What a Fish Knows
The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins
-
- USD 7.99
-
- USD 7.99
Descripción editorial
AS FEATURED IN SEASPIRACY
An Observer Book of the Year 2017
A Sunday Times must read
A New York Times Bestseller
Endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama – ‘Balcombe vividly shows that fish have feelings and deserve consideration and protection like other sentient beings’
What’s the truth behind the old adage that goldfish have a three-second memory? Do fishes think? Can they recognize the humans who peer back at them from above the surface of the water? Myth-busting biologist and animal behaviour expert Jonathan Balcombe takes us under the sea, through streams and estuaries to the other side of the aquarium glass to answer these questions and more. He upends our assumptions, revealing that fish are far from the unfeeling, dead-eyed feeding machines so many of us assume them to be. They are, in fact, sentient, aware, social and even Machiavellian – in other words, rather like us.
What a Fish Knows draws on the latest science to present a fresh look at these remarkable creatures in all their breathtaking diversity and beauty. Teeming with insights and exciting discoveries, it offers a thoughtful appraisal of our relationships with fish and inspires us to take a more enlightened view of the planet’s increasingly imperilled marine life. What a Fish Knows will forever change how we see our aquatic cousins – the pet goldfish included.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this entertaining study, ethologist Balcombe (The Exultant Ark) points out that fish are some 60% of all vertebrates on earth, yet they receive little regard outside of being a source of food or object of sport. With the vivacious energy of a cracking good storyteller, Balcombe draws deeply from scientific studies and his own experience with fish to introduce readers to them as sentient creatures that live full lives governed by cognition and perception. He illustrates a piscine capacity for joy and pleasure in the case of a Midas cichlid that returns again and again to a trusted human to be stroked and sometimes held out of the water. Balcombe cites instances of alteration in one fish's behavior when a traumatic event occurs to another fish in the same tank, concluding that the two are emotionally attuned to each other. Fish, he observes, also actively play with other creatures, and he offers examples that illustrate awareness and intention coupled with a sense of amusement. Balcombe makes a convincing case that fish possess minds and memories, are capable of planning and organizing, and cooperate with one another in webs of social relationships.
