Virginia Morell

Writer and naturalist Virginia Morell is the author of ANIMAL WISE: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures (Crown, 2013). She is also a correspondent for the journal, Science, specializing in animal behavior, cognition, biology and conservation, and a regular contributor to National Geographic and Conde Nast Traveler. She has written articles for the New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, Discover, Outside, and many other publications. Her first book, Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind’s Beginnings (Simon & Schuster 1995), was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and her book Blue Nile (National Geographic, 2001) was selected as a “Best Travel Book of the Year” by the San Francisco Chronicle. She co-authored Wildlife Wars (St. Martin’s Press, 2001) with the paleoanthropologist and conservationist Dr. Richard Leakey; The Washington Post recognized it as a “Best Book of the Year.” Animals are her passion, and she strives through her writing to help us better understand and care for them.