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For readers of Entangled Life and The Hidden Life of Trees, a fascinating journey into the world of plants and animals, and the ways they communicate with each other. In forests, fields, and even gardens, there is a constant exchange of information going on. Animals and plants must communicate with one another to survive, but they also tell lies, set traps, talk to themselves, and speak to each other in a variety of unexpected ways. Here, behavioural biologist Madlen Ziege reveals the fascinating world of nonhuman communication. In charming, humorous, and accessible prose, she shows how nature's language can help us to understand our own place in the natural world a little better.
Originally published in German in 2020 as Kein Schweigen im Walde: Wie Tiere und Pflanzen Miteinander Kommunizieren.
Madlen Ziege studied biology in Potsdam, Berlin and Australia. In her doctorate at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, she studied the communicational behaviour of wild rabbits in urban and rural areas. She works as a behavioural biologist and inspires people of all ages for scientific research with her science slams.
Alexandra Roesch is a bicultural, bilingual freelance translator based in Frankfurt, Germany. An experienced translator of fiction and nonfiction, she has an MA in translation from the University of Bristol and was longlisted for the 2018 Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize.
"It's always amazing how talkative nature is – very enlightening and entertaining!"
– Peter Wohlleben, author of The Hidden Life of Trees
"In accessible language [Ziege] reports on fascinatingly clever chemical communication among bacteria; tells how wild rabbits coordinate and how badgers warn their enemies [...] Mushrooms set traps, fish lie, and fox and fir tree say goodnight. Illuminating brain food."
– OÖ news
"Communication between animals and plants takes on a whole new dimension."
– Mittagzmagazin
"In the forest and in your own garden, things are [...] anything but quiet and calm, as Madlen Ziege, in a light and entertaining way, and using astonishing scientific knowledge, shows us."
– Kronen Zeitung
