Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators [Paperback]

William Stolzenburg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2009

“Big, fierce animals have a noble champion in William Stolzenburg.”—Edward O. Wilson, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University

Wildlife journalist William Stolzenburg follows in the wake of nature’s topmost carnivores and finds chaos in their absence. His startling tour through the bizarre, impoverished landscapes of pest and plague provides a world of reason to think again about meat-eating beasts so recently missing from the web of life. Includes a new afterword by the author.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this impassioned debut, wildlife journalist Stolzenburg examines predation's crucial role in the preservation of ecological diversity, painting nightmarish pictures of what happens when top carnivores are exterminated from ecosystems. Without sea otters to keep ravenous sea urchins in check, some ocean floors in the North Pacific have been stripped of kelp. In Yellowstone National Park, the eradication of wolves has resulted in a glut of elk that have trampled river banks and chewed down young trees. White-tailed deer have denuded the undergrowth in the forests of the eastern United States, because wolves and cougar have disappeared. Without large meat eaters, mid-size predators—raccoons, blue jays, crows, squirrels, opossums—have proliferated, to the detriment of songbird populations. In dazzling descriptions, Stolzenburg demonstrates how the delicate balance between predator and prey is so essential, and his book, rich in dramatic accounts of life and death in the wild, is powerful and compelling. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

“Absorbing and delightful…Not just an enriching story, but a new, clarifying lens through which to understand the world around us.”—Christian Science Monitor

“Stolzenburg’s infectious enthusiasm should spark even in bug-wary urbanites a renewed appreciation for nature’s complexity.”—Time

“A meticulous and convincing argument that alpha predators are the primary regulators of ecosystems, and that their removal is crippling our planet’s biodiversity.”—Bill McKibben, Boston Globe

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (June 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596916249
• ISBN-13: 978-1596916241
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When the keystone is removed, how can the archway hold?, July 11, 2008

By 

Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators (Hardcover)

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.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where the Wild Things Were, August 19, 2008

By 

Stacy Carroll "f1lmrtr" (Granite Bay, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators (Hardcover)

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...

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vastly improved my understanding of species interdependencies, February 18, 2009

By 

A. S. Johnson "seeking change" (Anchorage, AK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators (Hardcover)

Mr. Stolzenburg describes research into the effects of large predators on ecosystems. The focus is on research that has taken place in the last 20 years or so, but I think that's just because that's when most of the research has been done. I understand that the author has biases, but he does an excellent job of communicating research findings in an objective, insightful manner.

Reading this book really jolted me out of my previous beliefs about predators, which was that, while they were great for a story, they didn't serve any irreplaceable role in the world. It also gave me a clearer understanding of some of the weaknesses with the Endangered Species Act. Now I'm even almost willing to quit complaining about the bear that wanders through our neighborhood every summer.

This book is well-written and easily understood by a layperson like me. In places, it is almost like a murder mystery. I found myself getting to the end of a chapter on otters and not being able to put the book down because I wanted to find out what happened to them next. Time passed quickly while I read this book. It actually kept me awake at night, which doesn't usually happen with a nonfiction book about nature. What a great book!