Speaking of Real Animals and Their History offers an interdisciplinary exploration of animal lives across time, from dinosaurs and long-extinct cave bears to contemporary animals like the giant panda and bald eagles. Drawing on iconography, palaeozoology, zooarchaeology, osteobiography, and textual accounts that document animals’ natural behaviors, Linda Kalof reconstructs in vivid prose a synthesis of interdisciplinary research on the life histories of animals through a realist lens, presenting true‑to‑life portraits of the creatures who have lived on Earth across time.

Linda Kalof is professor emerita of sociology and environmental science and policy and founding director of the graduate specialization in animal studies at Michigan State University. She uses an interdisciplinary lens to study the cultural and natural histories of animals and the role of animals in global sustainability.