The Skimmer

Where the Wild Things Were By William Stolzenburg; 291 pages

Nature's underdogs have no shortage of human protectors, but don't count William Stolzenburg among them. In Where the Wild Things Were, the seasoned wildlife writer reminds us that predation, not parity, is nature's organizing principle. Beyond his affection for fierce carnivores, he argues persuasively that keystone predators function as biological linchpins--without them, ecosystems plunge into chaos. To underline this point, he whisks readers from kelp forests to arctic tundra, revealing the "evolutionary dance between predator and prey"--how a dearth of wolves and cougars helped spur an infestation of white-tailed deer that munched Wisconsin's forests to the nub and how an absence of jaguars paradoxically caused a Panamanian reserve's bird population to wither. Stolzenburg narrates these cautionary tales with a conservationist's attention to ecological detail and a childlike reverence for flesh-tearing beasts. His infectious enthusiasm should spark even in bug-wary urbanites a renewed appreciation for nature's complexity.

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