The Internet of Animals: Discovering the Collective Intelligence of Life on Earth

This energetic memoir from Wikelski, director of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, reflects on what his efforts to track wild animals have revealed about their behavior and abilities. Zany anecdotes abound, as when he describes how in the late 1990s, he and biologist Bill Cochran drove through the Midwest with an antenna protruding from a hole cut in their car’s roof so they could follow birds tagged with primitive transmission devices. They discovered that migrating birds likely call out to fellow travelers to determine the ideal altitude for flying. Elsewhere, Wikelski recounts his Herculean campaign to “mount an external antenna on the International Space Station” for tracking the movements of tagged animals. This involved winning over skeptics at international space agencies and a tense space walk in which the astronauts momentarily lost control of the antenna, which was operational for several years before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused a breakdown in joint programming, leading to the tracking system’s neglect and demise. Discussions of the challenges involved in making electronic tags small enough to be worn by bees and hummingbirds celebrate the old-fashioned thrill of scientific ingenuity, and Wikelski’s speculation that tracking animals capable of sensing natural disasters could warn humans about impending volcanic activity or tsunamis intrigues. It’s an awe-inspiring look at the scientific process and the wonders of nature. Illus. (May)