James L. Gould
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Animal Architects: Building and the Evolution of Intelligence
James L. Gould, Carol Grant Gould
From two of the world’s most distinguished experts in animal behavior, a radical, creative, and accessible new approach to understanding animal minds through the structures they build.
Animal Architects examines animal architecture across a range of species, from those whose blueprints are largely innate (such as spiders and their webs) to those whose challenging structures seem to require intellectual insight, planning, and even aesthetics (such as bowerbirds’ nests, or beavers’ dams). Beginning with instinct and the simple homes of solitary insects, James and Carol Gould move on to conditioning; the “cognitive map” and how it evolved; and the role of planning and insight. Finally, they reflect on what animal building tells us about the nature of human intelligence—showing why humans, unlike many animals, need to build castles in the air.
