“When poachers target the matriarchs or older females—as they often do, because older elephants usually have larger tusks—they also destroy that lifetime of learning and knowledge. For an elephant family, the death of a matriarch must feel like losing an… — Virginia Morell Copy Share
“Fish are unable, of course, to speak for themselves about how we treat them. They have ways of communicating with each other and, in some cases, even with other species of fish, as the groupers and eels do. As with most animals, their inability to communicate directly with us puts them at a disadvantage. They cannot argue for their rights… — Virginia Morell Copy Share
“A large brain-to-body size ratio is often considered a hallmark of intelligence, although it’s not the only factor. But it is something we humans celebrate in ourselves and regard as key to the flowering of human intelligence. So it’s easy to imagine scientists’ eyebrows arching in surprise when dolphins—and not chimpanzees—were discovered in the 1950s and 1960s to have a… — Virginia Morell Copy Share
“When poachers target the matriarchs or older females—as they often do, because older elephants usually have larger tusks—they also destroy that lifetime of learning and knowledge. For an elephant family, the death of a matriarch must feel like losing an encyclopedia, or an entire library—and for us, the loss makes stopping the poaching even more urgent, if only to protect… — Virginia Morell Copy Share
“Researches still don't have an explanation for the differnece between the sizes of dogs' and wolves' brains - or for why every species of… — Virginia Morell Copy Share Image
“Often, when an elephant has just died, other elephants will back up to touch its carcass gently with their hind feet, then cover the… — Virginia Morell Copy Share Image
“Elephants also have the necessary neural anatomy for long-term memories—their brains have especially large and complex frontal lobes, which are important for storing and… — Virginia Morell Copy Share Image
“Dolphins have one of the highest ratios of brain size to body mass in the animal kingdom. Measured in this way, a dolphin’s brain… — Virginia Morell Copy Share Image
“In the very earliest times, when both people and animals lived on earth, a person could become an animal if he wanted to, and… — Virginia Morell Copy Share Image
“The greatest threat to all wild animals is the loss of habitat—the destruction of the areas and resources they need to survive. Climate change… — Virginia Morell Copy Share Image
“But for the moment, she said, her previous studies with trout suggest that fish in pain will not behave normally, that they will either… — Virginia Morell Copy Share Image
