I wanted to know what they were experiencing, and why to us they feel so compelling, and so-close. This time I allowed myself to ask them the question that for a scientist was forbidden fruit: Who are you? Weaving decades of field observations with exciting new discoveries about the brain, Carl Safina's landmark book offers an intimate view of animal behavior to challenge the fixed boundary between humans and nonhuman animals. In Beyond Words, readers travel to Amboseli National Park in the threatened landscape of Kenya and witness struggling elephant families work out how to survive poaching and drought, then to Yellowstone National Park to observe wolves sort out the aftermath of one pack's personal tragedy, and finally plunge into the astonishingly peaceful society of killer whales living in the crystalline waters of the Pacific Northwest. Beyond Words brings forth powerful and illuminating insight into the unique personalities of animals through extraordinary stories of animal joy, grief, jealousy, anger, and love. The similarity between human and nonhuman consciousness, self-awareness, and empathy calls us to re-evaluate how we interact with animals. Wise, passionate, and eye-opening at every turn, Beyond Words is ultimately a graceful examination of humanity's place in the world.

PROLOGUE: INTO THE MIND FIELDS 1PART ONE: TRUMPETS OF ELEPHANTS 5The Big Question 9The Same Basic Brain 16Distinctly Human? 25Deep and Ancient Circuits 31We Are Family 36Motherhood Happens 42Do Elephants Love Their Babies? 49Elephant Empathy 58Good Grief 66I Don't Know How You Say Good-bye 75I Say Hello 86Holding Back, Letting Go 95Troubled Minds 100Ebony and Ivory 108Where Baby Elephants Come From 126PART TWO: HOWLS OF WOLVES 137Into the Pleistocene 139A Perfect Wolf 143Packing and Unpacking 151The Wolf Named Six 160A Shattering of Promises 167In a Time of Truce 177Magnificent Outcasts 183Where the Wolf Birds Lead Us 191Wolf Music 200The Hunter Is a Lonely Heart 210A Will to Live 216Domestic Servants 221Two Ends of the Same Leash 229PART THREE: WHINES AND PET PEEVES 241Never Mind Theory 243Sex, Lies, and Humiliated Seabirds 250Conceit and Deceit 258Chuckles and Wacky Ideas 266Mirror, Mirror 273And Speaking of Neurons 280People of an Ancient Nation 286PART FOUR: KILLER WAILS 295Sea Rex 297A More Complex Killer 304Just Very Sexual 308Inner Visions 316Diverse Minds 325Intelligent in What Way? 336The Social Brain 345Woo-Woo 351Helping in Mind 367Do Not Disturb 375To Have and to Hold 383Expect Personality 392A Vision True and Mighty 399EPILOGUE: FINAL SCRATCH 410Notes 413Selected Bibliography 437Acknowledgments 439Index 443