Secret Lives of Animals

Updated June 7, 2026
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Raising hare : the heart-warming true story of an unlikely friendship
Dalton, Chloe
Paper Book
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR NATURE WRITING WINNER OF THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION, HATCHARDS AND BIOGRAPHERS' CLUB FIRST...
If Nietzsche were a narwhal : what animal intelligence reveals about human stupidity
Gregg, Justin
Paper Book
CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 BY WATERSTONES AND THE TIMES'Entertaining and original.' Guardian'Accessible and insightful, it's a thought-provoking read.' Observer' Highly readable.' The Times'Nothing less than brilliant.' Wall Street...
Becoming wild : how animals learn to be animals
Safina, Carl
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 'Bracing and enlightening' Science Culture is something exclusive to human beings, isn't it? Not so, says intrepid researcher Carl Safina. Becoming Wild reveals the rich cultures that survive in some of Earth's remaining...
An immense world : how animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us
Yong, Ed
Paper Book
**SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** This is our world, as you've never seen it before. The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed...
World of wonders : in praise of fireflies, whale sharks, and other astonishments
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee
Paper Book
"Hands-down one of the most beautiful books of the year." --NPR From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction--a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us. As a child,...
Inside of a dog : what dogs see, smell and know
Horowitz, Alexandra
Paper Book
The instant classic on the mind of the dog is now updated to include the latest results in the booming field of dog cognition. What do dogs know? How do they think? The answers will surprise and delight you as cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds,...
What an owl knows : the new science of the world's most enigmatic birds
Ackerman, Jennifer
Paper Book
For centuries, owls have captivated and intrigued us. Our fascination with these mysterious birds was first documented over 30,000 years ago, in the Chauvet cave paintings in southern France, and our enduring awareness and curiosity of their forward gaze and nearly silent flight has cemented the owl...
Bitch : a revolutionary guide to sex, evolution and the female animal
Cooke, Lucy
Paper Book
'A dazzling, funny and elegantly angry demolition of our preconceptions about female behaviour and sex in the animal kingdom ... Bitch is a blast. I read it, my jaw sagging in astonishment, jotting down favourite parts to send to friends and reading out snippets gleefully....
Fox and I : an uncommon friendship
Raven, Catherine
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2022 PEN/E.O. WILSON LITERARY SCIENCE WRITING AWARD A solitary woman's inspiring, moving, surprising, and often funny memoir about the transformative power of her unusual friendship with a wild fox. Catherine Raven left home at 15, fleeing an abusive father and an...
How far the light reaches : a life in ten sea creatures
Imbler, Sabrina
Paper Book
A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor: this "miraculous, transcendental book" invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live (Ed Yong, author of An Immense World). A queer, mixed race...
Playing possum : how animals understand death
Monsó, Susana
Paper Book
How animals conceive of death and dying--and what it can teach us about our own relationships with mortality When the opossum feels threatened, she becomes paralyzed. Her body temperature plummets, her breathing and heart rates drop to a minimum, and her glands simulate the...
What the chicken knows : a new appreciation of the world's most familiar bird
Montgomery, Sy
Paper Book
A charming and eye-opening exploration of the special relationship between humans and chickens from Sy Montgomery, "one of our finest chroniclers of the natural world" (The New York Times). For more than two decades, Sy Montgomery--whose The Soul of an...
What it's like to be a bird : from flying to nesting, eating to singing -- what birds are doing, and why
Sibley, David
Paper Book
The bird book for birders and nonbirders alike that will excite and inspire by providing a new and deeper understanding of what common, mostly backyard, birds are doing-and why- "Can birds smell?"; "Is this the same cardinal that was at my feeder last year?"; "Do robins 'hear' worms?"
Otherlands : a world in the making
Halliday, Thomas
Paper Book
This is the past as we've never seen it before. Otherlands is an epic, exhilarating journey into deep time, showing us the Earth as it used to exist, and the worlds that were here before ours. Travelling back in time to the dawn of complex life, and across all seven continents,...
On animals
Orlean, Susan
Paper Book
A delightful and entertaining collection of a lifetime of musings, meditations and in-depth profiles about animals, by the bestselling author of The Orchid Thief and The Library Book.
Secrets of the octopus
Montgomery, Sy
Paper Book
Take an illuminating journey into the life of the octopus, one of nature's most intelligent and complex animals. Come closer than ever to these elusive creatures, thanks to insights from an international bestselling author-working with the founder of Octonation and the world's top...
1438886-1001
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Paper Book
"[A] wonderful book." --Nature "A mind-opening adventure." --Natural History An awe-inspiring tour of bat world by the world's leading expert With nearly 1500 species, bats account for more than twenty percent of...
The mind of a bee
Chittka, Lars
Paper Book
A rich and surprising exploration of the intelligence of bees Most of us are aware of the hive mind--the power of bees as an amazing collective. But do we know how uniquely intelligent bees are as individuals? In The Mind of a Bee, Lars Chittka draws from decades of...
The bird way : a new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent, and think
Ackerman, Jennifer
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds -- how they live and how they think. "There is the...
Sentient : what animals reveal about our senses
Higgins, Jackie
Paper Book
Sentient assembles a menagerie of zoological creatures - from land, air, sea and all four corners of the globe - to understand what it means to be human. Through their eyes, ears, skins, tongues and noses, the furred, finned and feathered reveal how we sense and make sense of the world, as well as...
A world on the wing : the global odyssey of migratory birds
Weidensaul, Scott
Paper Book
The New York Times bestseller 'A vaulting triumph of a book' - Isabella Tree, author of Wilding 'A master storyteller' - The Observer An exhilarating exploration of the science and wonder of global bird migration....
Metazoa : animal minds and the birth of consciousness
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paper Book
The follow-up to the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week Other Minds A Times and Sunday Times Book of the Year A Waterstones Best Book of 2020 The scuba-diving philosopher explores the origins of animal consciousness. ...
Endless forms : why we should love wasps
Sumner, Seirian
Paper Book
'A funny and beautifully written welcome to the enigmatic, weird and wonderful world of wasps' DAVE GOULSON, author of SILENT EARTH There may be no insect with a worse reputation than the wasp, and none guarding so many undiscovered wonders. Where bees and ants...
Hurricane lizards and plastic squid : how the natural world is adapting to climate change
Hanson, Thor
Paper Book
Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid is the first major book by a biologist to focus on the fascinating story of how the natural world is adjusting, adapting, and sometimes measurably evolving in response to climate change. Lyrical and thought-provoking, this book broadens the climate focus...
The zoologist's guide to the galaxy : what animals on Earth reveal about aliens - and about ourselves
Kershenbaum, Arik
Paper Book
* Paperback edition is published on 1 July 2021 * A Times/Sunday Times Book of the Year DISCOVER HOW LIFE REALLY WORKS - ON EARTH AND IN SPACE 'I love The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy. Although it sets...
How to speak whale : a voyage into the future of animal communication
Mustill, Tom
Paper Book
'Fascinating' Greta Thunberg 'Extraordinary' Merlin Sheldrake 'A must-read' New Scientist 'Enthralling' George Monbiot 'Brilliant' Philip Hoare As a biologist and nature filmmaker, Tom Mustill had always liked whales. But when one landed on his kayak,...
Why animals talk : the new science of animal communication
Kershenbaum, Arik
Paper Book
'Wonderful . . . Endlessly interesting and beautifully written' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Steady-headed and fun' SUNDAY TIMES 'Read this book and, I promise, you'll never listen to animals in the same way again' JESSICA PIERCE, author of Who's a Good Dog?<...
The wise hours : a journey into the wild and secret world of owls
Darlington, Miriam
Paper Book
A People Pick of the Week "Unfailingly precise and lovingly poetic. . . . Nature writing of the first order." ―The Wall Street Journal "A beautiful book; wise and sharp-eared as its subject." ―Robert Macfarlane One minute I was...
The social lives of animals : how co-operation conquered the natural world
Ward, Ashley
Paper Book
Everything you ever wanted to know about how animals live together, and what that means for us.
Birdgirl : discovering the power of the natural world
Craig, Mya-Rose
Paper Book
Discover Mya-Rose Craig's moving and life-affirming memoir about family, searching for rare birds, and the power of our natural world. 'Lyrical, poignant and insightful' MARGARET ATWOOD (on Twitter) 'Filled with hope and energy' Guardian In...
A short history of the world according to sheep
Coulthard, Sally
Paper Book
'This book deserves a place in your bookcase next to Harari's Sapiens. It's every bit as fascinating and is surely destined to be just as successful' Julian Norton From the plains of ancient Mesopotamia to the vast sheep farms of modern-day Australia, sheep have been central to the...
The ravenmaster : my life with the ravens at the Tower of London
Skaife, Christopher
Paper Book
'Packed with insight and anecdote, his story brings the Tower ravens to vivid life, each bird with a personality of its own. I've been fortunate enough to tour the Tower and meet the ravens a few times in years past; after reading this book, I cannot wait to go back' George R. R. Martin ...

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