I try to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Lucky for me, my job as a field ethologist has allowed me to pursue my passions and I thrive on seeing, hearing, and smelling the presence of wild animals.
So, when I first heard about Brenda Peterson's beautifully written new book Wild Chorus: Finding Harmony with Whales, Wolves, and Other Animals, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and indulge in a cacophony of senses. In a time in which so many people feel alienated from nature, Brenda seamlessly draws us into the fascinating worlds of a wide variety of nonhuman animal beings so that we can experience what life is like for them.
Wild Chorus explores how, when we open up our senses and hearts to what animals are saying to one another and us, we can "rewild" ourselves and feel at one with the magnificent animals with whom we share our awe-inspiring planet. Here's what Brenda had to say about her latest landmark book.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write this book?
Brenda Peterson: I was raised as a wild animal on a remote national forest lookout station with many more animals than people. This gave me a very different relationship with wildlife than most nature or science writers. I didn’t have stuffed animals; I had mounted deer heads over my crib who I believed were my babysitters.
I expected one day to become a wild animal and maybe grow antlers or howl like a wolf. All my animal books come from being imprinted on animals. Wild Chorus is a culmination of my life writing about and learning from other animals—from wolves to whales to birds to dogs and cats. They were my first teachers, my siblings, my lifelong companions. Wild Chorus explores what animals know about thriving in and adapting to a changing world.
MB: How does your book relate to your background and general areas of interest?
BP: Wild Chorus is especially devoted to animal music—wolves, whales, birds, all the great singers of the animal world. I’m a lifelong singer, an audiophile who navigates the world more by sound than sight. So naturally I tune in to the soundscape of animal lives, what soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause calls “the Great Animal Orchestra.” So much of our nature writing is visual; we observe more than we listen.
There’s a lovely line from the musical, "Oklahoma": “All the sounds of the earth are like music.” Animal voices are music to me. I want to find a way to harmonize and blend with those other non-human and wild voices.
You know, Marc, that wolves will respond to human howls and even harmonize with us. In this new book, “Wolf Music” and “Birdsong Blues” are two of my favorite stories. I’m still always humbled and amazed that wild animals engage with our voices. What happens when we truly try to find harmony with other animals?
MB: What are some topics you weave into your book?
BP: Animals teach us essential and very different lessons than humans. Unlike us, animals don’t go into denial. They adapt to climate change, floods and fires, extreme weather, and loss of habitat. Because they are more intimate and knowledgeable about their own ecosystems, animals offer us survival strategies.
For example, in my story, “Bringing Back Bears,” scientists are studying the metabolic mysteries of bear hibernation to better treat human diseases like Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, Parkinson’s, heart attack, and stroke. When bears wake up from their long, winter nap, they are stronger, restored. Is it possible we can learn from bears about this biological spring cleaning and awakening?
MB: What are some of your main messages?
BP: One of my main messages in Wild Chorus is that to survive, we must listen and learn from other animals—reclaim the animals within us and learn from these masters of their own habitats how better to conserve and thrive with nature. Not dominion, harmony.
Another message is simple: Listen!
During the pandemic, our noisy and busy species had to learn to “Be still and know.” In my story “When We Stayed Home,” animals reclaimed their territorial and acoustic birthrights with less traffic, less roadkill; with fewer boats, whales could hear each other singing across oceans; we were serenaded with more ecstatic birdsong. Wild animals again roamed freely: penguins on city streets, sea lions on sidewalks, deer wandering subway stations, sheep taking a spin on merry-go-rounds. Humans were now the ones in captivity.
To me, this balance of more animals than people echoed my early years in the remote forest. I wonder: Did we learn anything from our quietude, when we tuned in to other animals more than each other? In our stillness, what do we learn or know?
MB: How does your book differ from others that are concerned with some of the same animals?
BP: In Wild Chorus, I am a storyteller more than a scientist. In this book, I feel like a translator or interpreter between other species and my own. Just as I am a singer who prefers harmony over solos, my stories are often listening to find the right “blend” with animals’ voices or points of view. We can’t just save other species, we must become them, understand what they know about adapting and survival, about belonging.
MB: Are you hopeful that as people learn more about these animals, they will treat them with more compassion, respect, and dignity?
BP: There is so much hope in finding harmony with other animals. When humans sing together our hearts beat as one, in compassionate synch. Seeking harmony, not hierarchies—this makes us respect all animals as our relatives, our kin. We are not alone here—never have been, never will be.
MB: Who is your intended audience?
BP: Anyone who will listen! Storytelling is a call-and-response between the writer and the reader. My audience embraces animal and pet lovers, outdoor enthusiasts, wildlife advocates, musicians, anyone who enjoys nature and science, especially stories of marine and land mammals. My editor even let me include a few domestic animals like “The Dog Who Didn’t Love Me,” and my mischievous Siamese who’ve taught me so much about cat naps and play.
References
In conversation with award-winning. prolific author Brenda Peterson, author of over 23 books, including the memoir, I Want to Be Left Behind, selected as a “Top Ten Best Non-Fiction” book by the Christian Science Monitor and an Indie Next “Great Read,” by Independent Booksellers. Her work has appeared on NPR and in The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Tikkun, Seattle Times, Orion, and Oprah magazine.
Excerpts from Wild Chorus are published in “The Dog Who Didn’t Love Me” and “Animal Sisterhoods”.
Why It's Essential to Listen to the Hidden Sounds of Nature
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