When Elephants Weep

For over 100 years a chasm has separated animal lovers-who know that their dog, cat, horse or parrot have complex emotional lives and scientists, to whom attributing any emotions to animals has been equivalent to heresy. And while a new generation of scientists has begun chipping away at this traditional taboo, no one book has yet gathered all the available information into an engaging and authoritative portrait of animals' emotional lives. Not, that is, until now. WHEN ELEPHANTS WEEP is the first book since Darwin's to explore the full range emotions throughout the animals Kingdom. Meet Siri, the Indian elephant, whose expressive sketches have been praised by artists Willem and Elaine de Kooning. Meet Koko, a bashful gorilla proficient in sign language who loves to plays house with dolls but only when no one is looking and Alex, an African grey parrot with an astonishing vocabulary, who when left at the veterinarian's office, shrieked, "Come here! I love you. I'm sorry. I want to go back. "