The Thinking Animal

The remarkable story of how evolution built minds—and how ours became extraordinary

Why do dogs say hello, but never goodbye?
What makes baby penguins think the first animal they see is their mother?
Why are bonobos impulsive while chimpanzees show restraint?
And what does all this tell us about how humans think?

In The Thinking Animal, Nichola Raihani explores one of science's most enduring questions: Why do minds work the way they do? Drawing on the latest discoveries in psychology, neuroscience, and animal behavior, Raihani shows how intelligence has evolved across the animal kingdom, and why ours has become so distinctive.

From elephants keeping vigil over their dead, to ants counting their steps, and chickadees remembering where they stored thousands of seeds, Raihani reveals how animals make sense of their world—and why their ways of doing so can seem so strange to us. Along the way, she overturns some of our most enduring myths, showing that even familiar behaviors can be produced by radically different minds. The Thinking Animal presents a new understanding of intelligence—what we have in common with other species, and what truly sets us apart.