Even before reading this book, I was an Ed Yong fan. He's my go-to journalist for pandemic-related articles, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in explanatory reporting. I appreciated his writing so much that I picked up this book simply because I wanted to read more of his work.
I am not particularly fond of animals (I have no pets and have never found zoos especially interesting), and yet, Ed Yong not only motivated me to read a book about animals, but he totally blew me away with every fascinating detail. This book is filled with astonishing, awe-inspiring revelations about animals and their senses. Yong has a unique gift for science writing; he distills complex ideas into approachable reading while also conveying beauty and wonder. It was truly humbling to realize that the world as we experience it - as humans with our limited 5 senses - is exclusive to us, and that other animals experience the world in their own particular, and sometimes very special, ways.
Ed Yong's writing flows naturally - he is a master of segues - and he keeps the tone light. Reading this book, and learning all it had to impart, was an effortless delight. I also really enjoyed his footnotes, which sometimes shed an entertaining light on his research in a behind-the-scenes kind of way.
The final chapter poignantly discusses man-made lights and noises and their deleterious effects on animals and insects. Yong refers to quiet and darkness as "endangered sensory environments" and calls on all of us to "save the quiet, and preserve the dark." (p. 338) He encouragingly lists a number of ways humans could reduce light and noise pollution - if only we were sufficiently moved to do so.
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