The mystery of the animals
The Mystery of Animals - What They Think, What They Feel is a popular science non-fiction book and bestseller by behavioral biologist Karsten Brensing , which was published in 2017 by Aufbau Verlag .
In his book Brensing concisely explains surprising behavior of animals, explains their evolutionary background, but also relates them to human behavior by discussing the anthropological term culture in connection with more highly developed mammals such as whales , elephants and chimpanzees . The author often goes into the design and interpretation of biological-experimental test arrangements that have been shown to have led to misinterpretations in the behavior of animals in the past.
content
The structure of the book comprises eight chapters, which are divided into sub-chapters - and these are sometimes further divided.
What knocks me out ... (or simply: introduction)
Brensing opens the introduction with the thematic highlights of the book, thus showing the great variety of very human-like behavior in animals and thus suggesting that the difference between the behavior of animals and humans could be less than is commonly assumed.
As his personal aha experience and as an indication that the planning and interpretation of experiments in behavioral research must be carried out very carefully, he cites his own investigations into dolphin therapy : In the pilot study , he first established through visual observation that the animals supposedly looking for closeness to people; the subsequent statistical analysis of the video recordings for one year showed the opposite.
Animally good sex
After a brief introduction about the importance of sexuality in evolutionary terms, seven sub-chapters include the "alien sex" of tardigrades , the use of "sex toys" in the animal kingdom, "rape", "gangbangs", " BDSM " and " pheromone parties" Examples are given and the role of hormones in the sex life of animals is shown.
Unknown cultures
In the second longest chapter, Brensing deals with the term “culture” in animals ( animal culture ) in six sub-chapters . Social learning and the passing on (the tradition) of otherwise unusual behaviors result in culture (or “base culture”, as a conglomerate of several traditions) found in certain groups of one species but not in other groups of the same species. Culture within a species is socially, i.e. through imitation learned behavior, differentiated from genetically given and individually acquired behavior.
A further increase, the “cumulative culture” (subdivided into “modular culture”: tools are made with tools; “composite culture”: combination of different objects to form a tool unit; “collective culture”: collective action through different individual actions of different group members) can only be found in humans and few other species. Brensing points out that these definitions are related to tool use and that social or emotional aspects of (animal) cultures are retrospectively not and currently difficult to grasp.
The following are examples of cultural behavior in animals from the areas of communication, gestures and body language, tool manufacture and use , hunting behavior, food preferences , “lifestyle”, courtship behavior and partner choice. It concludes with discussions about the consequences that recognizing culture in animals could and should have on human behavior towards animals.
Sense of community
With the description of community- beneficial behavior in Myxobacteria , Brensing introduces the sub-chapters on gaming behavior, hierarchical structures, long-term memory, strategic and “moral” behavior, understanding of ownership ( endowment effect ), feeling of grief and “ cults of the dead ”.
The play behavior of animals - movement games (locomotor play) , games with objects (object play) and group games (social play) - is explained and defined, followed by examples of how vertebrates , but also invertebrates , show clear play behavior in environments with sufficient food (surplus resource theory) .
In group games of animals in social associations (studied with dogs), the evolutionary biologist Marc Bekoff recognized rules that (studied with young and adult yellow-bellied marmots ) probably contribute to a stable hierarchy without dramatic rank fights. This is followed by a short excursion into the subject of "humor in primates" and "Oedipus complex in orcas".
Using the example of spotted hyenas and baboons , it is explained how hierarchy is “monarchically” “inherited” from the parents to young animals - although there are also “democratic” decisions in socially living animal groups.
According to the definitions of procedural and episodic memory in humans, Brensing provides examples of mice, elephants, dolphins, corvids and even bees, which suggest that animals also have "a very simple episodic memory or something comparable". The extension to knowing and remembering the behavior of individuals in social associations plays a role in complex, dynamic groups - so-called fission fusion communities - and brings evolutionary advantages, which leads to the question of whether animals are capable of fair (just , maybe even “moral”) behavior. Brensing gives examples where this is clearly the case, although it appears to be restricted to species with a distinct social life.
The conclusion is formed by examples of "war" and group mourning (up to the cult of the dead) in the animal kingdom and the entertaining scientific joke about set theory among the Rhinogradentia .
From thinking
Thinking is the longest chapter of the book and has five sub-chapters. Brensing explains the French Joëlle Proust's four-step model for thinking in the broadest sense
- Stimulus response: An organism reacts automatically (reflexively) to an external stimulus.
- Proto-presentation: An organism checks a stimulus through additional sensory perception before it reacts.
- Category formation: An organism is able to mentally create categories (assignments) and to take them into account during its actions.
- Complete mental abstraction: An organism is able to call up what it has experienced and to relate it to one another in an abstract or strategic way before it initiates an action.
This is followed by detailed examples (with a description of the experimental setup) of the mental abstractions that higher and even lower animals can be capable of.
Sentimentalism
The subject of hormonally ( dopamine , endorphins , oxytocin , serotonin , norepinephrine, etc.) related emotions in animals is dealt with in four sub-chapters .
Brensing goes into the experiments of James Olds (1922–1976) and Peter Milner , who examined the “positive reward system” in rats (which later led to the subdivision into the motivation system, the enjoyment system and the learning system), the effect of which is mostly unconscious. These relationships and sequences, which evoke the known positive feelings in humans, could thus be established in the animal model, which suggests that emotions are parallel in humans and animals. Even in fish, parallels with human behavior can be found with regard to the effects of pharmaceuticals .
It concludes with reflections on joy and compassion in animals.
The crown of creation
In the first of three sub-chapters, Brensing explains the unique selling point for people to consciously defy normal behavior and subordinate themselves to a certain group behavior ( normative conformity ): "... ignore our own needs so that we can continue to play ... from football fans through Working life up to the Taliban ”. Even children who perceive themselves as part of a group (“friends”) show this behavior - in contrast to chimpanzees and orangutans. In groups in which the individual group members do not know each other personally, but trust each other due to their group rules (philosophy, doctrine, religion, worldview, ...), significant results can be achieved, whereas a single person can hardly ensure their own survival on their own could. Again the role of the brain and the psyche is discussed and the similarities between humans and animals are pointed out and what moral consequences this could have in relation to human behavior towards animals - and in Brensing's opinion - should have.
In the second subsection, Brensing explains errors that can occur in behavior research - incorrectly designed experiments and / or misinterpretations of the results. He gives examples from the literature and from his own experience in his dolphin research.
The third subchapter critically deals with human behavior in whale hunting and whale watching , where in both cases the complex and “cultural” social behavior of these mammals is partially or completely ignored.
epilogue
Brensing uses the epilogue to criticize animal meat production by relating the perceptions and behaviors described in the book - summed up here in detail for pigs - to the keeping conditions of these animals and explaining how humans manage this contradicting situation based on a human way of thinking ( Devaluation of the animal) simplifies and "solves" for itself. This contrasts with the demands of some behavioral biologists to grant animals their own rights (“animal person”).
Remarks
The notes comprise 28 pages with 542 individual references to the facts and information mentioned in the text. The numbering is continuous (across all chapters) and thus makes it easier to find references. Acknowledgments ( thanks ) and the picture credits close the book.
reception
From the 43rd week of 2017, The Mystery of the Animals was on the Spiegel bestseller list for ten weeks (best position: 9th place).
- The Austrian biologist, behavioral researcher and author Kurt Kotrschal praised the positive aspects in his review - "His text conveys enthusiasm for the diversity of life." "But then the chapters on cultural ability, social life and the intellectual achievements of animals follow nicely and coherently." "The strengths of the book also include the abundance and breadth of the content, which, however, comes at the expense of depth." "The richness of the content consistently conveyed on the basis of examples nevertheless tempts you to read." - and primarily criticizes style and superficiality: " What is annoying, however, is the groovy, colloquial, imprecise and all too humanized language chosen in courting for the attention of a broad readership. ”“ As in many places in the book, too great superficiality disturbs the important topic of “research errors” Title of the book Mysterium der Tiere as rather inappropriate, as it is about natural science liable of behavior. But that is more likely to be attributed to the publisher than to the author. "
- The résumé is positive: “This is a factually correct and in its richness entertaining book. I hope that this book will also be widely distributed because our own future survival requires more respect for other living beings. Karsten Brensing makes an important contribution to rethinking. "
- The German wolf expert and bestselling author Elli H. Radinger writes in her review: “The book is a successful mixture of science and entertainment. It is about complex social behavior, communication, emotions and empathy, morals and ethics, all values that we previously attributed exclusively to people. Brensing teaches us better, although he never raises the moral index finger. Rather, he convinces with his stories in an understandable and humorous way of the similarity between humans and animals. As a marine biologist, he inevitably focuses his investigations on the behavior of these animal species. Some of the reader's romantic illusions are brought back into reality through scientific explanations. "
- The biologist and author Fabian Ritter writes: “Technically sound and at the same time humorous. Brensing manages to get a very good overview of thinking in animals, using a really impressive variety of sources. Always scientifically sound, and at the same time with a lot of humor and a very personal style, the book is great read for anyone interested in this topic. Brensing is not afraid to ask unusual questions and above all to provide answers or interpretations that some other biologists would not dare to. The fact that Brensing crosses boundaries in this way and thinks further than many others in his trade makes the book particularly valuable. "
In addition to the German version (hardcover, e-book , audio book ), there has also been a Polish edition since 2018 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ KN Laland and BG Galef: The Question of Animal Culture , Cambridge (2009), ISBN 9780674031265 .
- ^ MN Haidle, NJ Conard and M. Bolus: The Nature of Culture . The book is based on the interdisciplinary symposium The Nature of Culture , Tübingen (2016).
- ↑ Marc Bekoff: Play signals as punctuation: The structure of social play in canids , Behavior (1995), Vol. 132, pp. 419-429.
- ↑ DT Blumstein, LK Chung and JE Smith: Early play may predict later dominance relationships in yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) , Proc. Biol. Sci. (2013), Vol. 27, p. 280 ff .; accessed on June 9, 2018.
- ↑ Joëlle Proust: The intentional animal , in D. Perler and M. Wild: Der Geist der Tiere , Frankfurt / Main (2005), pp. 223–244.
- ↑ Michael Tomasello speaks of humans as the animal that says "we".
- ↑ L. Marino and CM Colven: Thinking Pigs: A Comparative Review of Cognition, Emotion, and Personality in Sus domesticus , Intern. J. Comp. Psychol. (2015), p. 28 ff.
- ↑ Book report (non-fiction books): The mystery of the animals ; accessed on June 12, 2018.
- ↑ Book review by Kurt Kotrschal in BIOspektrum , Volume 24, February 2018, p. 2, Springer-Verlag.
- ↑ Elli H. Radinger: Review: The Mystery of Animals , November 14, 2017.
- ↑ Fabian Ritter, December 23, 2017 .
- ↑ WorldCat: The Mystery of Animals ; accessed on June 12, 2018.