I can't claim to have read a lot on the subject of conservation efforts in America, but I was genuinely moved and impressed by this book. It's packed with interesting stories and personalities and is written quite beautifully. I think its particular strength is that it approaches the subject from a very personal angle, but never fails to provide a good depth of research and background information. ( )

A largely depressing book , making many conservation efforts appear to be excercises in futility. It stimulates thought about what we are doing and why ( )

The subtitle is an excellent summary! Fascinating collection of stories about interactions between humans and wildlife, told in a very approachable down-to-earth manner. Full of weird historical tangents that end up giving great context toward current attitudes and perceptions. Environmentally-minded but absolutely open and honest about how conflicted the human heart gets around nature, this book is an exploration, not a problem/solution presentation. Deeply researched and sufficiently geeky without being pretentious or dense - a nonfiction book that I found just as compelling as my usual fiction reads. ( )

In this book the author explores the attitudes of everyday people to threatened and endangered wildlife, and the convoluted efforts of conservationists and scientists to save them. Convoluted because the more closely you look at each issue, the more insurmountable and unrealistic the effort appears to be . . .

It starts with the author deciding to visit three areas where he can see in person animal species that are struggling, on the brink of extinction as it were. For some of the trips he takes his young daughter along- so part of this is also looking at what children understand of wildlife issues . . . He goes to Churchill to view the polar bears- which every year face a longer stretch of fasting waiting for sea ice to form, while more cubs starve and never make it to adulthood. He goes to Antioch Dunes, a place where the endangered Lange's metalmark butterfly lives on one host plant species that thrives on shifting dunes- but by the time it was made into a wildlife refuge so much sand had been mined and trucked away the ecosystem changed drastically, and now it's only through the constant efforts of humans to eradicate 'weeds' and plant the butterfly's naked stem buckwheat that keeps the species going. Finally, he travels to Michigan to join the team of Operation Migration and see how whooping crane chicks, raised in captivity by men masked in crane costumes, are led by ultralight planes on their first migration. In each case, the author talks with scientists, conservationists, and bystanders alike. . . He talks about shifting baselines, how the public's perception of wildlife issues is influenced and changes over the years, how charismatic species get all the attention while lesser-known and smaller ones quietly disappear. There's discussion on how bison were nearly wiped out and since recovered and how canada geese went from being seen as rare harbringers of changing seasons to outright pests. There's the true story about a humpback whale that swam up a river and stranded itself- and so many people came to view this one animal in trouble, they trampled all over the butterfly refuge which was even worse for that species and its host plant. The parts about the legal tangle of how individual species get protection, are listed or de-listed as endangered, and suffer from lack of funding, was a bit tedious to read through.

But it becomes very clear that for many species, people are obviously propping them up, and if we withdrew our support, they would simply disappear- in some cases, very quickly. How long do we continue that effort? I don't know what to think of the message this book gives me. On the one hand, it's encouraging to see how many people do care about wildlife and are going to great efforts to help our fellow creatures survive- even if some of them don't act as wild as they used to (whooping cranes visiting bird feeders, whitetail deer in backyards). On the other hand, the glum none-of-this-matters-in-the-end attitude makes me feel very depressed. What we have done to our Earth is dismal. As long as humans keep taking up so much space and increasing our numbers and use of resources, I don't see how things can change or even be sustainable. Much less remain habitable for the diversity of species it once supported, in the long run.

more at the Dogear Diary ( )

Wild Ones is an honest look into the status of endangered species and their relationship to humans in the present day. Mooallem makes three trips - sometimes bringing his young daughter - to see animals who may be extinct within our lifetimes. He first visits Churchill, Ontario, the only location where polar bears live adjacent to a human community and their strange celebrity status there. Next, he visits the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge in the Bay Area of California where Lange's metalmark butterfly clings to survival in a post-industrial environment. Finally, he visits the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP) breeding centers that attempt repopulate whooping crane populations with minimal interaction with humans (the staff where crane-like disguises) and follows the annual Operation Migration where cranes are lead by light aircraft. At each spot, Mooallem interviews the people trying to rehabilitate the endangered animal populations as well as amateur participants and observers.

Supporting his journalistic endeavors, Mooallem also researches the relationships of humanity to animals in America, focusing on figures ranging from Thomas Jefferson to 19th-century zoologist William Temple Hornaday to 1970s whale advocate Joan McIntyre. Mooallem frequently recognizes that the idea of wilderness is impossible in a world so widely-populated with humans. The idea that endangered species can be simply rehabilitated and reintroduced to the wild is being replaced with the reality that they will require perpetual management to survive. He also notes how people's appreciation of wild animals is inversely proportional to their populations, and animals once endangered - such as Canada geese and white-tailed deer - are now considered pests. But Mooallem also sees hope in a world where humans and animals are more interconnected as the ideas of a seperate wilderness are dismissed.
Mooallem writes in a snarky, fatalistic tone that, while understandable, I find off-putting. Nevertheless, I find this an informative and thought-provoking book. ( )