PRAISE

Ristau’s wonderful book...
Carolyn Ristau deserves our gratitude for this rich account of a magnificent scientific life.
I was awed by her description of Donald Griffin’s discoveries...
     - Thomas Nagel, philosopher, in Animal Sentience journal

It is an extraordinary and timely achievement.
This gigantic, audacious book is worthy of its gigantic, audacious subject. That is high praise.
     - Charles Foster, author of Being a Beast, in Animal Sentience Journal

With her great familiarity with the field, Ristau is the perfect one to expand on Griffin's own studies of animal behavior
     - Alexandra Horowitz, author, animal behaviorist, in Animal Sentience Journal

Volume three of Carolyn Ristau’s monumental biography of Donald Griffin is fascinating reading for anyone working in the philosophy of animal minds.
This intellectual history is rich with detail and will be a valuable resource for philosophers and historians of science...
Given that Ristau’s biography is already three volumes, my desire for even more reflects both the value of the work, and the groundbreaking, and, yes, revolutionary, influence of Donald Griffin.
     - Kristin Andrews, philosopher, in Animal Sentience journal

I was thrilled when Carolyn Ristau published an in-depth three-volume work about the life of this most amazing man...
...her landmark book...
     - Marc Bekoff, ethologist, in Psychology Today blog

 

THE AUTHOR

Citations and links to Carolyn A. Ristau’s research

Carolyn A. Ristau’s CV

Dr. Carolyn A. Ristau is a Cognitive Ethologist who had the privilege of working in Donald R. Griffin’s Rockefeller University lab. Those were the times when he was ardently working to develop the new field of Cognitive Ethology he had just created, while also enthusiastically continuing his studies of avian migration and bat echolocation. Carolyn Ristau was impressed by his ideas and dedication. She wanted others to know more of their development, hence this broad-based biography.

Among Dr. Ristau’s projects are extensive reviews of the ape and other species’ language and cognition research. She explored “injury-feigning” and other parental behaviors of plovers, designing field experiments to investigate the cognitive aspects of such activities, previously considered largely reflexive. Her field sites included the Eastern US shores, the grasslands of Colorado, the tundra of Churchill, Manitoba and the Arctic, as well as studies of chimpanzees in Africa. She brings her earlier education in physics to elucidate the technical aspects of echolocation and her later work in developmental and social behavior to inform the animal communication and behavioral studies. Her students at Barnard College of Columbia University and several other universities appreciated her enthusiastic and in-depth teaching in the fields of Psychology and Animal Behavior.

 

THE BOOK

This book is more than a biography. It is a tale of a revolutionary scientist who faced not merely opposition, but outright hostility towards his radical ideas about the existence of bats’ echolocation, birds’ use of the sun and moon and other sights and sounds as cues in migration, and his proposition that animals are conscious, can think and experience emotions. One scientist was so incensed over Donald Griffin’s proposition of animal mentality that he publicly termed a Griffin book, the “Satanic Verses of Animal Behavior.” Griffin was repeatedly accused of setting science back, but, of course, he wasn’t; he was initiating new approaches to animal behavior studies.

In this book, we find insights and anecdotes about the animals Don Griffin studied and first-hand reports of field studies and their hardships, frustrations, and exhilarating accomplishments. Forty friends and scientists lend their remembrances and expertise to the narrative. We learn of the research conducted by others in Griffin’s “net” and update the studies. We read previously unpublished writings by Griffin, from his youthful naturalistic journals to his adult musings and research plans about animal consciousness. And we are privy to tales with which Don Griffin, the storyteller, entertained his associates.

Précis in Animal Sentience: Ristau, Carolyn A. (2024) Précis of: "Birds, Bats and Minds: Tales of a Revolutionary Scientist, Donald R. Griffin". Animal Sentience 35(1)

YouTube interview of Carolyn Ristau by philosopher William Veit about the book

Psychology Today interview by Marc Bekoff about the book

 

BIRDS, BATS AND MINDS. TALES OF A REVOLUTIONARY SCIENTIST: DONALD R. GRIFFIN

PDF in three volumes, by Carolyn A. Ristau

Publisher: WellBeing International.

Description of the Biography

In this three-volume biography, we revisit the life and accomplishments of the revolutionary scientist, Donald R. Griffin. He encountered a lifetime of initial hostile resistance to his ideas and studies; now they are largely accepted. He and a colleague discovered the phenomenon of echolocation used by bats to navigate and capture insects, proposed that birds navigate guided by such cues as the sun and stars, and suggested that animals are likely aware, thinking and feeling beings. Forty interviews with his colleagues and friends help us understand the young emerging scientist and the mature researcher. We learn about his and others’ research up to the present times. We gain insights into his thinking and the rigors and delights of fieldwork. Efforts to promote animal well-being intrinsically depend upon the insights from his groundbreaking ideas.

Keywords: bats, birds, animal awareness, echolocation, Cape Cod, Cornell University, Harvard, The Rockefeller University

ISBN: 979-8-9894327-0-7 for 3 volume set

 

VOLUME ONE

LINK: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/ebooks/32

Description

The first volume describes the young Griffin as a child enthusiastically exploring nature near his Cape Cod home, keeping “scientific “journals of his animal observations, and, as a teenager, enticing others to join him in banding thousands of birds for his migration studies. He creates a very local scientific society with its own “professional" publication about nature in Cape Cod. As a teenager, he has his first publication in a bona fide professional scientific journal. The reserved New England culture and tales of his impressive ancestors all influence the young Griffin.

As Harvard undergraduates, he and his friend, Robert Galambos, make the stupendous discovery that bats emit ultrasonic sounds and start their quest to discover “why?” Later, war-related studies at Harvard allow Griffin to learn about radar and instrumentation that become essential to his future echolocation research.

His first faculty position at Cornell and then at Harvard provide improved finances to support his wife and growing family and to continue his work on avian navigation and bat sonar. To track the birds, he learns to fly. To his astonishment, he discovers that bats use echolocation to find and capture tiny insects, not just to navigate. However, there are few believers in these discoveries. Following the path of von Humboldt in Venezuela, he discovers birds that echolocate. He becomes embroiled in controversy: not only about bats’ echolocation abilities, but also, for lack of definitive evidence, his resistance to accepting animals’ magnetic sensing. But the field of echolocation blossoms. His many musings and discoveries find further verification in modern research.

Keywords

animals, bird banding, bats, ultrasound, echolocation, military research, bat bomb, Cornell, Harvard, magnetoreception, New England, Cape Cod, nature

Disciplines

Animal Studies | Behavioral Neurobiology | Cognitive Neuroscience | Cognitive Science | Social and Behavioral Sciences

ISBN: 979-8-9894327-1-4 for Volume One

Recommended Citation

Ristau, Carolyn A. (2024). Birds, Bats and Minds. Tales of a Revolutionary Scientist: Donald R. Griffin. Volume 1. WellBeing International. eBooks. 32. https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/ebooks/32

 

VOLUME TWO

LINK: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/ebooks/34

Description

In Volume Two, Griffin leaves the hostile environment at Harvard to accept an invitation to create a new institute of animal behavior studies at The Rockefeller University (RU) and helps establish a field station. He entices the ornithologist Peter Marler to join him. During his studies of puzzling fishing bats at the tropical research station in Trinidad, Griffin meets and later marries the noted marine scientist Jocelyn Crane, who manages the station with famed naturalist William Beebe. Griffin pursues ground-breaking research with bats and, using radar tracking, of migrating birds across the sea. Detailed descriptions are provided about bats and their analysis and use of their echolocating signals. The innovative work of numerous RU animal behavior researchers is described as is the harsh and strenuous work of field research and the thrill and joy in the scientists’ discoveries.

Keywords

Rockefeller University, Trinidad, Simla, Jocelyn Crane, echolocation, bats, fishing bats, radar, William Beebe, bird migration, magnetic sensing

Disciplines

Animal Studies | Behavioral Neurobiology | Cognitive Neuroscience | Cognitive Science

ISBN 979-8-9894327-2-1 for Volume Two

Recommended Citation

Ristau, Carolyn A. (2024). Birds, Bats and Minds. Tales of a Revolutionary Scientist: Donald R. Griffin. Volume 2. WellBeing International. eBooks. 34. https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/ebooks/34

 

VOLUME THREE

LINK: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/ebooks/33

Description

Volume Three of the Griffin biography emphasizes his daring proposition that animals are likely to be aware, think, and have feelings. He is castigated as setting back science, but he amasses an enormous array of supportive evidence discussed in several of his books. Philosophers examine related issues. Griffin also tackles the possibility of human echolocation, the mysteries of bats' “terminal buzz,” beaver social behavior, and the “near sound” acoustics of honeybee communication. With Katy Payne, he plans studies of elephants’ social behavior to assess what it is like to be an elephant and to guide optimal protective measures. The influence of several women in his life is described, noting their accomplishments, intelligence and independence. We observe the struggles of some women scientists and Griffins’ support of many. During his “retirement” from Rockefeller University and move back to Cape Cod and the Harvard Field Station, he writes several books about the new field he had founded, “Cognitive Ethology,” and actively conducts research. Finally, Volume three includes a compilation of statements about Griffin’s life and work from friends, colleagues and the media that may be summarized as Griffin being an intensely curious man, a remarkable intellect, a revolutionary scientist, and a most admirable human being, The volume has extensive Appendices, including a timeline, a list of publications, and a glossary of terms.

Keywords

animal awareness, consciousness, philosophy, behaviorism, Ernest Nagel, elephants, bees, beavers, bats, terminal buzz, distraction displays, human echolocation, animal well-being

Disciplines

Animal Sciences | Animal Studies | Bioethics and Medical Ethics | Cognitive Neuroscience | Cognitive Science

ISBN: 979-8-9894327-3-8 for Volume Three

Recommended Citation

Ristau, Carolyn A. (2024).Birds, Bats and Minds. Tales of a Revolutionary Scientist: Donald R. Griffin. Volume Three. eBooks. 33.

https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/ebooks/33

 

Photo credits from the book:

Top Left: Elephants bonding (by Nachiketha Sharma) Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)

Top Right: Flying bat, (by Nuwat) Adobe Stock File # 136172389 (Greater Short-nosed Fruit Bat, Cynopterus sphinx).

Bottom Left: Migrating Canada Geese (by Dennis Donohue) Adobe Stock File # 308035291

Bottom Right: Close-up: Honey bees on a comb (by Dmytro Smaglov) Adobe Stock File # 50392142

Back Book Cover Photo: Carolyn A. Ristau, Churchill, Manitoba.