What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins

Balcombe, Jonathan

ISBN 10: 0374288216 / ISBN 13: 9780374288211

Editore: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016

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Clean first edition, first printing in unclipped jacket, SIGNED by the author. Clean dark green paper-covered boards with silver lettering on spine. Binding is tight and square, pages and edges are clean. Inscribed and signed by the author on half-title page as follows: "To Lorraine, Another who cares. From me and the fishes. Jonathan Balcombe." Illustrated with full color photographs. 288 pages + "About the Author." Clean dust jacket is unchipped, no tears, not price clipped; enclosed in new archival quality removable mylar cover. "Highlighting breakthrough discoveries from scientists aroundthe world and insights from his own encounters with fishes, Balcombe's illuminating journey intotheworld of underwater science will forever change your view of our aquatic cousins--your pet goldfish included.". Codice articolo 033659

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Titolo: What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our ...

Casa editrice: Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Data di pubblicazione: 2016

Legatura: Hardcover

Condizione: Fine

Condizione sovraccoperta: Fine

autografato: Signed by Author(s)

Edizione: 1st Edition

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Riassunto:

A New York Times Bestseller

Do fishes think? Do they really have three-second memories? And can they recognize the humans who peer back at them from above the surface of the water? In What a Fish Knows, the myth-busting ethologist Jonathan Balcombe addresses these questions and more, taking us under the sea, through streams and estuaries, and to the other side of the aquarium glass to reveal the surprising capabilities of fishes. Although there are more than thirty thousand species of fish—more than all mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined—we rarely consider how individual fishes think, feel, and behave. Balcombe upends our assumptions about fishes, portraying them not as unfeeling, dead-eyed feeding machines but as sentient, aware, social, and even Machiavellian—in other words, much 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. Fishes conduct elaborate courtship rituals and develop lifelong bonds with shoalmates. They also plan, hunt cooperatively, use tools, curry favor, deceive one another, and punish wrongdoers. We may imagine that fishes lead simple, fleeting lives—a mode of existence that boils down to a place on the food chain, rote spawning, and lots of aimless swimming. But, as Balcombe demonstrates, the truth is far richer and more complex, worthy of the grandest social novel.
Highlighting breakthrough discoveries from fish enthusiasts and scientists around the world and pondering his own encounters with fishes, Balcombe examines the fascinating means by which fishes gain knowledge of the places they inhabit, from shallow tide pools to the deepest reaches of the ocean.
Teeming with insights and exciting discoveries, What a Fish Knows offers a thoughtful appraisal of our relationships with fishes and inspires us to take a more enlightened view of the planet’s increasingly imperiled marine life. What a Fish Knows will forever change how we see our aquatic cousins—the pet goldfish included.

Informazioni sull?autore:

Jonathan Balcombe is the director of animal sentience at the Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy and the author of four books, including Second Nature and Pleasurable Kingdom. A popular commentator, he has appeared on The Diane Rehm Show, the BBC, and the National Geographic Channel, and in several documentaries, and is a contributor of features and opinions to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Nature, and other publications. He lives in Maryland. Find him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, and visit his website.