"Animal behavior has long been a battleground between the competing claims of nature and nurture. Only recently has the possible role of animal cognition entered the debate. Animal Architects explores an untapped trove of behavioral data to investigate how the structure an animal builds reveals the inner workings of its mind."--Jacket.

In this volume, James and Carol Gould go in search of the animal mind. Taking a fresh look at the evidence on animal capacities for perception, thought, and language, the Goulds show how scientists attempt to distinguish actions that go beyond the innate or automatically learned. They provide captivating, beautifully-illustrated descriptions of a number of clever and curious animal behaviors - some revealed to be more or less preprogrammed, some seemingly...