often be assumed.
• Grandin discovered that her way of viewing the world corresponded very closely to the perceptions of many animals. As a trouble-shooter on farms and ranches across the USA, she found that she could very often just `see' the problems which were scaring cattle and bringing their owners to the brink of despair. Combined with her prolific research and writings, autism has been a rare gift, enabling her remarkable work.
• As a novice in the field of animal science, I felt fascinated and challenged by the wide mix of ideas this book presents. Topics as diverse as why pigs enjoy snuggling up to each other and genetic aggression are introduced in easy, layman's terms, giving interesting details about the research but also recognising that scientists don't yet have all the answers. Grandin challenges us to question a lot of what we might believe about animal behaviour - and for that matter autism - and does so with humility and humour.
• A wealth of down-to-earth anecdotes ground the research and open questions posed. For example, we learn about a friend's cat who knew when `mother' was entering the lift of their apartment block some 12 floors below and of the prairie dogs of Arizona who've not only evolved a language involving nouns, verbs and adjectives, but even different dialects amongst local colonies!
• At the same time, familiar stories are looked at a new light. For example, the story of the German `counting' horse Clever Hans is looked at not as a disappointing scam (it was revealed that Hans couldn't really count), but remarkable for the fact that a horse had taught himself to tune into subtle human cues in the first place. This is just one example of what is often unseen `animal genius'.
• Grandin appeals for humane treatment of all animals, which she argues must come through a new understanding of how they interact with their world and how we deal with our husbandry of them.
• The joint writing with Catherine Johnson works well, coming across as a conversation between friends (including the reader). But what is remarkable is that Grandin and Johnson manage to present deep insights into both autism and animal communication, as well as linking the two together. Rarely does a book inspire us to think both about the animals around us and our fellow human beings in a new way.
• This is a truly wonderful book, and one which I have found myself constantly wanting to recommend to others.
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