Virginia Morell (born 1949) is an American

science writer Science journalism conveys reporting about science to the public. The field typically involves interactions between scientists, journalists, and the public. Origins Modern science journalism dates back to ''Digdarshan'' (means showing the di ...

. She is the author of several books, and is a contributor to ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

'' and ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

'', among other publications.

Early life and education

Morell was born in 1949. She attended

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

, graduating in 1971. She specializes in animal behavior, cognition and conservation. Morrell resides in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

with her husband Michael McRae.

Career

Morell's book ''Ancestral Passions'' a biography about the

Leakey family The Leakey family is a British and Kenyan family consisting of a number of notable military figures, agricultural scientists and archaeologists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally a family from Somerset and Devon in south-west England in the ...

, was positively reviewed as a scholary work. Morrell authored ''Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures'', which was named by ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' as one of the Best Books of 2013 on Nature and the Environment. The book documents research on

animal cognition Animal cognition encompasses the mental capacities of non-human animals including insect cognition. The study of animal conditioning and learning used in this field was developed from comparative psychology. It has also been strongly influenc ...

that reveals the mental and emotional lives of animals including ants, dogs, elephants, fish and parrots. Liza Gross who reviewed the book for KQED commented that "Morell obliterates the lines that might separate us from the rest of the animal kingdom by relating trailblazing discoveries of the emotional and intellectual lives of animals. In the process, she challenges us to rethink our ethical obligations to the creatures who share our world." It was a

New York Times Bestseller ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

Selected publications

*''Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings'' (1995) *''Blue Nile: Ethiopia's River of Magic and Mystery'' (2001) *'' Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa’s Natural Treasures'' (2001: co-authored with

Richard Leakey Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (19 December 1944 – 2 January 2022) was a Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician. Leakey held a number of official positions in Kenya, mostly in institutions of archaeology and wildlife cons ...

) *''Inside Animal Minds: The New Science of Animal Intelligence'' (2012) *''Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures'' (2013) *''Becoming a Marine Biologist'' (2019)"Becoming a Marine Biologist"
publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2 April 2022.

References

External links

A Q&A with Virginia Morell, author of Animal Wise
{{Animal welfare 1949 births 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers American animal welfare scholars American conservationists American nature writers American science writers American women biographers American naturalists Animal cognition writers Living people National Geographic people Pomona College alumni Writers from Oregon