The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

From one of the finest nature writers at work in America today-a lyrical, dramatic, illuminating tour of the hidden domain of wild animals.

Whether recalling the experience of being chased through the Grand Canyon by a bighorn sheep, swimming with sharks off the coast of British Columbia, watching a peregrine falcon perform acrobatic stunts at 200 miles per hour, or engaging in a tense face-off with a mountain lion near a desert waterhole, Craig Childs captures the moment so vividly that he puts the reader in his boots.

Each of the forty brief, compelling narratives in The Animal Dialogs focuses on the author’s own encounter with a particular species and is replete with astonishing facts about the species’ behavior, habitat, breeding, and lifespan. But the glory of each essay lies in Childs’s ability to portray the sometimes brutal beauty of the wilderness, to capture the individual essence of wild creatures, to transport the reader beyond the human realm and deep inside the animal kingdom.

All proceeds benefit the non-profit National Wildlife Federation’s #SaveLACougars campaign to build the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing and advance connectivity efforts in Southern California and beyond. The Wallis Annenberg Crossing broke ground in 2022 and is advancing toward completion in 2026. Building on significant historic preservation efforts, we are reconnecting a vital habitat corridor to help save the local population of mountain lions and ensure a future for all wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains.