Feral Cities

February 9, 2015
Journalist Donovan (Replay: The History of Video Games) spends time in the trenches with those who care for, monitor, and capture animals in this anecdotal and curiosity-sparking volume on changing urban environments and the fate of wild creatures in heavily populated areas, from Brooklyn to Berlin and Miami to Mumbai. He joins Annette Prince, director of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, early one morning as she finds birds “everywhere, crumpled or concussed on the sidewalks,” having crashed into panes of glass. Donovan also rides with officers in the Los Angeles Wildlife Program as they track coyotes in Griffith Park and the Hollywood Hills, where the animals have been living for over 30 years. Meanwhile, in the sprawl of Phoenix, he accompanies a “mild-mannered web designer” who moonlights as a rattlesnake catcher. As the author notes, people “move to the city and expect it to be free of bugs, snakes, carnivores, and just about everything else too. Even, it seems, when the land right next to our homes is untamed desert.” Donovan not only shows readers how territorial boundaries between humans and wild animals constantly shift, but also how such encounters with birds, coyotes, and snakes should come as no great surprise. Photos.

February 1, 2015
Exploration of the creatures that share our urban centers, including giant house-eating snails in Miami, leopards in Mumbai, wild pigs in Berlin and red foxes in London.Donovan, a British freelance journalist (Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World, 2013, etc.) with a degree in ecology, chronicles his journeys with local experts in dozens of cities as they deal with the animals in their midst. In Phoenix, he accompanied a calm rattlesnake catcher responding to calls from alarmed householders. In Cape Town, South Africa, he learned about rogue baboons from the head of the University of Cape Town's Baboon Research Unit. While Donovan's outings were often with men and women coping with unwelcome intruders, such as black bears, grizzlies, lions, coyotes and rats, in Chicago, it was a different story. That city is on the Mississippi Flyway, and every year, thousands of migratory birds die from crashing into buildings. The author joined the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors as they patrolled the city's streets, gathering up, counting, examining and cataloging the bodies of dead birds. Squeamish readers, be warned: Donovan features less charming wildlife in the later chapters, in which he examines some of the undesirable insects, such as cockroaches and bedbugs, that thrive in our cities. The author devotes a small portion of this entertaining jaunt through city wildlife to the serious question of conservation. We can use cities to supplement wider efforts at preserving biodiversity, but first we have to stop thinking of cities as barren, anti-nature zones. A clear demonstration that the world's cities are full of nonhuman life, best read in small doses, say a chapter at a time on one's daily commute to and from the city.

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March 1, 2015

Skyscrapers don't typically come to mind when one thinks about ecology. But journalist Donovan (Fizz; Replay) has found that from Miami to Mumbai, the urban environment has significantly changed ecosystems and even animals' DNA. Globe-trotting from one major city to the next, the author shadows bird collectors in Chicago and talks to Berlin residents about the local packs of wild boars. In each metropolis, he meets colorful characters who describe how their city has been impacted by--and impacts--the wildlife around them. And when Donovan says urban wildlife, he's not talking about squirrels, he means javelinas running rampant through the city streets and baboons breaking into homes in South America. The fascinating part of this story, though, is what happens to the animals who have chosen to live in urban landscapes--changes in life expectancy, in reproductive rates, and even DNA, while they don't do the things you would expect them to do, such as eat garbage. Donovan touches on the heat island effect and its ability to forecast the biological implications of global warming on flora and fauna--a fascinating topic by itself. VERDICT Surprising, entertaining, sometimes frightening, Donovan's worldwide exploration of urban wildlife will be enjoyed by all types of readers including young adults, animal lovers, and those interested in ecology.--Jaime Corris Hammond, Naugatuck Valley Community Coll. Lib., Waterbury, CT

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2015
When it comes to sharing the world with wildlife, the lines between urban and suburban, city and country are becoming increasingly indistinct. Coyotes roam the bustling streets of Chicago, while marauding baboons amuse and harass Cape Town tourists and residents. Terrorist, house-eating snails in Miami may sound like the stuff of tabloid headlines, but the African land snail's threat to Florida's ecosystem is all too real. These are just a few of the jaw-dropping anecdotes journalist Donovan (Fizz: How Soda Shook Up the World, 2013) has gathered from around the world, captivating but ultimately cautionary tales that offer not only a glimpse into how animals, birds, reptiles, and insects have adapted to human-made habitats but also provide insight into how such imbalances occur in the first place. Profiling the citizen scientists, government workers, and amateur hobbyists who dedicate their lives to observing, cataloging, and intervening in these man-versus-animal encounters, Donovan entertainingly exposes ecological experiments gone hopelessly awry and offers thoughtful input on how such tipping points can be avoided in the future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)