Article by Anne Kilgannon
Reading Bernd Heinrich is an exercise in active engagement, no easy-chair activity. Not for the first time I had to put down my copy of The Homing Instinct and go for a walk to absorb his rapid-fire thoughts, this instance concerning the flocking behavior of passenger pigeons. His musing on their remarkable behavior pattern rooted in their distinctive biology and its possible connection to their tragic extinction had me out the door and looking for mourning doves, their close relatives, along the telephone wires. Somehow gazing at them felt a part of the necessary process of sorting out the tumble of thoughts he had inspired. Heinrich was insisting that we look more closely at the biological basis of the why-and-how of this extinction event beyond the usual sociological context given as explanation.
The historic cause of the calamitous extinction has often been blamed on Italian market hunters—a maligned immigrant group of the period—and “backwoods” types for their greed and ignorance for the massive kills that decimated the flocks of pigeons. Heinrich thought there was more to the story. Extinction was almost a side issue. His question was why they held so tightly to their flock that it brought about their end. I can barely indicate here the breadth of his explorations, all probing the issue of “Home.” For the passenger pigeons, the flock was home; for spiders their webs, for moles their tunnels, for ancient humans caves and fire-containing hearths. This book is his search for the commonalities and biological fundamentals that tie together such varieties of belonging.
He has a never-ending stream of questions and some wildly imaginative experiments and ways of observing everything from frogs and spiders to deer and chickadees that keep readers enthralled. We are invited to join him in his Maine cabin during a midnight conversation or scrambling up a tree or down a forest path for a better lookout. We too feel the cold of winter, the relief and comfort of hot coffee, the itch of bug bites and the mystery of far-off places as Heinrich explores and probes the edges of what he knows, always pushing for more understanding and connection.
In this book he returns again and again to the question what makes a home? Does every creature have a kind of home and what lengths do they go to find or create a one, to defend and keep their place safe for themselves and their offspring. From a mere scrape on the ground for some birds to elaborate tunnel systems constructed by certain insects and some mammals, Heinrick weaves his vignettes that illustrate his theory that we all must belong somewhere or to something, the thing being our flock, our pack, or family. This is not a superficial question but the heart of all life, the how of existence and survival. It’s the thread that explains so much about the lives of every animal, how they find safety, food, a mate, and raise the next generation. As he explores this question, taking up one creature after another for examples, Heinrick circles back to humans, how we are creatures like all others with the same needs and ways of fulfilling them. Humans are not separate observers but participants; we are embedded in our biology just like the beavers and ravens and honeybees he has studied. This insight enlivens every discussion: our home seeking and building is just another variety, but also of the same intensity and driven by urges as deeply a part of our make-up. Heinrick studies himself as relentlessly as he follows the life ways of all his subjects.
With Heinrich there are always more questions and fascinating twists and turns, more sheer brilliance and deeper wells of scientific reasoning, as he draws on his eclectic researches and decades of fieldwork. And when he arrives at a new explanation it feels solid and plausible, a place to stand…for a moment, because with Heinrich you know there will be more probing questions to come. The book is both quietly introspective and yet riveting. As we read, our focus is on the stories of all the lives he describes in such exacting detail, but he draws us also inward, looking at ourselves with dawning awareness and in recognition of our animal nature. Heinrich’s explorations of the concept of home excites great intellectual leaps of cognition but also instills a deep restfulness of belonging to the Earth and inspires our care for its home-keeping.
