2 February 2016 Last updated at 13:20 GMT
Charles Foster has worked as a vet, a lawyer and is now an Oxford academic.
His book Being a Beast describes his trials of life as a fox and otter, as well as how he lived underground and ate worms to understand the world of badgers.
He said: "Go out into the woods and drop to your normal foot level and you will see a completely different, and very exhilarating, world."
Brennan Nicholls reports.
An Oxford author has written a book cataloguing his experience of living life as five wild animals.