Made for Each Other: The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond

Nothing turns a baby's head more quickly than the sight or sound of an animal. This fascination is driven by the ancient chemical forces that first drew humans and animals together. It is also the same biology that transformed wolves into dogs and skittish horses into valiant comrades that would carry us into battle.

Made for Each Other is the first book to explain how this chemistry of attraction and attachment flows through -- and between -- all mammals to create the profound emotional bonds humans and animals still feel today.

Drawing on recent discoveries from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, behavioral psychology, archeology, as well as her own investigations, Meg Daley Olmert explains why the brain chemistry humans and animals trigger in each other also has a profound effect on our mental and physical well being.

This lively and original investigation asks what happens when the bond is severed. If thousands of years of caring for animals infused us with a biology that shaped our hearts and minds, do we dare turn our back on it? Daley Olmert makes a compelling and scientific case for what our hearts have always known, that we were, and always will be, made for each other.

Author: Meg Daley Olmert
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 02/23/2010
Pages: 312
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9780306818608
ISBN10: 0306818604
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Anthropology | General
- Science | Life Sciences | Zoology | Mammals
- Science | Life Sciences | Anatomy & Physiology

About the Author
Meg Daley Olmert, producer and writer for Emmy Award-winning series such as Smithsonian World, National Geographic Explorer, and the Discovery Channel Specials, lives on the eastern shore of Maryland.