“the relationship that Jane Goodall has with the chimpanzees of Gombe—and that Dian Fossey had with the mountain gorillas she studied, and Biruté Galdikas has with the wild orangutans of Tanjung Puting—is different. There is a trust between human and… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
“Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas modeled their approach on Jane Goodall’s: they began their studies by relinquishing control. In the masculine world of Western science, where achievement is typically measured by mastery, theirs was an unusual approach.” — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
“I never met a pig I didn't like. All pigs are intelligent, emotional, and sensitive souls. They all love company. They all crave contact… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
“As with a child, to commune with Athena demands a level of openness and intuition greater than that used in the usual discourse between… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
“I was warmly amused at the way each one tried to outdo the others in showing how her ape was the “most human”—trying to win the audience over to favor her animal. Orangutans, Biruté said, seemed the most human because of the whites of their eyes. Dian insisted that her gorillas were most humanlike because of their tight-knit family groupings.… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share
“Octopuses and their relatives have what Woods Hole researcher Roger Hanlon calls electric skin. For its color palette, the octopus uses three layers of three different types of cells near the skin’s surface—all controlled in different ways. The deepest layer, containing the white leucophores, passively reflects background light. This process appears to involve no muscles or nerves. The middle layer… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share
Adult gorillas will fight to the death defending their families. This is why poachers who may be seeking only one infant for the zoo… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
“They don’t want to hear how Octavia is different from us. They want to know how we’re the same. They know what it’s like… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
“Assessing the mind of a creature this alien demands that we be extraordinary flexible in our own thinking. Marine biologist James Wood suggests our… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
“The affection the aquarists felt for the octopus appeared to be mutual. For the hours that they swam together, though the massive octopus could… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
“The self,” Blackmore writes, “is just a fleeting impression that arises with each experience and fades away again. . . . There is no inner self,” she… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
“Volumes of history written in the ancient alphabet of G and C, A and T.” — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
“The study of a language . . . allows its students to hear a people's 'interpretation (or misinterpretation) of messages from environment to human.'… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
Human relationships with predators have always been thorny. Predators are the first creatures our kind purposely eradicates. Too often, people feel humans are and… — Sy Montgomery Copy Share Image
