This Madrid philosopher delves into animal (and plant) behavior to try to understand what they understand about death. Careful to avoid anthropomorhizing, she provides documentation of a vast array of sometimes very bizarre and puzzling behavior in an equally vast variety of species.
The difference between stereotypical and cognitive reactions to death are carefully outlined and she concludes that many species are capable of processing concepts of death to varying degrees even if they do so in a very different way than we do. Cognition, experience and emotion become the mainstays in the erudite study of this phenomenon, known as comparative thanatology, hardly a crowded field.
The possum is not the only species to play dead when threatened and it cools, goes limp and secretes putrescine and cadaverine to detract from its attractiveness to predators.
Much of the documentation involves primates, but insects and even Venus fly traps are included.
The fuzzy black and white photographs accompanying the text are not very helpful. There is just enough morbid humor to keep me interested, although overall the extreme violence of most or nature is what is emphasized.
3.5/5
Thanks, The New Yorker.
The Passionate Reader 