Now more than ever we need details on what wild animals think and feel about what's happening in their lives.

Comparative studies of animal minds show we're not the only show in town concerning sentience.

We must get over ourselves, pay attention to science, and coexist with other animals.

Professional researchers with varying backgrounds and interests study animal behavior. For the most part, these include biologists. ethologists, psychologists, and anthropologists who observe animals under different circumstances and with different interests. Many researchers also study animals but spend little to no time actually watching the creatures in whom they're interested. These include philosophers and those people interested in the broad transdisciplinary field called animal studies.

All of these people can contribute to learning more about these amazing beings, but there is no substitute for carefully observing—"slow watching"—the nonhumans in which they're keenly interested. These data and stories are crucial for learning who these beings truly are —for "minding them"—and for appreciating what their capacities for behavioral flexibility and highly evolved levels of consciousness tell us about how they think and feel about how their lives can change because of the behavior of members of the same species and other species, including humans, and what they think and feel about intrusions into their heads, hearts, and homes.1

Ethology is the study of animal behavior. It focuses mainly on wild animals in their natural habitats, although some ethological work has involved captive animals. In 1973, ethologists Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and Karl von Frisch shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their discoveries related to animal behavior.

I've been an ethologist since I was around three years of age and even was "minding" animals" without even knowing. I've continued to do so for more than 50 years in that I........

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