Author(s): Jonathan Balcombe

Society & Culture

This work is now available in paperback following huge critical acclaim. "Pleasurable Kingdom" is the first trade book to focus on new evidence that animals, like humans, enjoy themselves. It debunks the popular perception that life for most is a continuous, grim struggle for survival. Instead, it suggests that creatures from birds to bats to baboons may feel good thanks to play, sex, touch, food, anticipation, comfort, aesthetics and more. Combining rigorous evidence, elegant argument and amusing anecdote, leading animal behaviour researcher, Dr Jonathan Balcombe proposes that evolution favours sensory rewards because they drive living things to stay alive and reproduce. Animal pain and stress, once controversial, are now acknowledged by legislation in many countries. Likewise the possibility of positive feelings in creatures other than humans has important ramifications for science and society and is thus ripe for informed debate, Balcombe concludes. First published 2006; this edition with new foreword by Peter Singer 2007.