Start with high-confidence animal behavior books, then narrow by subgenre or adjacent topics.
First Steps
Jeremy DeSilva
The Hidden World of the Fox
Adele Brand
The Light Eaters
Zoë Schlanger
Behave
Robert M. Sapolsky
What It's Like to Be a Bird
David Allen Sibley
The Intimate Animal
Justin R. Garcia PhD PhD, Matt Godfrey
Entangled Life
Merlin Sheldrake
Chaser
John W. Pilley, Hilary Hinzmann
An Immense World
Ed Yong
What an Owl Knows
Jennifer Ackerman
Raising Hare
Chloe Dalton
The Bird Way
The Elephant Whisperer
Lawrence Anthony, Graham Spence
Inside of a Dog
Alexandra Horowitz
Almost Human
Lee Berger, John Hawks
The Wisdom of Wolves
Jim Dutcher, Jamie Dutcher
The Soul of an Octopus
Sy Montgomery
The Sound of Feathers
Kathryn Gillespie
Coyote America
Dan Flores
Wolves, Coyotes & Foxes
Stan Tekiela
The Hidden Life of Trees
Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst
Eavesdropping on Animals
George Bumann, Jon Young
