2.9K
Downloads
23
Episodes
Now more than ever, people feel alienated from the natural world and worried about animal life. Meanwhile we humans are finally appreciating that we aren’t the only intelligent life forms here, and we never have been. Join me, Lisa Lanser Rose, an award-winning author, educator, and dog trainer, and my guests as we put science, experience, and radical empathy to work. Let us take you deep into the minds of our fellow creatures. By imagining what it‘s like to BE another creature, we hope to forge a bond strong enough to save us all, on This Animal Life.
Episodes
Monday Sep 20, 2021
Get Zen At Your Audubon Raptor Center
Monday Sep 20, 2021
Monday Sep 20, 2021
Do you have a nature center near you? Ann does--go along with her and volunteer raptor handler Lew Boynton to meet a whole cast of avian characters living at the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove. Nature Centers give us a humane way to understand the wildlife around us. Volunteering at your local nature center can provide you the privilege of caring for and interacting with wild animals.
Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLife.com and click on Show Notes.
REFERENCES:
How to Find a Wildlife Rehabilitator
“How to Love a Buzzard,” by Lisa Lanser Rose, Sugar Mule: Women Writing Nature, August 2012.
John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove
MacDonald, Helen, H is for Hawk, Jonathan Cape, 2014.
National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association
“The Second Coming,” poem by William Butler Yeats
Shavers Creek Environmental Center
White, T.H., The Goshawk, NYRB Classics, 2007.
Sunday Sep 12, 2021
Do Dogs Fool People In Epic Murder Trials?
Sunday Sep 12, 2021
Sunday Sep 12, 2021
Ann and Lisa discuss the problem of false alerts in scent detection, particularly during cadaver dog searches. People's lives, careers, and peace of mind hang in the balance. What is a "false alert?" How, when, and why do they happen, and whose fault is it? Uncertainty and subjectivity may be hopelessly baked into the human-canine relationship.
Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLIfe.com and click on Show Notes.
Balko, Radley, “The Supreme Court’s ‘Alternative Facts’ About Drug-Sniffing Dogs,” Opinion, Washington Post, February 2019.
Bianca Jones article, “Father Convicted of Murdering his 2-Year-Old Daughter 6 Years Ago Says She’s Still Alive,” by Kevin Deitz, Click-On Detroit, January 2018.
The Bone Room, where you can buy Search and Rescue (SAR) training packets online.
The Bone Room on Science Friday, by Lauren Young, October 2018.
“Brief Supplementing Motions to Exclude Unreliable Dog Sniff Evidence,” People of the State of Colorado V. Mark Allen Redwine.
“Cadaver Dog Experts Take Stand in Redwine Trial,” Fox31 News, by Nicole Fierro, July 6, 2021.
Cadaver Dog handler of Molly recounts “strongest alert ever” by Dave Minsky, Lompoc Record, August 11, 2021.
Cadaver dog as “junk science,” Patty Neiberg, “Colorado father convicted of killing his 13-year-old son,” AP News, July 16, 2021.
“Casey Anthony Trial Raises Questions About Cadaver Dogs,” Ed. Colin Miller, EvidenceProf Blog, University of South Carolina School of Law, Law Professor Blogs Network, June 2011.
Chris Lambert’s podcast about Kristin Smart, Your Own Backyard
Derr, Mark, “With Dog Detectives, Mistakes Can Happen,” NYTimes, December 2002.
“The Disappearance of Kristin Smart: What Happened and What’s Next,” by Brenna Ehrlich, Rolling Stone, September 8, 2021.
“Dog Handler Sentenced for Planting Fake Evidence,” Chicago Tribune, September 2004.
“Effect of Handler Knowledge of the Detection Task on Canine Search Behavior and Performance,” by DeChant et. al., Frontiers in Veterinary Science, May 2020.
“Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomes,” by Lisa Lit, et. al, National Center for Biotechnology Information, January 2011.
“How to Train a Cadaver Dog,” by Malia Wollen, NYTimes, June 2015.
Redwine case & cadaver dogs, Allison Sylte, 9News, July 6, 2021.
Warren, Cat, What the Dog Knows, Touchstone, October 2013.
Sunday Aug 29, 2021
Grateful Crows Give People Shrewd Thank-You Gifts
Sunday Aug 29, 2021
Sunday Aug 29, 2021
Have you ever heard of crows who leave gifts for people who feed them? We'll tell you a few stories and ask a few probing questions. Did the crows really leave them? And if so, was it because they felt grateful or did their moms force them to? Maybe they're just buttering us up to keep the gravy train rolling. And how is that different than scrawling thank-you notes to Grandma or handing your teacher a five-dollar Starbucks card with an apple on it? Join Ann and Lisa as they monkey with these and other cool crow puzzles.
Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLIfe.com and click on Show Notes.
Andrews, Candace Gaukel, “Crows are as Intelligent as a Seven-Year-Old Child,” Good Nature Travel, October 2018.
Bittel, Jason, “Think Crow Funerals Are Strange? Wait Until You See the Wake.” Audubon, July 2018.
Bloom, Cameron, and Bradley Trevor Greive, Penguin Bloom: The Odd Little Bird Who Saved a Family, ABC Books, March 2016. "The Coffee-Table Book"
Bloom, Cameron, and Bradley Trevor Greive, Penguin Bloom: how a scruffy magpie saved a family,” The Guardian, October 2016. A cool photostory.
Heinrich, Bernd, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds, Ecco Press, 2000.
Marzluff, M., John, & Tony Angell, Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans, Simon and Schuster 2012.
McNiece, Mia, “How a Magpie Helped Save Australian Mom Sam Bloom After a Tragic Acciden--And Inspired a Netflix Movie,” People, January 2021.
Messenger, Stephanie, “Crows Keep Bringing Presents to Woman Who is Kind to Them,” The Dodo, August 2019.
Mock, Jillian, “Did Crows Actually Make These Gifts for the Human Who Feeds Them?” Audubon, May 2019.
Saint John, Kate, “Gifts from Crows” Outside My Window, February 2019.Sewell, Katy “The girl who gets gifts from birds,” BBC News, February 2015.
Sunday Aug 22, 2021
Lies, Spies, and The Great Ape Escape
Sunday Aug 22, 2021
Sunday Aug 22, 2021
Meet Fu Manchu, master of deception, world-class escape artist, and party guy. Oh, and Fu's also an orangutan. Ann tells Fu's joyfully mysterious story, and together she and Lisa try to pick the lock on Fu's mind. No one argues he fashioned an ingenious tool, but to what extent was he deceiving his captors? Fu Man Chu challenges human assumptions about other creatures' Theory of Mind, the ability to imagine what another creature is thinking and to behave accordingly.
Want to learn more or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLife.com and click on Show Notes.
Calhoun, Ben, “Fu Manchu,” Radiolab, January 2010.
Gaines, James, “This epic zoo escape story shows how fantastically smart orangutans can be,” Upworthy, August 2016.
Stockton, Paysha, "Animal tales: an orangutan escape artist, other stories," Seattle Times, September 2000.
Sunday Aug 15, 2021
The Dog Who Knew Too Much
Sunday Aug 15, 2021
Sunday Aug 15, 2021
Maybe you never heard of him, but Jim the Wonder Dog was once the most famous dog in the USA. A Lewellin setter, he was insured for $100,000 and that was during the 1930's. A gun dog, Jim held the record for the most birds retrieved, but that’s not what made Jim a Wonder Dog. Jim could correctly answer any question posed to him in any language, spoken or written. He could even understand Morse code. Eventually, he could also predict the future! He baffled all the experts, and mobsters threatened his life. How did he do it? And what do we know now that experts didn't know then? Listen to the amazing true story of America's favorite psychic dog.
Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLIfe.com and click on Show Notes.
Cernich, Karen, “Jim’s Story Will Make You Wonder, How Did He Do It?” EMissourian.com Jan. 14, 2017.
Clever Hans on Wikipedia
Dailey, Nancy B., Jim aka The Wonder Dog, Paperback Press, 2018.
Figley, Mary Rhodes, The True Story of Jim the Wonder Dog, Roadrunner Press, 2017.
Hearne, Vicki, Adam’s Task: Calling Animals by Name. Skyhorse, 1986.
Kelly, Kate, “Jim the Wonder Dog: Was He Psychic?” American Dogs, America Comes Alive!
Gymnasium Mathematics--it turns out ”gymnasium” is a European term for a secondary (high) school.
Mitchell, Clarence Dewey, Jim the Wonder Dog, Jim the Wonder Dog Inc., 1942. This seems to be the museum’s official biography, and it was written in collaboration with Jim’s owner, Sam VanArsdale.
The Jim the Wonder Dog Museum website
Theory of Mind on Wikipedia
Sunday Aug 08, 2021
How Do You Know What A Bird Dreams About?
Sunday Aug 08, 2021
Sunday Aug 08, 2021
Dog and cat people know their pets dream, but do all animals dream? What about birds? Octopuses? Even fruit flies? Ann and Lisa explore how scientists know if other animals are dreaming and even what they might be dreaming about. Why do we wingless humans dream we can fly? If we dream we can fly, do birds dream they can drive a car?
Lisa and Ann discuss recent studies into how, why, and what animals dream about. Learn just how similar animal dreams might be.
Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLIfe.com and click on Show Notes.
dreams, MIT researcher proves.” MIT News Office. January 2001.
“Do Animals Dream?” Earth/Sky. February 2019.
Eaglemann, David and Don Vaugh. “Why Do We Dream? A New Theory on How It Protects Our Brains.” December 2020.
Fox, Douglas “Do Fruit Flies Dream of Electric Bananas?” New Scientist. February 2004.
Giaimo, Cara. “Why We Love to Fly in Our Dreams.” Slate. November 2016.
Goldman, Jason G. “What do animals dream about?” BBC. April 2014.
Horton, Lydiard Heneage. Dissertation on the Dream Problem. Vol. 1.
Louie, Kenway , Matthew A Wilson. “Temporally Structured Replay of Awake Hippocampal Ensemble Activity during Rapid Eye Movement Sleep.” Neuron. Vol 29. Issue 1. January 2001.
“Octopus Dreaming.” Octopus: Making Contact. Nature. Season 38 Episode 1
Rattenborg, Niels C. et al. “Local Aspects of Avian Non-REM and REM Sleep.” Frontiers in Neuroscience. June 2019.
Setka, Bret. “Bird Brains are Far More Humanlike Than Once Thought.” September 2020.
Smith, Belinda. “Why dreams like flying, falling, being chased are so common, and how your brain creates them.” ABC Science. January 2019.
Vanderbilt University, “Study Gives New Meaning to the Term ‘Bird Brain.’” Neuroscience News, June 2016.
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
How to Fall in Love With an Octopus
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Sunday Aug 01, 2021
Nothing blows the human mind quite like octopus intelligence. Lisa and Ann investigate the powerful charm of the octopus brain. Filled with fascinating facts and the story behind the story of the riveting inter-species love affair in My Octopus Teacher, this episode shows why the octopus has such a suction grip on our imagination. Even if you've read Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus and watched the 2021 Academy Award Winning documentary, My Octopus Teacher, you will learn a lot more about the strange and wondrous cephalopod mind.
Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLIfe.com and click on Show Notes.
Erlich, Pippa. “Hot Docs 2020 Women Directors: Meet Pippa Ehrlich – “My Octopus Teacher” by Cody Corrall. Women and Hollywood. June 3, 2020.
Erlich, Pippa, featured in “Why 'My Octopus Teacher' Directors Brought in an 'Octopus Psychologist' for Their Doc.” by Steve Pond. The Wrap. April 12, 2021.
Foster, Craig. Interviewed in “Filmmaker Finds an Unlikely Underwater Friend in ‘My Octopus Teacher.’ Fresh Air, NPR, October 15, 2020.
Foster, Craig, filmmaker. My Octopus Teacher, Netflix Documentary, 2020.
Foster, Craig. Sea Change Project. Website.
Godfrey-Smith, Peter. Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness. Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2016.
Godfrey-Smith, Peter. Interviewed in “What Can an Octopus Teach Us About Consciousness?” When We Talk About Animals, podcast. Episode 2.
“Legging it: Evasive octopus who has been allowed to look for love.” By Kathy Marksoz. Independent. February 14, 2009
Mather, Jennifer, featured in “Octopuses at Work and Play: Jennifer Mather and Cephalopod Cognition.” Women You Should Know. By Dale Debakcsy. Nov, 14, 2018.
Mather, Jennifer. “What’s in an octopus’s mind?” Animal Sentience 26(1), 2019.
Montgomery, Sy. The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness. Atria Books, 2015.
Nagel, Thomas. “What is it like to be a bat?” The Philosophical Review. 83 (4), 1974. [Link to Wikipedia page]
Octolab TV: Octolab.Tv a series of videos of octopus experiments, most of them an octopus with mirrors, an octopus reacting to a wig, and they take suggestions online.
Scheel, David, featured in “Octopus: Making Contact,” PBS Nature, Season 38, Episode 1. Oct. 2019.
Von Uexküll, Jakob, Wikipedia page with Umwelt.
Sunday Jul 25, 2021
Do Cats Rescue People They Love?
Sunday Jul 25, 2021
Sunday Jul 25, 2021
Is your cat capable of love? Of altruism? Will your cat fight to the death to protect you? Ann and Lisa tell stories of feline heroics. They prove, without a shadow of a doubt, cats love you more than you'll ever know.
Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLIfe.com and click on Show Notes.
Adams, Sam, “Best of friends: Cat and dog meet at same time every day to enjoy a stroll,” Mirror, August 2015.
Demirjian, Karoun, “Russia’s heroic cat Masha: She’s credited with saving an abandoned infant from winter’s deep freeze.” Washington Post, January 2015.
Dictionary Corner: Iris Oxtabee was right! Anthropomorphism: The attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object. Personification: the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
Dunn, Rob, Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live. Basic Books, Illustrated edition, October 2019.
Lang, Fabienne, “Cat Dies Defending Family from One of Australia’s Most Venomous Snakes.” Interesting Engineering, February 2021.
Morell, Virginia, Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures. Crown Publishers; 1st edition, February 26, 2013.
Strickland, Ashley, “Yes, cats really do bond with people, study says, even if they don’t always show it.” CNN September, 2019.
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Does Your Cat Want You Dead?
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Sunday Jul 18, 2021
Also known as the Angel of Death, Oscar is a singularly unfriendly nursing home cat who somehow developed the habit of only cuddling up with the nearly departed. At this signal from the Grim Reaper of Cats, the staff alerted family, enabling them to say their goodbyes. Oscar's predictions have set the standard for medical practitioners, who still can't hope to match him. How does he do it? And, more intriguingly, why? What does Oscar want, and by extension, what do cats want?
Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLIfe.com and click on Show Notes.
References:
Bradbury, Ray. “The Veldt,” The Illustrated Man, Doubleday, 1951.
Cat image (left) by Tambako the Jaguar on Flikr Creative Commons, 2010.
De Waal, Frans. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? WW Norton, 2016.
DiChario, Nick. "I am Mr. Baxter," This Animal Life, 2021.
Dohen, Kathleen. “Cat’s ‘Sixth Sense’ Predicting Death.” Fetch by WebMD, July 25, 2007.
Dosa, David, interviewed by Carol Kaufmann. “An Angel With Whiskers,” AARP Bulletin, July 10, 2010.
Dosa, David, interviewed by Richard Schlesinger. “Eye to Eye: Oscar The Cat,” CBS News. July 27, 2007.
David Dosa, Making Rounds with Oscar (The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat) Hatchette Books, 2009.
Dosa, David, featured in “Making Rounds With Oscar,” The Rhode Show, WPRI, YouTube, February 8, 2010.
Eveleth, Rose. “Does This Cat Know When You’re Going to Die?” Smithsonian Magazine. September 20, 2012.
Hearne, Vicki. “What It Is About Cats.” Adam’s Task Calling Animals By Name. Skyhorse, 1986.
“Oscar the cat, Dr. Dosa, his new book, and the hazards of meeting the press,” The Providence Journal.
Nagel, Thomas. “What is it like to be a bat?” [Wikipedia] The Philosophical Review. 83 (4), 1974.
“Oscar, the Nursing Home Cat Can Feel When People Are About to Die” by Spooky, Oddity Central. November 19, 2014.
Szawarski, Piotr. “Classic cases revisited: Oscar the cat and predicting death,” National Center for Biotechnology Information. November 17, 2016.
Thomas, Elizabeth Marshall. The Hidden Life of Dogs. Orion Publishing, 2003.
Sunday Jul 11, 2021
Ferrets, COVID, and Chimps in the Time of Polio
Sunday Jul 11, 2021
Sunday Jul 11, 2021
In this emotional conversation, Ann shares fears for her ferret (who isn't a rodent, thank you) and Lisa tells a Jane Goodall story about chimpanzees during a polio epidemic. They also ask, can dogs catch COVID? Can cats pass it on? It turns out animals do all the same things we do (almost) to prevent contagion during pandemics.
Want to follow up on our sources or watch any of the videos we mention? Go to ThisAnimalLIfe.com and click on Show Notes.
References:
Combs, Sydney, “These Wild Animals Also Practice Social Distancing to Avoid Getting Sick,” National Geographic, March 24, 2020
COVID-19 Facts for Pet Owners, American Veterinary Medical Association.
COVID-19 and Pets, Mayo Clinic.
Daly, Natasha, “First Dog to Test Positive for COVID in the US Dies,” National Geographic JULY 29, 2020
de Ferrer, Marthe, “These Animals Already Self-Isolate to Stay Safe and Healthy. What Can We Learn From Them?” Euronews, last updated: 13/05/2020
Goodall, Jane, In the Shadow of Man. Mariner Books, 2000.
Greene, Meg, Jane Goodall: A Biography. Prometheus Books, 2008.
Hawley, Dana M. & Julia C. Buck, “Animals Use Social Distancing to Avoid Disease” in Scientific American, August 1, 2020.
Kwong, Emily,“1st U.S. Dog With COVID-19 Has Died, And There's A Lot We Still Don't Know,” Short Wave, NPR August 12, 2020.
Paumgarten, Nick, “What Will Become of Pandemic Pets?” The New Yorker, June 21, 2021
“Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Domestic Cats” New England Journal of Medicine, August 6, 2020.