Lee Alan Dugatkin

Вот уже долгое время на Западе выходят статьи о сенсационном успехе российских ученых. Речь, однако, не о физиках-ядерщиках, не о конструкторах видов вооружений, и даже не об исследователях космоса, а о первом за долгие века, если не тысячелетия, одомашнивании животного. Теперь о нашем прорыве вышла и целая книга, написанная в тесном сотрудничестве с человеком, курировавшим эксперимент десятелетия.

Итак, нашим специалистам из новосибирского Академгородка удался редкий опыт – число домашних питомцев человека пополнили лисы, в природе людей избегающие. Одомашнивание диких видов процесс небыстрый и не всегда удачный. Существующий круг подлинно одомашненных животных сложился давно, и похоже, наши предки приручили всех, кого возможно было в тех условиях приручить.

Светлая мысль взяться за этих псовых пришла в голову ученого-биолога Дмитрия Беляева еще в 1950-х, однако генетика в те годы была под запретом, поэтому разрешение на начало опытов с чернобурыми лисицами он мотивировал увеличением поголовья источника ценного меха, так как домашние животные размножаются чаще своих диких кузенов. Однако отнюдь не только интересы народного хозяйства двигали Беляевым. Он предположил, что лишь контролируя такой параметр как человекобоязнь, можно через поколения добиться преданных и ласковых зверей, похожих по нраву на собак.

Приветливых лисиц удалось вывести быстрее, чем ожидалось, но вместе с уменьшением агрессивности, у животных стали проявляться и непредвиденные физические изменения, поразившие ученых, – в каждом поколении лисы становились все более похожими на собак: висящие уши, лай, хвост колечком и даже пятнистый окрас!

Увы, в 1990-х, спустя десять лет после смерти Беляева, эксперимент едва не прервался – в стране не было денег на науку. Спасло его письмо ученицы и продолжательницы Беляева Людмилы Трут в авторитетный научный журнал Scientific American, в котором она рассказала о революционных достижениях и опасности, нависшей над работой: была не только нехватка средств на зарплаты персоналу и питание животных, но и шкурки самих лис стали выглядеть притягательными для перепродажи в глазах многих обедневших сограждан. Сейчас ученые со всего мира приезжают в Академгородок работать с уникальными лисицами, а у нас появился лишний повод посетить Новосибирск – если не прикупить себе необычного питомца, то хотя бы полюбоваться на новое и уникальное чудо эволюции, чья история увлекательно рассказана в книге Ли Аланом Дугаткиным.… (más)

Lee Alan Dugatkin has a very clean, precise and to-the-point writing style that is refreshing in a landscape of science writers, but can sometimes seem a little spare. That being said, Power in the Wild is absolutely jam-packed with story after story (or research experiment after research experiment) on the way animals gain, lose, retain, acquire, and solicit power in the wild.

I've been been something of an armchair enthusiast for ethology for the last twenty five years, yet I was surprised and pleased at how many animal examples I wasn't familiar with. There were projects I was familiar with, of course, but even these were handled with interesting deftness, imparting information swiftly. I really enjoyed that every chapter - which addresses different ways animals can relate to power (i.e. forming coalitions, interfering, assessment of rivals, alliances, observation etc.) - has multiple examples, across many different species, all around the world. And I very much enjoyed the attention to detail regarding the *cost* of such strategies. In some cases, for example, learning that dominant animals actually have higher cortisol and mortality rates of their offspring, suggesting that being the dominant animal doesn't always pay (though it often does).

Dugatkin has a habit of sharing more about the methodology of an experiment than the actual place or setting where an experiment takes place. This had the side effect of leaving me feeling ungrounded in place and time. In the Afterword, Dugatkin mentions wanting the reader to feel as though they may have been there studying dolphins or similar with the scientists, but there's a lack of orienting sensory details throughout, so almost every experiment feels like it could have happened anywhere, at any time, with very little sense of place. I've encountered science writers that will describe the temperature of a place, the smell of the trees, the feel, the privations scientists had to go through (the many stinging animals in rainforests) and all of this was absent.

There were times some of the examples felt repetitive. Of course that's to be expected in a book that is solidly using multiple examples to reify variations on a single point. It also highlights just how knowledgeable this book is. It feels like it would be invaluable to students in particular, and also to those with an interest in animal behaviour. There's no spare padding here, just knowledgeable example after example. It's a very economical writing style, but the examples themselves are all so interesting and compelling that it works.

I personally found the chapter on audience effects (i.e. how the bystanders to an encounter between animals affects how the animals behave) really fascinating. I don't believe I've seen a great deal on this subject before, and to get multiple examples at once, especially among ravens (who I admit I'm pretty biased towards) felt rewarding.

This book is extremely educational, and yet not so dense that laypeople can't understand and enjoy it. It's a lot more fun read over time, instead of all at once, giving yourself time to think about every example, or perhaps taking breaks to reflect after each chapter. This bypasses the repetitive feel (at least, it did for me), and instead leaves you appreciative for all the ways animals operate in nature, how much we've learned so far, and how much we still don't understand. I think it would be a handy reference for animal behaviour scientists (as well as any scientist who deals with living beings and concepts of power - including psychologists and anthropologists etc.), since it collates the results of so many papers. I also think it's a great book for anyone interested in animal behaviour, you might be surprised how many of the examples you haven't previously come across before.

I also found this book personally refreshing, after reading a lot of nonfiction books that don't quite anthropomorphise animals, but perhaps soften the fact that all animals are seeking power, and that all their behaviours inform the seeking of it. Despite the subject, this book doesn't seem cold, if anything it highlights how adaptive, clever, determined and driven animals are - across all the families, all over the world - to persevere in the retaining of their power, and in the attaining of it. I really enjoyed it.… (más)

I have been reading many books about animals of late how they have intelligence, even culture. The title of this intrigued me because if animals are exerting power (control) over other animals, isn't this what humans do and are widely blamed for? Apparently other animals do it too, in different ways. Undoubtedly some animals even have power over humans (looking at you dog and cat). Sadly almost none of this is discussed in the book. It's a survey of different animal power studies and goes into the weeds but not the analysis of how this information is useful for understanding bigger picture ie. what does it teach us about being better humans.… (más)