By Frans de Waal • 2019 A companion to Are We Smart Enough , but focused on emotions rather than cognition. De Waal argues that animal emotions are not lesser versions of human emotions, they're actually the originals . We inherited our emotional architecture from our evolutionary ancestors; we didn't invent it. The book explores empathy, grief, shame, gratitude, and disgust across species, grounded in decades of primatological observation. Why it matters The question of ani

By Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson • 2003 Masson ( When Elephants Weep ) turns his attention to the animals most people never think about as individuals. He profiles pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, and goats, drawing on ethological research and his own observations to argue that these animals have rich emotional lives: they form friendships, grieve losses, experience joy and fear and boredom. The book is a corrective to the industrial view of livestock as units of production. Why it m

By Peter Wohlleben • 2016 Wohlleben's follow-up to The Hidden Life of Trees , this time focused on animals. He draws on his decades as a forester to describe grief in deer, gratitude in crows, shame in dogs, and maternal love across species. The tone is the same; warm, observational, and unafraid of emotional language that would make a strict behaviourist wince. Why it matters Where de Waal ( Mama's Last Hug , Are We Smart Enough? ) writes as a scientist building a careful ca

By Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson • 1995 A book that asked a question science wasn't ready to take seriously: do animals have emotional lives? Masson, a former psychoanalyst, surveys evidence of grief, joy, anger, love, and shame across species. Elephants mourning their dead, dogs experiencing jealousy, parrots forming lifelong bonds. The book is part literature review, part philosophical argument, part provocation aimed at a scientific establishment that had long dismissed animal