Exploring Our Deep Connection With Animals With Guest: Barbara J. King, author of "Being With Animals: Why We Are Obsessed With The Furry, Scaly, Feathered Creatures Who Populate Our World." Original Air Date: 04-09-2010

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In today's show we'll hear animal stories from Barbara King- ones that trace the millenium old interactions and relationships between humans and animals. As we do so, we'll explore some of the reasons we are so compelled by non-human creatures and gratified by our "being with animals."
(photo courtesy of Broadway Books)

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An Ostrich.

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I had an experience in one of the drive though animal parks in Florida once where an Ostrich came right up to the car, put it's head in my passenger side open window and look me right in the eye. I felt tears come to my eys, in a strong emotional reaction. I don't know why....(Susan Frank)

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The Procession of Animals at New York's Cathedral of St. John of the Divine.
See a video clip of a documentary about The Blessing of the Animals at St. John of the Divine Cathedral.
(photo by SouthBay Productions Ltd.)

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Oscar the tortoise, being prepared on his cart, to go along with the Procession of Animals into the cathedral for blessing.
(photo by Barbara J. King)

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A humpback whale and her calf. Stories of whales whose lives have been endangered when they somehow become trapped and thus are prevented from swimming to safety and the humans who help them, always catch the attention and imaginations of people worldwide.

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One of the divers on the rescue team helping a whale that became trapped, works on the crab pot lines that held the female humpback whale near the Farollon Islands. The weight of the crab pots was pulling the animal down.
(photo by Marine Mammal Center via AP)

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Painting from the Chauvet Cave, replica in the Brno Museum Anthropos. 31,000 years old art, probably Aurignacien. The group of horses probably does not picture a herd of them, but some kind of etological study, showing them left to right, calmess, aggression, sleep and grazing.
(photo by Wikimedia Commons)

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The Geico Insurance company's gecko logo. We love commercials that depict animals, of all fashions.
(Image copyright Geico Insurance)

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This striking image of Kanzi, a bonobo was taken by Liz Pugh with the Bonobo scientific research team. Liz has collaborated with Kanzi since he was a baby. See additional resources below.
(photo by the Great Ape Trust)

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A baby gorilla peeps around it's mother.

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A gorilla family. How human like, their position is, as they sleep.

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Elephants are highly social creatures requiring the company of one another. A poignant story of the reuniting of two elephant friends Jenny and Shirley at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is related in Barbara Kings book, "Being With Animals. In this photo, Shirley is on the left and Jenny on the right. 
(photo courtesy of “The Elephant Sanctuary of Tennessee - www.elephants.com.”)

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A dog waits on the front stoop for its human companion to return home. Does your dog seem to know just when you will return home?

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Part of a colony of feral cats.

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Barbara King manages a feral colony and helps control the population of feral cats by carrying out spay-neuter work. This cat is Grey, the cat who used to be alpha male at the feral colony. Because of his FIV condition, he has frequent infections and he now lives indoors with Barbara's family. He is kept separate from the other cats.
(photo by Barbara J. King)

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Another one of Barbara's feral cats, Marble. She is kept outdoors in a spacious pen in her backyard where they house about 12 feral cats.
(photo by Barbara J. King)

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Wild Bison at Yellowstone National Park.

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A close up of a Bison having a close encounter with a vehicle in the park.

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Roger Brooks and Charlie, an orphaned buffalo written about in Richard Rosen's book, "A Buffalo in The House: The True Story of a Man, An Animal and The American West." Hear the Wild About Pets interview with author Richard Rosen and see more photos.
(photo by Veryl Goodnight)

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Unusual forms of communication and bonds arise between humans and animals. This is Reggie the crow cared for by Nuala Galbari and David Justis.
(photo by Nuala Galbari and David Justis)

Barbara J. King is Professor of Anthropology at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. She is the author of Being With Animals (Doubleday 2010), Evolving God (Doubleday 2007) and The Dynamic Dance (Harvard University Press 2004). She has studied baboons in Kenya and great apes in various captive settings. Together with her husband, Barbara cares for and arranges to spay and neuter homeless cats in Virginia. She enjoys correspondence with her readers at www.barbarajking.com (photo by Charles Hogg)

Barbara King's Website To Order "Being With Animals"

Additional Resources

For more information about New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Blessing of the Animals event and to purchase a DVD documantary of this event, see www.stfrancisanimalblessing.com

For more information on Kanzi and the work being done on the behalf of Great Apes at the Great Ape Trust.

For more information on Shirley and Jenny the elephants and the work being done on the behalf of elephants at the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.