'[A] bracing and enlightening book... Safina's writing on the watery depths and its denizens is sublime... [challenging] us to be more acutely aware of species whose social lives have much to teach us.'
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SCIENCE'In this superbly articulate cri de coeur, Safina gives us a new way of looking at the natural world that is radically different.'
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Washington Post'Safina, the ecologist and author of many books about animal behavior, here delves into the world of chimpanzees, sperm whales and macaws to make a convincing argument that animals learn from one another and pass down culture in a way that will feel very familiar to us.'
*
New York Times, 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2020 *
'A smorgasbord of compelling details . . . Becoming Wild could easily become a television series.'
*
Fortean Times *
'Fascinating... [Becoming Wild] gives the reader a sense of being near these creatures and experiencing some of the most seductive environments on Earth... Safina's prose achieves the elusive goal of being both informative and luminously evocative.'
*
Wall Street Journal *
'Carl Safina combines his passion for the natural world with absorbing, sometimes breathtaking prose, transporting us into the intimate, nuanced worlds of some of the planet's most charismatic beings.'
-- Jonathan Balcombe, author of
What a Fish Knows'Eloquent... This revelatory work sheds as much light on what it means to be human as it does on the nature of other species.'
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Publishers Weekly'Few readers will doubt that these magnificent creatures need urgent attention. Enthralling.'
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Kirkus, starred review
'[Safina] turns the human view of animal cultures on its head... Becoming Wild demands that we wake up and realise that we are intrinsically linked to our other-than-human neighbours.'
*
Telegraph *
'Dr. Safina is a terrific writer, majestic and puckish in equal measure.'
*
New York Times *
'[Safina] is a font of research, his wonder contagious.'
*
Elle *
'Safina puts forward several eye-opening and previously-overlooked implications of animal culture... a pleasure to read... another jewel in the crown of Safina's work that packs fascinating field studies, interesting theoretical ideas, soul-searching questions, and probing reflections on human and animal nature into a book that is as profound as it is moving.'
* Inquisitive Biologist *