Hi, I'm Alan Alder, and this is Clear In Vivid, conversations about connecting and communicating.

One of the rules in the science of animal behavior is you're not allowed to attribute human

thoughts and emotions to other animals, but if an animal seems afraid in a situation

that's dangerous to it, it's probably feeling afraid.

An old, old emotion that we inherited, people didn't get, you know, we didn't get our

nervous system from Walmart, you know, we inherited it.

So that means that a lot of the components of our nervous system and our abilities come

from a place that a lot of other animals have gotten it from.

We share it, and these kinds of ways of attributing thoughts and emotions to animals are probably

exactly what's going on.

That's Carl Saphina, whose love of nature has led him to a lifetime of studying the world

we live in, a world from which we've become increasingly separated.

Carl's books bring us back to that world with beautiful writing, and they often reflect

on the other animals in the world with a firm understanding that a lot of what we are,

we actually share with them.

Well this is so great to be talking to you today because you have the answers to the

questions that probably every one of us has been asking since we were a kid and had a pet

turtle or a pet dog or a pet hamster.

Well, I don't know if I have the answers, but I hope I have answers.

Do they think?

Do they feel?

Now, your answer to that is, I think, definitely yes.

...