Books
A beautiful resource for Nature advocates, parents-to-be, Animal lovers, and anyone who seeks to restore wellbeing on our planet, The Evolved Nest reconnects us to lessons from the Animal world and shows us how to restore wellness in our families, communities, and lives.
Each of 10 chapters explores a different animal’s parenting model, sharing species-specific adaptations that allow each to thrive in their “evolved nests.” You’ll learn:
- How Wolves build an internal moral compass
- How Beavers foster a spirit of play in their children
- How Octopuses develop emotional and social intelligence
- How, when, and whether (or not) Brown Bears decide to have children
- What their lessons can teach you–whether you’re a parent, grandparent, caregiver, or childfree
Psychologists Drs. Darcia Narvaez and Gay Bradshaw show us how each evolved nest offers inspiration for reexamining our own systems of nurturing, understanding, and caring for our young and each other. Alongside beautiful illustrations, stunning scientific facts, and lessons in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, we learn to care deeper: to restore our innate place within the natural world and fight for an ecology of life that supports our flourishing in balance with Nature alongside our human and non-human family.
A highly literary and reflective portrait of Charlie Russell’s beautiful and unparalleled relationship with some of our planet’s most majestic giants.
Charlie Russell is a legend, not only in his home territory of Alberta but in all of Canada and around the world. An author of several books, including Walking with Giants: The Grizzlies of Siberia, The Spirit Bear: Encounters with the White Bear of the Western Rainforest, and Grizzly Heart: Living Without Fear Among the Brown Bears of Kamchatka, he has been the subject of numerous interviews, documentaries, and articles showcasing him and the bears he loved.
Talking with Bears is an intimate portrait of Charlie Russell’s philosophy of nature, which evolved over the 76 years he graced this planet. Accompanied by stunning photography, the book is written in narrative form, the way Charlie spoke and shared his stories and knowledge with others. Each of the chapters describes some facet of Charlie’s philosophy and experiences through the stories of individual bears and what they taught him: the meaning of trust, respect, attention, love, and much more.
Talking with Bears is written for everyone and anyone who yearns to rekindle the magic of living in alignment with nature and bring the teachings of Charlie Russell and his bears into their own lives.
Myth and media typically cast animals we consider predators or carnivores as unthinking killers—dangerous, unpredictable, and devoid of emotion. But is this portrait valid? By exploring their inner lives, this pioneering book refutes the many misperceptions that hide the true nature of these animals. We discover that great white sharks express tender maternal feelings, rattlesnakes make friends, orcas abide by an ancient moral code, and much more.
Using the combined lenses of natural history, neuroscience, and psychology, G. A. Bradshaw describes how predators share the rainbow of emotions that humans experience, including psychological trauma. Renowned for leading research on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in elephants and other species, Bradshaw decries the irrational thinking behind wildlife policies that equate killing carnivores with “conservation.” In its place, she proposes a new, ethical approach to coexistence with the planet’s fiercest animals.
The Elephant Letters tells the moving story of Billy and Kani, two African Elephants. While they were born on the same day, the two young cousins live very different lives. Kani roams the Kenyan savanna with wild Elephant herds, struggling to survive the onslaught of poachers and other humans. His cousin Billy lives in a zoo facing loneliness and hardship after being orphaned and taken from Africa.
The cousins’ letters to each other over the years provide a unique, inside view of Elephant lives that invites children and adults around the world to learn about Elephants and how they can help save this magnificent species.
In the past, depth psychology has largely confined its reflections upon animals to human dreams and encounters. In Minding the Animal Psyche, Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture, seeks to greatly broaden this inquiry, turning the psychological eye from its inward gaze to honor and explore the psyches of our animal kin and the mutual interrelationships that exist among species.
As our global society moves from anthropocentrism to ecocentricism, individuation of the ecopsyche mandates that we reflect on what animals bring into our lives and what we bring to the psyches of the animals with which we live. Psychology’s acknowledgement of the animal psyche”in the same way that we do with the human psyche”represents a dramatic, expansive shift and an exciting opportunity to bring insights from animal-oriented disciplines to depth psychology.
In the tradition of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, a renowned animal trauma specialist offers an unusual glimpse into the elephant mind and makes an appeal for new notions of human uniqueness and treatment of animals
Drawing on accounts from India to Africa and California to Tennessee, and on research in neuroscience, psychology, and animal behavior, G. A. Bradshaw explores the minds, emotions, and lives of elephants. Wars, starvation, mass culls, poaching, and habitat loss have reduced elephant numbers from more than ten million to a few hundred thousand, leaving orphans bereft of the elders who would normally mentor them. As a consequence, traumatized elephants have become aggressive against people, other animals, and even one another; their behavior is comparable to that of humans who have experienced genocide, other types of violence, and social collapse. By exploring the elephant mind and experience in the wild and in captivity, Bradshaw bears witness to the breakdown of ancient elephant cultures.
All is not lost. People are working to save elephants by rescuing orphaned infants and rehabilitating adult zoo and circus elephants, using the same principles psychologists apply in treating humans who have survived trauma. Bradshaw urges us to support these and other models of elephant recovery and to solve pressing social and environmental crises affecting all animals, human or not.
North and South America share similar human and ecological histories and, increasingly, economic and social linkages. As such, issues of ecosystem functions and disruptions form a common thread among these cultures. This volume synthesizes the perspectives of several disciplines, such as ecology, anthropology, economy, and conservation biology.
The chief goal is to gain an understanding of how human and ecological processes interact to affect ecosystem functions and species in the Americas. Throughout the text the emphasis is placed on habitat fragmentation. At the same time, the book provides an overview of current theory, methods, and approaches used in the analysis of ecosystem disruptions and fragmentation.
Book Reviews
- Flannery, T. (2010, April 29). Getting to Know Them. The New York Review of Books.
- Author: Misconception Of Carnivores As Killing Machines Clouds True Nature Of Animals. (2017, June 1). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- Oregonian, S. to T. (n.d.). Nonfiction review: “Elephants on the Edge.” Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- Hart, L. A. (2010). Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 85(4), 520–520.
- Book Review: Carnivore Minds | Open Letters Monthly – an Arts and Literature Review. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- Carnivore Minds: Who These Fearsome Animals Really Are | Natural History Magazine. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- Smith, J. E. (2017). Carnivore Minds: Who These Fearsome Animals Really Are by G. A. Bradshaw. The Quarterly Review of Biology, 92(3), 312–313.
- Lacy, M. M. (2017). Carnivore Minds: Who These Fearsome Animals Really Are. The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 90(3), 517–518.
- Wild tales of stuffy sharks, intimate otters and unloved horses. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2018.