Did you know that bats compose their own songs and babble to each other? Or that mice giggle when they are tickled? That lizards do push-ups to seduce a mate, or that elephants mimic the sounds of passing trucks to stave off loneliness? "Bats Sing, Mice Giggle" is the culmination of many years of research that reveals how wild animals, as well as pets, have secret, inner lives of which until recently - although animal lovers will have instinctively believed it - we have had little proof. The authors show how animal friends keep in touch, and how they warn and help each other in times of danger; how some animals problem-solve even more effectively than humans - and how they build, create, and entertain themselves and others. Shanor and Kanwal reveal the sleep patterns of dolphins, who go to sleep in only one half of their brains at a time; and how schools of electric fish generate and use complex electric fields to determine their location within the group. They show how animals express grief, joy, anger and fear, and experience a similar breadth of emotions as we humans.
Reviews
'Amazing, moving and enlightening. Bats Sing, Mice Giggle presents the latest findings on the intimate lives of animals with great elegance. I recommend it wholeheartedly.' Larry King
Author description
Karen Shanor is a clinical psychologist, former White House consultant and an advisory member for Discovery Channel's Animal Planet programmes. She hosted an NBC radio program for five years and appears frequently on Larry King Live, CBS Nightly News, Dateline, The Today Show and Oprah, and is a regular contributor to CNN. Jagmeet Kanwal is an internationally recognised neuroethologist and was among the first to perform magnetic resonance imaging in awake animals.