Short Synopsis
New York Times bestselling author Carl Safina brings listeners close to three non-human cultures—what they do, why they do it, and how life is for them.

Full Synopsis
Some people insist that culture is strictly a human feat. What are they afraid of? This book looks into three cultures of other-than-human beings in some of Earth's remaining wild places. It shows how if you're a sperm whale, a scarlet macaw, or a chimpanzee, you too experience your life with the understanding that you are an individual in a particular community. You too are who you are not by genes alone; your culture is a second form of inheritance. You receive it from thousands of individuals, from pools of knowledge passing through generations like an eternal torch. You too may raise young, know beauty, or struggle to negotiate a peace. And your culture, too, changes and evolves. The light of knowledge needs adjusting as situations change, so a capacity for learning, especially social learning, allows behaviors to adjust, to change much faster than genes alone could adapt.

Becoming Wild offers a glimpse into cultures among non-human animals through looks at the lives of individuals in different present-day animal societies. By showing how others teach and learn, Safina offers a fresh understanding of what is constantly going on beyond humanity.

"Carl Safina starts off by bringing listeners along on a drenching trip to watch—and listen to—sperm whales off the coast of Dominica in the Caribbean. Listeners can feel his exasperation with the wetness and his growing understanding of the language hidden in the whales' clicks and squeaks." ---AudioFile