What is it really like to be a dog? Do animals experience emotions like pleasure, joy, and grief? Marc Bekoff's work draws world-wide attention for its originality and its probing into what animals think about and know as well as what they feel, what physical and mental skills they use to live successfully within their social community. Bekoff's work, whether addressed to scientists or the general public, demonstrates that investigations into animal thought, emotions, self-awareness, behavioral ecology, and conservation biology can be compassionate as well as scientifically rigorous.In Animal Passions and Beastly Virtues, Bekoff brings together essays on his own ground-breaking research and on what scientists know about the remarkable range and flexibility of animal behavior. His fascinating and often amusing observations of dogs, wolves, coyotes, prairie dogs, elephants, and other animals playing, leaving and detecting scent-marks ("yellow snow"), solving problems, and forming friendships challenge the idea that science and the ethical treatment of animals are incompatible.

Marc Bekoff is Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He has published numerous books including The Smile of a Dolphin, Minding Animals, The Ten Trusts (with Jane Goodall), and the Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior. His homepage is http://literati.net/Bekoff. He and Jane Goodall co-founded Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (www.ethologicalethics.org). In 2005 Marc was presented with The Bank One Faculty Community Service Award for the work he has done with children, senior citizens, and prisoners.

Foreword – Jane GoodallIntroduction: What Does It Feel Like to Be a Fox?Part I. Emotions, Cognition, and Animal Selves: "Wow! That's Me!"1. Beastly Passions2. Cognitive Ethology: The Comparative Study of Animal Minds3. On Aims and Methods of Cognitive Ethology, with Dale Jamieson4. Reflections on Animal Selves, with Paul W. ShermanPart II. The Social Behavior of Dogs and Coyotes5. The Social Ecology of Coyotes, with Michael C. Wells6. Population and Social Biology of Free-Ranging Domestic Dogs, Canis familiaris, with Thomas J. Daniels7. Ground Scratching by Male Domestic Dogs: A Composite Signal?8. Observations of Scent-Marking and Discriminating Self from Others by a Domestic Dog (Canis familiaris): Tales of Displaced Yellow SnowPart III. Social Play, Social Development, and Social Communication: Cooperation, Fairness, and Wild Justice9. Social Communication in Canids: Evidence for the Evolution of a Stereotyped Mammalian Display10. Virtuous Nature11. Wild Justice, Cooperation, and Fair Play: Minding Manners, Being Nice, and Feeling GoodPart IV. Human Dimensions: Human-Animal Interactions12. Human (Anthropogenic) Effects on Animal Behavior13. Translocation Effects on the Behavior of Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus), with John P. Farrar, Karin L. Coleman, and Eric Stone14. Interactions Among Dogs, People, and the Environment in Boulder, Colorado: A Case Study, with Carron A. Meaney15. Behavioral Interactions and Conflict Among Domestic Dogs, Black-Tailed Prairie Dogs, and People in Boulder, Colorado, with Robert W. IckesPart V. Ethics, Compassion, Conservation, and Activism: Redecorating Nature16. The Importance of Ethics in Conservation Biology: Let's Be Ethicists Not Ostriches17. Ethics and the Study of Carnivores: Doing Science While Respecting Animals, with Dale JamiesonAfterword: Minding Animals, Minding Earth-Old Brains in New BottlenecksReferencesIndex