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A very basic fact of nature and life itself is that diverse nonhuman animals (animals) have children. And these youngsters have to learn the ways of their species, and many will go on to have their own families.

A recent acclaimed book by psychologists Drs. Darcia Narvaez and G. A. Bradshaw called The Evolved Nest: Nature’s Way of Raising Children and Creating Connected Communities offers a unique view of nurturing and parenting in the natural world and reconnects us to lessons about how different animals raise their children and how they can restore wellness in our own families, communities, and lives.

The future of our fragile, magnificent, and interconnected planet depends on the goodwill and love of everyone living everywhere, and there is no better cohort on which to focus than youngsters because they are the future. I’m pleased these transdisciplinary scholars could take the time to answer a few questions about their landmark and unique book.

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write The Evolved Nest?

Darcia Narvaez/Gay Bradshaw: We wanted to combine insights from our individual work, which draw from multiple disciplines and research resonant with many traditional Indigenous human cultures, to show how human ancestry shares with animals the same practices and ethics of raising families. Human ancestral evolved nests—developmental systems—mirror those of penguins, elephants, parrots, rattlesnakes, and the rest of our animal kin. Wolves and brown bears may differ on the surface, but underneath, they embody the same principles of life.

When some groups of humans abandoned their evolved nest heritage around 10,000 years ago, much of humanity started on the path of what has led to today’s crisis of violence and destruction. Understanding how animals raise their young and cultivate healthy, loving communities reminds us of how humanity used to be. The evolved nest provides a map back to how we can transform from violence and alienation to care and oneness.

MB: How does your book relate to your backgrounds and general areas of interest?

DN/GB: Darcia’s focus in the last 20 years or so has been human ethics and moral development and flourishing, which has led her to an examination of our full evolutionary inheritances and the wisdom of our Indigenous cousins and ancestors in bringing about thriving for humanity and for the rest of Earth’s biocommunity. She contends that providing the evolved nest to the young is a moral imperative for developing a healthy psychosocial neurobiology. Without it, an individual’s free will is curtailed because of ill-being of one kind or another.

For the past 25 years, Gay’s work shows how neuroscience demonstrates that all animals, as diverse as sharks, coyotes, orcas, crocodiles, eagles, and octopuses, have the same brains and capacities that we do for thinking, feeling, consciousness, and so forth (trans-species psychology). The real difference between humans and other animals and plants is the ways in which we use our minds. Bears and elephants don’t do what we do—commit genocide, cause wars, or oppress others. Her discovery of PTSD in African elephants and chimpanzees provides clear evidence that animal trauma and dysfunction mostly happen as a result of human violence.

MB: Who is your intended audience?

DN/GB: Everyone and anyone who wants to live in peace and well-being with nature and support the self-determination of all animals and plants. Also, adolescents and adults interested in animals or human development or ecology.

MB: What are some of the topics you weave into your book, and what are some of your major messages?

GN/GB: Each chapter focuses on a feature of the evolved nest illustrated by a specific species. For example, gray wolves illustrate how providing the evolved nest to the young is a moral commitment of the community. Amazon parrots show the essentiality of touch and loving care, sperm whales depict child-directed feeding, beavers, spontaneous free play, African elephants mentoring from multiple generations and wise elders, and so on; each species’ nest is unique but similar in nurturing physical and psychological well-being. In all cases, there is full connection and immersion in nature to learn reverence and partnership with fellow animals and plants.

A critical take-home message: The quality of a child’s first years of life lays the foundations for who they become. With nested care, the young develop into a healthy, cooperative member of Earth’s community.

MB: How does your book differ from others that are concerned with some of the same general topics?

DN/GB: Our book brings together animal culture and ethics, trans-species psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary processes, and child development and shows the common substrate that governs human and animal development and well-being. In so doing, it effectively dissolves the false human-nonhuman barrier of difference. It shows that we may look different on the outside, but inside, all animals, including humans and plants, are the same. Learning about a sperm whale or a brown bear is learning about to whom we can evolve.

MB: How do you hope readers’ behavior might change after reading and taking to heart your book?

DN/GB: We hope the book will inspire readers and listeners to live nature’s ways—by the elements of the evolved nest—and align their lives to be in service to animals and other nature.