From the time of our earliest childhood encounters with animals, we casually ascribe familiar emotions to them. But scientists have long cautioned against such anthropomorphizing, arguing that it limits our ability to truly comprehend the lives of other creatures. Recently, however, things have begun to shift in the other direction, and anthropologist Barbara J. King is at the forefront of that movement, arguing strenuously that we can—and should —attend to animal emotions. With How Animals Grieve , she draws our attention to the specific case of grief, and relates story after story—from fieldsites, farms, homes, and more—of animals mourning lost companions, mates, or friends. King tells of elephants surrounding their matriarch as she weakens and dies, and, in the following days, attending to her corpse as if holding a vigil. A housecat loses her sister, from whom she's never before been parted, and spends weeks pacing the apartment, wailing plaintively. A baboon loses her daughter to a predator and sinks into grief. In each case, King uses her anthropological training to interpret and try to explain what we see—to help us understand this animal grief properly, as something neither the same as nor wholly different from the human experience of loss. The resulting book is both daring and down-to-earth, strikingly ambitious even as it’s careful to acknowledge the limits of our understanding. Through the moving stories she chronicles and analyzes so beautifully, King brings us closer to the animals with whom we share a planet, and helps us see our own experiences, attachments, and emotions as part of a larger web of life, death, love, and loss. “Touching and provocative.” -- Kari Weil ― Washington Post "A series of heartwarming tales demonstrating the existence of a love stronger than death between animals. . . . King makes no claims about whether animals comprehend death, but she does assert that they feel grief—because they care about and bond to one another, 'because of a heart’s certainty that another’s presence is as necessary as air.' In support of this hypothesis, she offers touching accounts of responses to death in every corner of the animal kingdom, from the big-brained megafauna (primates, elephants, whales) to the domesticated crowd-pleasers (cats, dogs, horses) to the completely surprising (chickens)." -- Kathryn Schulz ― The New Yorker “Makes a powerful case for the presence of love, affection, and grief in animals—from a house cat mourning her lost sister to elephants who pay respects to the bones of their matriarchs.” -- Petra Mayer ― NPR “ How Animals Grieve . . . collects anecdotal and scientific data on grief in many kinds of animals, even some that most researchers ignore, such as rabbits, goats, and turtles. . . . As King points out in her book, there are enough examples of grief in species as varied as goats, baboons, and gorillas that the emotion may be an experience shared by many species. If so, then it must have an evolutionary history and confer some benefit—that is, it must be advantageous in some way, enabling the mourner to survive long enough to reproduce and pass his or her genes to the next generation.” -- Virginia Morell ― Lapham’s Quarterly “King attempts to walk the tightrope of scientific rigor while accepting that non-human animals can have emotions. . . . She has written a challenging book that implies big questions about who we are and how we choose to live.” -- Simon Barnes ― Times “King writes convincingly about the capacity of animals to feel. In the introduction alone, we learn that though elephants and chimps are the gold standard when it comes to animal feeling, chickens, goats, bunnies, and ducks have their verklempt moments.” -- Sarah Murdoch ― Toronto Star "King makes a compelling case for the rich and deep emotional lives of other animals." ― PETA “Through stories of creatures that have lost family members or partners, an anthropologist discusses what is known about grief among animals.” ― Science News "Admirably, carefully, and cautiously reviews and synthesizes a topic that is of great interest to numerous people, including those who are fortunate enough to live with nonhuman companions, those who are lucky enough to study them, and those who are interested in other animals for a wide variety of reasons." -- Marc Bekoff ― Psychology Today “A comprehensive synthesis of animal mourning research. . . . King says that over the past few years animal-grief research has ‘exploded’—part of a larger ‘animal turn’ among academics who advocate broadening the range of lives and cultures that are studied.” -- Barry Yeoman ― National Wildlife "A beautifully written book that will appeal to animal lovers." ― Booklist "How Animals Grieve is not the definitive work on animal grief, but rather a stepping-stone to further investigation, observation and understanding. King hopes others will continue to look with fresh eyes, expand our