Wild Health: How animals keep themselves well and what we can learn from them

Cindy Engel BSc PhD

 

 

Wild Health explores how animals keep themselves well in the wild.

It has long been documented that wild animals heal themselves with herbs. Folklore, legends and traditional medicine all lay claim to such feats of self-medication by animals. Until recently, though, scientists have been reluctant to accept these stories, dismissing them as romantic anthropomorphism. But things are changing as more and more scientists uncover examples of insects, birds and mammals self-medicating their ills. Monkeys, bears, coatis and birds protect themselves from insect bites and fungal infections by rubbing medicinal plants and insects into their skin. Chimpanzees carefully select anti-parasitic medicines to deal with parasites. Elephants roam miles to find the clay they need to help counter dietary toxins. And birds line their nests with pungent medicinal leaves and so improve their chicks' chances of survival.

 

This book- the first general overview of the emerging science of zoopharmacognosy - explores the behavioural strategies animals use to maintain health. Many of these strategies can be exploited to improve the health of animals in our care. By observing wild health we may even discover (or rediscover) ways to benefit our own health. 

Translations available in: German, Korean, Japanese,

English editions: USA, Canada, Australia, UK  (hardback and paperback)

 

 

 

US paperback available via Amazon

Wild Health: Lessons in Natural Wellness from the Animal Kingdom 

Publisher Houghton-Mifflin ISBN [ISBN-10: 0618340688 ISBN-13: 978-0618340682]

 

 

 

 

“Cindy Engel's book is a work of some scholarship.” Times Literary Supplement

“A sensuous, rigorous analysis of how animals stay healthy in the wild…replete with fresh ideas, Wild Health also explains phenomenon we have experienced but never understood…her writing is accessible and amusing.”
Financial Times

“Reading Wild Health is an astonishing experience--it's a revelation in the same way that Silent Spring was a revelation, and will change the way its readership sees the world. With its faultless scholarship and beautiful writing, Wild Health is a stunning achievement, and will certainly have enormous influence.”
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs.

“Wild Health is a fascinating and enlightening view of how our closest relatives stay healthy. Secrets of nature deliciously told -- so easily digestible that to absorb its benefits there's no need to eat clay like the wild parrots Dr. Engel describes.”
William B. Karesh, D.V.M., Chair IUCN Wildlife Specialist Group.

"An intriguing and comprehensive look at a fascinating subject!"
Mark Plotkin, Ph.D., ethnobotanist and author of Medicine Quest.

“Wild Health is absolutely enthralling. Cindy Engel explores the fascinating world of animal self-medication in this well researched and engagingly written book. All the thousands of us who are turning increasingly to alternative medicine will find Wild Health particularly compelling.”
Jane Goodall

“Anyone for licking wounds or a daily anointing with urine?” Guardian

A timely treatise for a health-obsessed culture, this book takes the idea of "natural remedies" quite literally… Eschewing pseudomystical assertions about the innate wisdom of beasts, the author bases her assertions on scientific premises…Engel details a world where nature is the pharmacy and every animal is its own practitioner… this is an engaging book that will enlighten those interested in health, biology, environment and animal behavior.  
Publishers Weekly

“Wild Health is a bench-mark book of multi-disciplinary science, highly accessible to both layman and expert alike.  It is an intellectually refreshing call for a more holistic approach to health and staying healthy.  Articulately separating science fact from fiction, Dr. Engel takes the reader on a spell-binding journey through the various possible strategies which have evolved in the animal kingdom for defence against disease, the unseen predator.  The lessons to be learned from this book are clear and simple.  No single animal species or human culture has a monopoly on the powers of healing.”
Michael A. Huffman, D.Sc., Associate Professor of Ecology, Kyoto University Japan

"This is a glorious book! I enjoyed every word of it! Everyone acknowledges that animals can run faster, climb higher, hear better, see further, and smell more than humans can. It has been my lot to claim they can feel certain emotions more deeply than humans. Now it turns out they can keep themselves healthy better than we can. They may not know what they are doing (do we?) but somehow they get it right. Welcome to the amazing new world of animal self-medication. You could not ask for a better guide than Cindy Engel who knows about it, cares about it, and tells you about it in a fact-filled, fun-to-read, absolutely amazing book! Solidly researched and engagingly written, Wild Health is coming exactly when we need it most. Read this book, marvel, and start imitating the wisdom of wild animals."
Jeffrey Masson, author of When Elephants Weep

"Cindy Engel synthesizes a collation of seemingly disparate anecdotes into a cohesive, logical argument that makes the reader think outside the constraints of current biological boundaries--providing a foundation of testable hypotheses in understanding the integrated nature of Wild Health."
Ellen Dierenfeld, wildlife nutrition scientist of the Wildlife Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo, NYC

“An enticing, well-referenced narrative that should be easy for any reader to digest.” Science

"This book provides a splendid and scientifically accurate account of animals' knowledge of what's good for them to eat and what's not. It provides evidence of lifesaving biological pre-programming of animals and perhaps some evidence in support of animal culture. It is a “must buy” book for anyone who wants to know more about how animals think and react to the world around them."
Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman, Professor of Animal Nutrition, Tufts University

“I think this book should be used as part of veterinary training courses and university courses as it gives a new perspective to our understanding of animal health.”
Victor Watkins, Director of Libearty Campaign, WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals).

 

 

Related peer-reviewed  publications:

Engel (2006) “Zoopharmagnosy” in Veterinary Herbal Medicine, Eds S.G. Wynn and B. J. Fougere, Mosby Elsevier Press, pp 7 - 16.

Engel, C (2006) “Livestock self-medication” in Alternative Health Practices for Livestock,  Eds T. F. Morris and M. T. Keilty (Blackwell Publishing) pp 54-61.

Engel, C (2002) “Acknowledging the Potential Role of Animal Self-medication”, Proceedings of the UK Organic Research Conference, Aberystwyth, Wales, “Research in Context” 2002 pp 355-358.

 

 

Related media by same author: 

“Wild Creature Cures” Wild vol 6(6) Sept/Oct 2002 pp 18-25.

“Wildlife Health Care” Canadian Wildlife, vol 8(3) pp10-15, 2002.

“Why Do Dogs Eat Grass” Dogs Today June 2002

“Unwell? Ape and Ape’s Remedy” Times Higher Educational Supplement June 21, 2002 p 26.

“Heal Thyself” The Ecologist (Vol 32, No. 3, April, 2002, Cover feature) pp 34-38.

"Health in the Wild—natural preventative and curative measures” Positive Health (March, 2002) pp 30-32. 

“Wild Health” Permaculture magazine: solutions for sustainable living (no.31, Spring, 2002) pp 50-51. 

“Feline Pharmacists” Your Cat magazine (Feb, 2002) pp 44-46.

“Drunk as Skunks” Mail on Sunday (Dec 22, 2001) p 47. 

“Playing the Wild Card”  (feature on foot-and-mouth policy on the entire front page of the Financial Times Weekend, June 16/17, 2001).

“We Must Learn From the Wild” Eastern Daily Press (June 21, 2001).

“Permaponies”  Permaculture magazine (April 20, 1998).

“Living Under the Shadow of Trees” East Anglian Daily Times (February 13, 1998).

 

Other books by author:

The Gaia book of Organic Gardening (Gaia Books publications, 2005).

Engel, C. and Farino, T (1999) ‘Oceania and Marine’, in Atlas of Endangered Species (second edition) Ed. J. Burton (New York: Macmillan Library reference) pp 206-223.

 

Related editorial work by author:

Master Lam’s Walking Chi Kung (Octopus publications, 2006).

Too Hard to Crack: eggs with drug residues by Richard Young and Colin Nunan (The Use and Misuse of Antibiotics in UK Agriculture, Part 4, Soil Association, 2004)

Too Hard to Swallow: the truth about drugs and poultry by Richard Young and Alison Craig (The Use and Misuse of Antibiotics in UK Agriculture, Part 3, Soil Association, 2001). This publication won the Mail on Sunday’s ‘Organic Trophy’, 2001.