Recommended Reading

In English

Gorillas in the Mist is a memoir by American primatologist and conservationist Dian Fossey, published in 1983.[1] The book begins with Fossey's early career as she began working with naturalist Louis Leakey and spans thirteen years of Fossey's research into the behavior and biology of mountain gorillas in Rwanda. During this time Fossey lived among four families of gorillas in the Virunga Mountains, developing what's been described as an "unprecedented relationship" with the creatures.[2]

In her book, Fossey shares her in-depth research into gorilla social and family bonds, including her work with a gorilla named Digit, who lived near the Karisoke Research Center. The book was primarily written during Fossey's time away from field work, as she was serving as a visiting associate professor at Cornell University.[1][3][4]

White beech Germaine Greer's account of her restoration of an Australian rainforest
Birds as Individuals by Len Howard, 1952
Enter the secret lives of Britain's ordinary garden birds and the brilliant, unconventional woman who opened her doors to them.
Alice Walker shares  in Chicken Chronicles  (2012)  her experiences raising and caring for a flock of chickens. 

Groundbreakers: The Return of Britain’s Wild Boar by Chantal Lyons 2024 

Wild Diplomacy by Baptiste Morizot Professor of Philosophy at the University of Aix-Marseille in France.  Catherine Porter is Visiting Scholar at the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University.

Starting from a specific case, the spontaneous return of wolves to France and the intense conflicts that event has triggered, the French philosopher Baptiste Morizot invites us to think about what he calls "diplomacy with living beings." How can we conceive of cohabitation with the most recalcitrant wildlife, large predators in particular, and what concrete solutions need to be invented to make this happen? Drawing on knowledge gleaned from history and philosophy as well as from ethology, scientific ecology, and biology, Wild Diplomacy prompts us to ask what relations we want to reinvent with living beings today and how we might fundamentally reimagine our status as living beings among other life forms. This prize-winning book has broken new ground in contemporary French environmental philosophy.


BEASTLY by Keggie Carew tracks the 40,000-year story of our paradoxical relationship with the animal world. From a flute carved from the radius of a griffon vulture’s wing to tardigrades in space to now. From our intimate connections to our distant disturbances.

Article in the Guardian about this book
Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved the Birds by Tessa Boase (2018)
A heroine for our times, Etta Lemon campaigned for fifty years against the worldwide slaughter of birds for extravagantly feathered hats. Her legacy is the RSPB, grown from an all-female pressure group of 1889 with the splendidly simple pledge: Wear No Feathers.

Once Upon a Time We Ate Animals: The Future of Food by Roanne van Voorst 2021

Fowl Faces (also in english and in french as an e-book) by Marit de Haan 
For the birds From exploitation to liberation by Karen Davis 
Rebirding, rewilding Britain and its birds by Benedict Macdonald
Our Wild Calling by Richard Louv 
A Message from Martha by Mark Avery 

September 1st, 2014 sees the centenary of one of the best-documented extinctions in history—the demise of the Passenger Pigeon. From being the commonest bird on the planet 50 years earlier, the species became extinct when Martha, the last of her kind, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. ...
Ignoring Nature no More edited by Marc Beckoff 

For far too long humans have been ignoring nature. As the most dominant, overproducing, overconsuming, big-brained, big-footed, arrogant, and invasive species ever known, we are wrecking the planet at an unprecedented rate. And while science is important to our understanding of the impact we have on our environment, it alone does not hold the answers to the current crisis, nor does it get people to act. In Ignoring Nature No More, Marc Bekoff and a host of renowned contributors argue that we need a new mind-set about nature, one that centers on empathy, compassion, and being proactive.

Dead Zone: Where the Wild Things Were  

by Philip Lymbery 

Climate change and poaching are not the only culprits behind so many animals facing extinction. The impact of consumer demand for cheap meat is equally devastating and it is vital that we confront this problem if we are to stand a chance of reducing its effect on the world around us.

by Yacine Belhaj-Bouabdallah

Ethical and Political Approaches to Nonhuman Animal Issues, edited by Andrew Woodhall and Gabriel Garmendia da Trindade, published by Spinger/Palgrave Macmillan. 

You can download the chapter, “Are We Smart Enough to Know When to Take the Political Turn for Animals?”, on  Kim Stallwoods site here


Zoopolis A Political Theory of Animal Rights
by Sue Donaldson
The Food Revolution : How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life And Our World 
by John Robbins

Proteinaholic: How Our Obsession with Meat Is Killing Us and What We Can Do About It by Garth Davis 

An acclaimed surgeon specializing in weight loss delivers a paradigm-shifting examination of the diet and health industry’s focus on protein, explaining why it is detrimental to our health, and can prevent us from losing weight.


Meathooked by Marta Zaraska
The Genius of Dogs is nothing less than the definitive dog book of our time by the researcher who started a revolution.
by Brian Hare


Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
by Frans de Waal
The Political Turn in Animal Ethics 
by Rob Garner and Siobhan O’Sullivan
Meat Climate Change: The 2nd Leading Cause of Global Warming
by Dr. Moses Seenarine
The Pornography of Meat
by Carol Adams
Framing Farming: Communication Strategies for Animal Rights
by Carrie Freeman
Eating Animals
by Jonathan Safran Foer
by Hal Herzog
Animal Liberation 
by Peter Singer
by Richard D. Ryder

In French
Antispéciste by Aymeric Caron

L'Europe des animaux par Pascal Durand (Auteur) Christophe Marie (Auteur) Paru le 2 mai 2019

Pas de fusils dans la nature par Pierre Rigaux
Viande (Thriller fantastique) par Noëlle Michel 

La Tyrannie spéciste par Michel Tarrier 19 novembre 2023

Sangliers , géographies d'un animal politique par Raphaël Mathevet, 2022
Un sanglier à la maison Quatre ans d'observation et de vie quotidienne.

Écrit à l'origine en allemand, Heinz Meynhardt décrit dans ce livre ses expériences directes avec le sanglier, son comportement, ses structures familiales, son intelligence, sa reproduction, etc. Malheureusement, les chasseurs abusent de ces informations. Le sanglier est actuellement l'animal  des grands animaux le plus chassé.

In Dutch 
Mensen en andere dieren eindredactie Geertrui Cazaux 2011
Dieren kunnen de pest krijgen door Esther Ouwehand
Ooit aten we dieren door Roanne van Voorst
Ethiek voor de Landbouw: Het filosofische boerenjaar  by Christian Dürnberger  (Author), Stef Aerts (Translator)
Tussen glimlach en grimas door Mariska Kret (2022)
Mensen zijn in staat elkaars emoties van het gezicht te lezen, maar hoe doen andere dieren dat? Mariska Kret laat zien welke verschillen én overeenkomsten er zijn tussen mens en dier.
In German
Wilde Tiere in der Stadt by Florian Möllers (2010)
Florian Moellers shows us, why animals find the city more and more a comfortable place to live and how humans deal with it.