[A] bracing and enlightening book Safinas 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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SCIENCEIn 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 PostSafina, 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.
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New York Times, 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2020 *
A smorgasbord of compelling details . . . Becoming Wild could easily become a television series.
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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 Safinas prose achieves the elusive goal of being both informative and luminously evocative.
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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 planets most charismatic beings.
-- Jonathan Balcombe, author of
What a Fish KnowsEloquent 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 WeeklyFew 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 headBecoming Wilddemands that we wake up and realise that we are intrinsically linked to our other-than-human neighbours.
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Telegraph *
Dr. Safina is a terrific writer, majestic and puckish in equal measure.
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New York Times *
[Safina] is a font of research, his wonder contagious.
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Elle *
Safina puts forward several eye-opening and previously-overlooked implications of animal culture a pleasure to read another jewel in the crown of Safinas 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 *
