Becoming Wild
How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace
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Narrated by:
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Carl Safina
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By:
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Carl Safina
About this listen
Some people insist that culture is strictly a human feat. What are they afraid of? This book looks into three cultures of other-than-human beings in some of Earth's remaining wild places. It shows how if you're a sperm whale, a scarlet macaw, or a chimpanzee, you too experience your life with the understanding that you are an individual in a particular community.
You too are who you are not by genes alone; your culture is a second form of inheritance. You receive it from thousands of individuals, from pools of knowledge passing through generations like an eternal torch. You too may raise young, know beauty, or struggle to negotiate a peace. And your culture, too, changes and evolves. The light of knowledge needs adjusting as situations change, so a capacity for learning, especially social learning, allows behaviors to adjust, to change much faster than genes alone could adapt.
Becoming Wild offers a glimpse into cultures among non-human animals through looks at the lives of individuals in different present-day animal societies. By showing how others teach and learn, Carl Safina offers a fresh understanding of what is constantly going on beyond humanity.
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Story
Is it really human nature to stab one another in the back in our climb up the corporate ladder? Competitive, selfish behavior is often explained away as instinctive, thanks to evolution and "survival of the fittest", but in fact, humans are equally hard-wired for empathy. Using research from the fields of anthropology, psychology, animal behavior, and neuroscience, Frans de Waal brilliantly argues that humans are group animals.
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A Lot Of Things In Common With Our Animal Friends!
- By James on 08-14-11
By: Frans de Waal
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Sex in the Sea
- Our Intimate Connection with Kinky Crustaceans, Sex-Changing Fish, Romantic Lobsters and Other Salty Erotica of the Deep
- By: Marah J. Hardt
- Narrated by: Carla Mercer-Meyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Forget the Kama Sutra. When it comes to inventive sex acts, just look to the sea. There we find the elaborate mating rituals of armored lobsters; giant right whales engaging in a lively threesome while holding their breath; full-moon sex parties of groupers; and daily mating blitzes by blueheaded wrasse. Deep-sea squid perform inverted 69s while hermaphrodite sea slugs link up in giant sex loops.
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How to laugh while learning/ learn while laughing
- By Miamigrrl on 07-27-16
By: Marah J. Hardt
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The Armchair Birder
- Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds
- By: John Yow
- Narrated by: Kevin Young
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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While birding literature is filled with tales of expert observers spotting rare species in exotic locales, John Yow reminds us that the most fascinating birds can be the ones perched right outside our windows. In thirty-five engaging and sometimes irreverent vignettes, Yow reveals the fascinating lives of the birds we see nearly every day. Following the seasons, he covers forty-two species, discussing the improbable, unusual, and comical aspects of his subjects' lives.
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If You Love Birds . . . Grab It!
- By Kathy in CA on 02-23-17
By: John Yow
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Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
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Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
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How to Read Nature
- An Expert's Guide to Discovering the Outdoors You've Never Noticed
- By: Tristan Gooley
- Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
- Length: 3 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Nobody wakes up in the morning and decides to shut down their senses and stumble through each day in an oblivious bubble, and yet some people end up having much richer experiences than others. In this guidebook, natural navigator Tristan Gooley strives to reawaken our senses to help us understand and deepen our personal experience of nature. His message is to connect - however we can and to whatever draws us in.
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A fool sees not the same tree a wise man sees
- By Mark A Bleakley on 08-07-18
By: Tristan Gooley
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In the Company of Bears
- What Black Bears Have Taught Me About Intelligence and Intuition
- By: Benjamin Kilham
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Imagine raising an orphaned bear cub, carefully reintroducing her to the wild, then being welcomed back, almost daily, to observe her wild world for more than 17 years. Imagine visiting her in her feeding spots, watching her with her mates and her young, peering into her den, and, over time, observing the lives of all the other wild bears in her territory and surrounding ones. That is what happened to Ben Kilham.
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Best Bear book I have read!
- By Walking With Bears on 06-02-21
By: Benjamin Kilham
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Wild Ones
- A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America’s endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Jon Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, to move beyond childlike fascination and make those creatures feel more real. Wild Ones is a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it.
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The line between conservation and domestication...
- By Bonny on 04-02-14
By: Jon Mooallem
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The Lives of a Cell
- Notes of a Biology Watcher
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Lives of a Cell, Dr. Lewis Thomas opens up to the listener a universe of knowledge and perception that is perhaps not wholly unfamiliar to the research scientist; but the world he explores is also one of men and women, of complex interrelationships, old ironies, peculiar powers, and intricate languages that give identity to the alienated and direction to the dependent. This remarkable work offers a subtle, bold vision of humankind and the world around us - a sense of what gives life - from a writer who seems to draw grace and strength from the very substance of his subject.
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So enlightening and enjoyable!
- By Flora on 03-15-18
By: Lewis Thomas
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Gifts of the Crow
- How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
- By: John Marzluff, Tony Angell
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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New research indicates that crows are among the brightest animals in the world. And professor of Wildlife Science at the University of Washington John Marzluff has done some of the most extraordinary research on crows, which has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, and the Chicago Tribune, as well as on NPR and PBS. Now he teams up with artist and fellow naturalist Tony Angell to offer an in-depth look at these incredible creatures - in a book that is brimming with surprises.
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You Will Never Look At A Crow The Same Way Again
- By Diane on 06-30-12
By: John Marzluff, and others
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The Beak of the Finch
- A Story of Evolution in Our Time
- By: Jonathan Weiner
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend 20 years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos, studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are 400 at the time of the author's visit or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about 20 generations of finches - continuously.Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.
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Fascinating in-depth look at evolution in action
- By Philip on 05-15-11
By: Jonathan Weiner
What listeners say about Becoming Wild
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Phil
- 01-31-21
wonderful
The author's natation was excellent and the information was presented in a captivating storyline. Truly enjoyable
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2 people found this helpful
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- Sarah Bell
- 07-03-21
A must read for an ailing species!
First of all, listening to the author read this book was pure joy. Knowing he was there to personally experience what was written here lent the book great import and authenticity. This book is an important look at who we live amongst and how we alone can make it or break it. Too bad the right people will most likely never read it. If you know who they are, please gift them a copy and incentivize the read if necessary! Thank you Carl!
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- Mark
- 01-30-23
Beyond words, literally
This is a remarkable book and one that everyone should read. I have always been involved with Animals, and I always knew that animals deserved enriched lives, but this book brings a paradigm shift in the way we perceive animals.
"Who are you?" That is the question we should be asking creatures with whom we stingily share our planet.
There are a few painful passages when Safina points out the truth about human selfishness. But by sharing research and facts about the way these animals interact with the world, I hope that all but the most selfish with rethink the world in which we live. A note the selfish: Creatures on this world enrich our lives too. And without them, our existence will be bland and unrewarding.
Finally, I would say that this book seems like a translator, from the language and culture of non-human creatures, to humans.
Simply amazing.
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- Fact addict
- 01-13-21
Oh, Boy! Another Carl Safina book!
I just cannot get enough of thus guy! The whole world should have access to his thoughts and ideas: maybe, just maybe- then some dimwit humans would get the idea that everything on the planet has value in itself, not just for the buying or selling. His stories are always totally engrossing, and always leave me wanting more: more knowledge, more experiences, more understanding. He just is great... and unlike some authors who narrate their own books, he is also a great narrator. Kudos, Mr Safina!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Peggi's
- 11-13-22
Well researched insight into animal cultures!
Mostly enjoyable, although at times I felt like the points were made over and over again to the point of my own exhaustion with the subject.
Beautiful prose when he is descriptive.
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- Knitting Fisherman
- 06-13-20
It all sinks in over the story—highly recommend
I wasn’t sure I was going to end up loving this book as much as I ended up loving it as I read the first section. By the time I got to the end, I didn’t want it to end. The book made me think about things in a different way, think about things that perhaps I haven’t considered as I’ve moved through years as an inhabitant of the planet. The narration was mostly very good and appropriate for the stories, a little “glitchy” at times , but I appreciated Safina’s methods of emphasis.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Laura
- 11-28-22
Changed my view of the world
This is a game-changer book. Made me appreciate and respect animals in a whole new way, and also made me feel embarrassed about how human-centric my understanding of the world is.
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- Michelle
- 07-25-22
lovely and engrossing
I loved this book.
All through the first section on whales I kept pausing it and telling people all about their culture and families - something about the knowledge felt exciting and I wanted to share it. The book as a whole was lovely and engrossing. The author reads the book and is very able with conveying emotion when appropriate. There were some things in this book I already knew and alot I didn't, but it was structured very well and I highly recommend it.
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- Lorraine Bennett
- 02-22-23
Makes you stop think
Well written. So much time and research went in to writing this book. There are a few funny stories especially about the chimpanzees but on the whole this is a very serious book that really makes you stop and think what are we doing to the world we live in…Why does the majority of mankind not care and put humans before all else?
Maybe Carl should think about condensing this book so the non believers might take a little time to read or listen.
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- Roxie in Dallas
- 05-08-21
excellent well sequenced and relevant
deeply appreciated authors narrative, compelling and beautifully written, could have been made into 3 books
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2 people found this helpful