where the wild things were by william stolzenburg

“There were predacious fish the size of buses: Dinichthys was thirty feet long, with a tail like an eel and a bony, jagged-toothed skull suggesting a jack-o’lantern carved from a wrecking ball. Reaching way back in time, Stolzenburg reveals ancient predators. Sometimes the interrelated dependencies aren’t even known until well into a tragedy of extinction. It’s an intricate and complex interrelated world in which animals are often dependent on other species in unique and unforeseen ways. Elton wrote, “Food is the burning question in animal society, and the whole structure and activities of the community are dependent upon questions of food supply.” Throughout the book, Stolzenbury follows these thoughts and engages in discussions on the wolves in Yellowstone, deer take-overs in Maryland, the Great Smoky Mountains, and the Rocky Mountain National Park In Colorado, to the disappearances of songbirds. Elton made important discoveries about the pyramid nature of the food cycle. Paine’s classic experiment identifying 'keystone species' in the 1960s was built upon the work of another scientist, Charles Sutherland Elton.

I found myself interested in all the details of discovery as field scientists from all over the world added their important voices to the science of ecology. Stolzenburg is an engaging storyteller who imparts science along with fascinating facts and lively personalities. And because they deserve every voice, every compassionate ally we can muster on their behalf.” William Stolzenburg Because it haunts me to know how badly we treat so many of them. “I write about animals, for three reasons: Because I find them wondrous, and good for the soul. 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. And what of it? Wildlife journalist William Stolzenburg follows in the wake of nature's topmost carnivores, and finds chaos in their absence.įrom 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.

All but exterminated, these predators of the not-too-distant past have been reduced to minor players of the modern era. It wasn't so long ago that wolves and great cats, monstrous fish and flying raptors ruled the peak of nature's food pyramid. 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.

Where the wild things were by william stolzenburg