Minds Without Maps

An octopus, a crow, and an ape each solved the problem of living in a hard world, and none of them took the same road.

We tend to picture intelligence as a ladder with humans at the top. Minds Without Maps argues that it is closer to a landscape, with different animals reaching sharp minds by very different routes. From a forest in Panama to the open ocean, from a crow bending a wire to a chimpanzee picking up a stem, this book follows the scientists who watched it happen.

You will meet eight-armed escape artists that die young, parrots that talk back, elephants with a memory for every water hole, dolphins that carry names in the water, and small-brained animals that keep surprising the researchers who study them. You will see how the same answers can come from completely different hardware.

If you love nature writing, animal behavior, or the science of how minds evolve, this is a clear and absorbing guide to the many ways of being smart.