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Outdoors & Nature |
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Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators
written by William Stolzenburg
Studio : Bloomsbury USA
by Bloomsbury USA
Release Date : 2008-07-08
Publisher : Bloomsbury USA
Released : 2008-07-08
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781596912991
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 5 reviews)
List Price : $24.99
Our Price : $14.08
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Product Description |
A provocative look at how the disappearance of the world’s great predators has upset the delicate balance of the environment, and what their disappearance portends for the future, by an acclaimed science journalist.
It wasn’t so long ago that wolves and great cats, monstrous fish and flying raptors ruled the peak of nature’s food pyramid. Not so anymore. All but exterminated, these predators of the not-too-distant past have been reduced to minor players of the modern era. And what of it? Wildlife journalist William Stolzenburg follows in the wake of nature’s topmost carnivores, and finds chaos in their absence. From the brazen mobs of deer and marauding raccoons of backyard America to streamsides of Yellowstone National Park crushed by massive herds of elk; from urchin-scoured reefs in the North Pacific to ant-devoured islands in Venezuela, Stolzenburg leads a startling tour through bizarre, impoverished landscapes of pest and plague. For anyone who has seldom given thought to the meat-eating beasts so recently missing from the web of life, here is a world of reason to think again. |
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Beware of amateurs |
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The quite carefully written review of papers published over the last 60 years (yes, some ideas take a long time to make it to the maintstream)really tells a compelling story of our most feared ompanions, the top predators. What struck me most is the fearful power of self-defined specialist, or special interest groups, such as the hunting community, the animal right advocates, the greens, who ferouciously defend their standpoint ("rats have a right to live even if they exterminate the last breeding pair of a ground nesting seabird", to name just one nice case). What appears to be logic usually is not,(remember the summers spent by all those students sitting on fire watch towers preventing fires that now are being set on purpose by rangers?) and special advocacy groups are really prone to fall into that pitfall. So this book is an enlighting call for seeing the full picture, in this case the benefit we could gain from having back the top predators. |
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Where the Wild Things Were |
Sheer genius... I cannot sing enough positive praises about "Where the Wild Things Were"... Truly an education in ecology... William Stolzenburg does a thorough job of presenting diverse viewpoints... All of the topics were fascinating... The author's writing is moving, powerful, and provocative... I could go on and on with superlatives...
I am extremely excited to introduce family and friends to "Where the Wild Things Were"... My hope is that this book will receive the vast exposure it so richly deserves...
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Now I get it! |
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I am an environmental idiot. I try to grasp the concepts behind global warming, extinction, habitat loss, and biodiversity and come up gasping for People Magazine. Will Stolzenburg is my oxygen mask. He writes in such a way that is gripping, visceral and imparts a deep and lasting knowledge of the issues we face in the biological world. I bought 20 copies of this book - it will be my Christmas present to everyone. I wish I could buy enough for the whole world. It's that good. |
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An ecological version of "we have encountered the enemy, and it is us". |
WTWTW is a book that is way past due. It addresses ecological issues every bit as important as the oil and water shortages that are constantly on the front pages.
In his book, Mr. Stolzenburg provides an in depth look at the ill considered impacts of mankinds elimination of major predators. This book should be required reading for all Wildlife, and National & State Forests & Parks decision makers. It is also a must for anyone desiring to have an understanding of why certain species (whitetail deer to name only one) seem to be taking over the earth. |
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When the keystone is removed, how can the archway hold? |
These days, no one of good sense and alert conscience can fail to feel a deep and unprecedented anxiety over the fate of the planet. Climate change, pollution of the earth, air, and water, overpopulation, the end of nonrenewable energy sources: the environment seems to be pushed beyond its ability to recover. Even those public policies which at one time were thought to be innocently beneficial to humans have, in many cases, proven to be destructive of ecological stability.
One of them, as William Stolzenburg demonstrates in his excellent Where the Wild Things Were, is our centuries old declaration of war against predatory animals. In eliminating many of them, we thought we were improving the world. In fact, however, predators are "keystone species" whose existence holds up the "archway of life." Remove them, and the whole shebang comes down. A classic example of this, documented by Stolzenburg, is the rampant over-population of white tail deer in the U.S. and the devastating consequences to flora and fauna, that resulted from the near-eradication of wolves.
Even worse, essential predators can be eliminated unintentionally and unpredictably by interfering with the ecological balance. The killing of sea otters, for example, has allowed sea urchins (otter food) to flourish, which means that Pacific kelp (sea urchin food) is in grave danger of extinction, which in turn is creating havoc on kelp-eating whale populations. The complexity of the whole thing is exponentially increased when one stops to consider that all species are predatory--even those we'd never think of in such terms, such as starfish(to mussels)--and so everytime we deliberately or accidentally raise or lower species populations, we're risking grave upsets in the balance of the whole. When it comes to the ecological web, touching any strand shakes the entire structure.
Stolzenburg's Where the Wild Things Were is sober reading, but it's also essential. The author has the knack of explaining ecological systems in ways that the layperson (like myself) can follow. Reading his book doesn't only ratchet up the anxiety over the fate of the planet that I mentioned earlier. It also, thankfully, invites the reader to be wonder-filled at the connectedness of nature, and better resolved to cooperate with it. |
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