Companion Animal Psychology Book Club February 2022

"Come for the fables and stay for the behavioral research in this jam-packed but delightful collection"--Scientific American.

The Animal Book Club banner for February 2022



By Zazie Todd, PhD

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This month, the Animal Book Club is reading Aesop's Animals: The Science Behind the Fables by Jo Wimpenny.


From the book's description,
"Despite being conceived over two-and-a-half thousand years ago, Aesop's Fables are still passed from parent to child today, and are embedded in our collective consciousness. The morals still inform our judgments, but have they influenced our views of the animal protagonists as well? And, if so, is there any truth behind the stereotypes? Are crows smart enough to reason? Are pigeons so dumb they cannot tell the difference between painting and reality? Are ants truly capable of looking ahead to the future and planning their actions?

In Aesop's Animals, zoologist Jo Wimpenny turns a critical eye to the fables and ask whether there is any scientific truth to Aesop's portrayal of his animals. She brings the tales into the twenty-first century, introducing the latest scientific research on some of the most fascinating topics in animal behavior. Each chapter focuses on a different fable and a different topic in ethology, including future planning, tool use, self-recognition, cooperation and deception. At the end of each chapter, the author pulls together the evidence to assess whether Aesop's portrayal of the animals holds true from a modern, scientific perspective."

Aesop's Animals is available wherever books are sold. It and all of the previous book choices (and more!) are also available in my Amazon store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/animalbookclub.

The book club is open to people who subscribe to my free Companion Animal Psychology newsletter and/or my premium newsletter, The Pawsitive Post. Please feel free to sign up and join us!

Of course, you are welcome to read alongside us without joining the group.


Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, writes The Pawsitive Post premium newsletter, and also has a column at Psychology Today. Todd lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband, one dog, and two cats. 

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