Big book crush alert! I stumbled on a Q &A with Jonathan Peter Balcombe the author of The Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure on Wired (article here) and was clicking away to find out more and more about this book.
Above is an image from The Exultant Ark; beluga whales and dolphins have been seen blowing bubble rings in the water and swimming through them. Balcombe says that this has been mainly observed in captivity and provides an explanation to possibly why they do it.
Since the practice isn’t common in the wild a reasonable explanation for this practice is play…being bored in captivity the whales make a game for themselves.
Balcombe argues that the burden of proof in the science of animal emotions should lie in disproving animals can experience joy and love since these emotions are hard enough to identify in humans and these experiences are unique and specific to individuals it is more logical to assume that animals can and do feel these emotions.
On this image Balcombe writes, “A young bull elk engages in an act of playful curiosity commonly performed by young children — sticking out a tongue to catch snowflakes.”
Yeah, I kind of need this book in my life.
Read an excerpt from Exultant Ark here.
I love this! I would love to read this book! I definitely think that animals have feelings of emotion! I’ve never read anything about animals from this perspective before! I think I may need to check into this!
ohmygosh i want this book! i can imagine smiling and gushing over every page =) good find!
This certainly makes me smile, as I love animals particularly dolphins, I used to swim w/ them when I was little at a water park & have a dolphin tattoo I love them so much, lol: clever animals they are. So many books to read this summer…Great post, lovely!
Maddy!
Oh my gosh, I am LOVING this!! I am such a HUGE animal lover, and it honestly made me so excited when I saw a Beluga as the first image. Thank you so much for your amazing comment, and for visiting my blog. I so appreciate it!!! 🙂
Jamillah such a touching and heart warming post, coming from an equally heart-warming person like you! I am not surprised at all that you would see the beauty in the beautiful animals. I am in love with the beluga whale and and want to give her a big fat kiss!! The elk is truly a picutre of fun an frolic. Animals absolutely experience emotions and hence have the ability to reciprocate the emotions. I wish we humans expressed our joy and love with such abandon and not be riddled with neuroses, anxieties and all other kinds of disorders! Big kiss to you!!
I am totally loving these photos – especially the last one!! Too cute!!
this book looks amazing! the images are gorgeous.
xoxo
haha, that dolphin kinda freaked me out, but i love it. and the photo of the monkey is too cute!
Such a lovely post my darling! Swimming with dolphins is a dream of mine. I talk to animals all the time, even ants lol. Hugs!
That does look like such a great book. I do think animals have emotions, so thats cool he said to DISprove that they do. Interesting. I’ve seen that about the dolphins blowing holes.. really cute 🙂
Cute pictures! Looks like an interesting read. Thanks for your comment 🙂
Lydia
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