Nature documentaries often depict animal life as a grim struggle for survival, but this visually stunning book opens our eyes to a different, more scientifically up-to-date way of looking at the animal kingdom. In more than one hundred thirty striking images, The Exultant Ark celebrates the full range of animal experience with dramatic portraits of animal pleasure ranging from the charismatic and familiar to the obscure and bizarre. These photographs, windows onto the inner lives of pleasure seekers, show two polar bears engaged in a bout of wrestling, hoary marmots taking time for a friendly chase, Japanese macaques enjoying a soak in a hot spring, a young bull elk sticking out his tongue to catch snowflakes, and many other rewarding moments. Biologist and best-selling author Jonathan Balcombe is our guide, interpreting the images within the scientific context of what is known about animal behavior. In the end, old attitudes fall away as we gain a heightened sense of animal individuality and of the pleasures that make life worth living for all sentient beings.
The Exultant Ark A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure
About the Book
Reviews
“An exuberant look at animal pleasure. . . . True to its subtitle—‘A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure’—‘The Exultant Ark’ showcases surprising, funny, touching, sad, heartwarming pictures by photographers all over the world. Dr. Balcombe’s text is a serious examination of the subject of animal pleasure, a study that ‘remains nascent and largely neglected in scientific discourse.’ But it also delights us along the way with Dr. Balcombe’s observations and examples. . . . . It’s hard to deny that animals are not sensate to pleasure after studying these joyous photographs, and reading Dr. Balcombe’s persuasive arguments.”—Katherine Bouton New York Times
“An irresistible new photo book.”—Maureen Callahan New York Post
“Intersperses glorious images of animals preening, grooming and gallivanting with snippets of studies suggesting such behaviours belie an overly utilitarian interpretation.”—Tiffany O'Callaghan New Scientist
“Here is a book to put a spring into anyone’s step. The Exultant Ark is a celebration of animal behaviour at its most uplifting.”—Stuart Blackman Bbc Wildlife Magazine
“All readers of this column must immediately purchase Jonathan Balcombe’s fabulous book . . . the photos are a delight . . . but an equally compelling reason is that the book is evidence of that some scientists finally acknowledge what anyone who hangs out with animals already knows: they indulge in sensory delights.”—Leigh Dayton The Australian
“With provocative photos and heartwarming stories of animals playing, eating, courting, nursing, and comforting one another, best-selling author and animal ethologist Balcombe offers readers a serious yet fun examination of animal pleasure.”—All Animals
“One of those rare volumes that will look good on your coffee table but might also change the way you think.”—Harold Herzog American Journal Of Play
“This is one of those rare volumes that will look good on your coffee table but might also change the way you think.”—Hal Herzog Psychology Today
“[Balcombe aims] to get us to think not just about the animals we have personal relationships with, but about animals in general, so that we might reconsider the many severe cruelties we inflict on animals of all kinds. The studies he invokes are hard to explain away. . . . Likewise, the photographs that make up the bulk of The Exultant Ark remind us that we are not as different from other animals on our planet as we like to think; the photos are anecdotal in nature, but they are utterly compelling.”—Scott F. Parker Rain Taxi Review Of Books
“It is rare for me to read a book, every sentence of which I not only agree with, but also learn from, and savour too. But that is the case here. And the photos are sensational. . . . This is science at its best: correcting false views and providing correctives in gentle and pleasant ways.”—Jeffrey M. Masson Resurgence
“The Exultant Ark is a romp through the sunnier side of the animal kingdom, packed with lively photographs of animals enjoying themselves—the sorts of things we don't see on grimly narrated nature documentaries about the bloody struggle for survival. . . . But The Exultant Ark isn't just about pretty pictures. Biologist Jonathan Balcombe uses spirited descriptions and compelling arguments to implore humankind—particularly the scientific community—to consider our animal counterparts with greater empathy and respect.”—Hannah Calkins Shelf Awareness For Readers
“Packed with wonderful photos, Jonathan Balcombe’s book is a captivating look at animal pleasure.”—Robert Phillips The Ecologist
“This visually stunning book opens our eyes to a different, more scientifically up-to-date way of looking at the animal kingdom. In more than one hundred thirty striking images, The Exultant Ark celebrates the full range of animal experience with dramatic portraits of animal pleasure ranging from the charismatic and familiar to the obscure and bizarre. . . . Old attitudes fall away as we gain a heightened sense of animal individuality and of the pleasures that make life worth living for all sentient beings.”—Ian Paulsen The Guardian / Birdbooker Report Blog
“Balcombe has assembled a heartwarming collection of photos . . . both the stunning photography and Balcombe’s masterful prose are welcome additions to the growing literary and scientific evidence that debunk long-assumed myths while continuing to eliminate the gap between ‘us’ and ‘them.’”—Veg News Mag“It is rare to find a scientist writing with such delight about, of all things, joy in the animal world! I have rarely experienced such pleasure in reading a book. I recommend it to all animal lovers, and even challenge a few skeptics, whose minds may be changed by this extraordinary work.”—Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep
“The Exultant Ark brilliantly and definitively demonstrates what pet owners have always known but what certain scientists still question, that animals think, feel, and have emotions, often pleasurable ones. It’s a must-read for anyone with even the slightest interest in the truths of the natural world. I couldn’t put it down!”—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Deer and The Hidden Life of Dogs
“There is no question that the whales experience pleasure when they sing, that the wolf enjoys howling at the moon, that lion cubs enjoy wrestling with each other. I love books like this, that challenge the rigidity of human prejudices, that open our minds to other realities and revolutionary perspectives, that question both our collective ignorance and our arrogance as humans.”—Captain Paul Watson, Founder and President, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
"The Exultant Ark bubbles over with joy. Its important words and moving photographs offer powerful proof of what we knew was true all along: the pleasure of animals is vividly real and matters deeply—both to the animals who experience it, and to we humans who are privileged to share their happiness. Rejoice!”—Sy Montgomery, author of The Good Good Pig and Birdology
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Play
2 Food
3 Touch
4 Courtship and Sex
5 Love
6 Comfort
7 Companionship
8 Other Pleasures
Conclusion: Implications of Animal Pleasure
Notes
References
Index
Awards
- Winner, Bookbuilders West Book Show
Learn More
- Book Jonathan Balcombe for a speaking engagement
- Visit Jonathan Balcombe's website
- Read Jonathan Balcombe's blog
- Watch an interview with Jonathan Balcombe about The Exultant Ark (Part 1)
- Watch Part 2 of the interview
- Watch Part 3 of the interview
- Learn about an example of animal pleasure from the book
- Read Jonathan Balcombe's blog for One Green Planet
- Read a review in The Guardian
- Read a review in OneKind.org
- Read a feature on Balcombe in the Maryland Gazette
- Read a review in Folha.com (Brazil)
- Watch Jonathan Balcombe's lecture at the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii
- View a review and slideshow of The Exultant Ark in the New York Times
Media
Jonathan Balcombe, author of The Exultant Ark, talks about his book in this Q & A interview.
Interview with the author.