the urban bestiary encountering the everyday wild

'It's a winsome image, really: the tail coiled around a branch of leaves, and the opossum scampering (insofar as an opossum can scamper) away with her treasure, then using her icky-pointy nose to tuck the leaves into a rounded nest, either in a protected earthen corner or in a tree.' (p. In explaining how an opossum uses its prehensile tail, Haupt writes: Even aspects of these creatures that cause disgust, such as the scaly tails of rats and opossums, become objects of curiosity. Haupt takes a humane view, both of urban wildlife (some of it widely disliked) and of the people that interact with these creatures. There are frequent sidebars with information on identifying tracks and sign or about an animal's behavior.

It also includes chapters on subjects that are not usually thought of as wildlife, such as chickens, humans, and trees. In some cases family groups are lumped together in a single chapter, and other chapters combine species that are only distantly related but have habitats or behaviors in common. The focus is on those animals that people are most likely to encounter in urban or suburban enviroments, particularly mammals and birds. This book avoids reporting mythology as fact, as bestiaries of the past often did, but it allows room for speculation or conjecture alongside more solid natural history. The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild by Lyanda Lynn Haupt explores how humans interact with the wildlife close to home.Ī bestiary is a book which combines descriptions of animals and their habits with mythology and symbolism. At the same time, it can inspire people to learn more about the natural world.

When wildlife lives alongside humans in urban or suburban environments, it becomes a frequent source of conflict, from groundhogs eating their way through vegetable gardens to squirrels chewing their way into houses.

The urban bestiary encountering the everyday wild