Parrot's Lament, The and Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligen: And Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence and Ingenuity

A gorilla shrewdly sells back a missing key chain to the highest bidder. An orangutan picks a lock to let himself out of his zoo enclosure and two elephants adopt a tag-team strategy to keep their handlers from putting them back into theirs. In The Parrot's Lament , noted environmentalist Eugene Linden offers more than one hundred true anecdotes about animal acts of cooperation, heroism, escape—even tales of deception or manipulation of human beings. Drawing on the first-person experiences of veterinarians, field biologists, researchers, and trainers, Linden has compiled a warmly entertaining and powerfully persuasive argument for animal consciousness that, while not human, far exceeds what humans usually grant animals. Scientifically sound and emotionally compelling, The Parrot's Lament contains remarkable stories that are sure to resonate with animal lovers, turning skeptics everywhere into believers. "Can Animals Think? Scientists have tried to answer this question for decades. In The Parrot's Lament, award-winning writer Eugene Linden turns the question on its head and looks at what animals reveal about their intelligence and emotions through their natural reactions to the people and creatures around them. Talking to zookeepers, researchers, therapists, and trainers, he has unearthed amazing and heartwarming stories, anecdotes of animal humor, game playing, deception, scheming, and subterfuge, as well as tales of compassion, heroism, and love." "Some of the stories cross species barriers. Harriet, an orphan leopard hand-raised by a conservationist in India and later returned to the wild, must rely on memory and the bonds of human trust when raging river waters endanger her young cubs. Orky, a killer whale, works together with his human keepers to save his gravely ill offspring." "Whether in captivity or in the wild, in a zoo or a family backyard, animals must constantly negotiate the basic issues of their survival. And in these negotiations they show us -- if we pay attention -- everything about who they are. And quite a bit about who we are, as well. Book jacket."--Jacket Presents more than one hundred true stories that demonstrate how animals experience grief, humor, compassion, deception, and strategy.