The chapters are short (some are only two pages long) and the book is very easy to read. In many ways, the author manages to achieve his goal of writing a book for the masses. The Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben (2017) His love for all living things knows no bounds as he even manages to make the life of a forest tick and the humble slime mould more palatable. He talks about wild boar that have learnt to outsmart annual human hunters, to foxes playing dead to catch crows to Eurasian jays stealing food from other birds and squirrels eating baby birds in winter.

Ultimately though, he draws much heavily from his own observations of animal behavior from his years of working as a forester in Hümmel, Germany where he lives on a farm surrounded by dogs, goats and horses. To substantiate his claims, Peter refers to scientific research such as those emerging from Penn State University on pain receptors in fish and research from the University of Seville into fish brain to name a few.

Peter’s aim is to write in a manner that is simple to understand, free from scientific jargon so that the book is accessible to as wide an audience as possible. The tone of the book is set in the introduction. And just like humans, Peter believes that animals are individuals and therefore uniquely different. The author’s foray into the topic is simple – that if animals and humans are related on an evolutionary tree – then animals must also experience sadness, anger, grief, infidelity, happiness and greed. Peter Wohlleben’s The Inner Life of Animals is a book that delves into the examination of animal behavior and emotions.

The inner life of animals