Melanie Challenger works as a researcher on the history of humanity and the natural world, and on environmental philosophy. She is the author of How to Be Animal (Penguin) and On Extinction: How We Became Estranged from Nature (Counterpoint). She received a Darwin Now Award for her research among Canadian Inuit and the Arts Council International Fellowship with the British Antarctic Survey for her work on the history of whaling. She lives with her family in England.