Synopsis
Documents the social conduct of wild geese with anecdotes about specific geese who take on strikingly human characteristics
Reviews
Readers who have enjoyed Lorenz's earlier books ( Man Meets Dog ; On Aggression ) may find this study a bit technical, as it appears to be directed more to students in the field than to the general public. Lorenz and his assistants worked with a colony of tame geese that were allowed to fly free. Originally located in Bavaria, the group--geese and people--moved to the Alm River valley of Austria in 1973. In the first part of the book Lorenz introduces individual geese and examines their relationships to other members of the colony. The second part analyzes behavior patterns, from locomotion to communication. Finally, Lorenz, who died in 1989, notes analogies between greylag goose and human behavior. The anecdotes and descriptions of specific geese are entertaining and enlightening. Illustrations.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Two years after his death comes the English translation of what one is tempted to describe as Lorenz's goose song, his last formal statement on his beloved greylag geese. A lifetime of observation--which led to the important concepts of critical times in development, of imprinting and innate releasing mechanisms, of ``vacuum activity'' (in the absence of the releasing mechanism), and of the many complex variations and recombinations of behavior patterns or ``ethograms''--is summed up here in detailed descriptions of individual geese as well as in theoretical constructs. Why greylags? Lorenz says it's because when he was a child he wanted to be an owl, but reading Selma Lagerl”f's tale of wild geese convinced him that geese had more fun. Soon followed his first experience with a duckling who became imprinted on him--an event that in retrospect, Lorenz says, led to him being imprinted on birds forever. For the most part, the book is a primer on the behavior of these most social creatures (an isolated greylag is a cripple) with all the titillating tales of pair-bonding and breaking, of ardor and jealousy and hate that make critics cry ``anthropomorphism.'' Lorenz makes no bones about it: For him, geese are analogues to human behavior--their triumph ceremonies, their lamentation cries, their distance calls, and other complex vocal and motor behavior exemplify a philogenetic convergence in evolution. Like humans, geese are aggressive, struggle for rank, show ardor, bravery, and vengeance, are ever-mindful of their fellow creatures and ready to react. It's all told here in the deeply personal terms characteristic of this ardent Austrian. Gooselovers of the world, unite; this is the book for you. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
First published in German in 1988, this book not only "represents the most complete investigation to date of the ethnology of a higher organism and its system," but is also in a sense a personal memoir of Lorenz (1903-1989), whose studies of graylag geese in Germany and Austria spanned almost his whole life. Beginning with some general observation on animal behavior studies and a discussion of his own methodology, Lorenz continues with life histories of typical birds and two "ethograms" cataloging individual and social behaviors, and concludes with a philosophical chapter on goose-human analogies. Not an easy book, but accessible to informed laypersons as well as trained biologists, it belongs in most science collections.
- Paul B. Cors, Univ. of Wyoming Lib., Laramie
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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