Book Reviews
“Where the Wild Things Were”
A world free from predators would not be idyllic.
By Thomas Hayden | July 21, 2008 edition
Where the Wild Things Were builds on one simple ecological truth: predators matter.
It should surprise no one that the best way to preserve nature is to ensure that all of its parts are in place. But the reality is that humans have long been waging a war against large carnivores – lions and tigers and bears, to name but a few. The result, says author William Stolzenburg in this absorbing and delightful work of natural history, is that we have thrown the balance of nature out of whack. The science he presents is not all new, but the scientific perspective Stolzenburg reflects will be fresh and illuminating to many readers.
From the wolves we have hunted, trapped, and poisoned out of most of the lower forty-eight states (resulting in a vegetation-destroying plague of deer, elk, and other, smaller beasts) to the sharks and other large fish we’ve all but eaten out of the sea, Stolzenburg argues that some of the most frightening animals in the world are among the most important for maintaining nature’s balance.
Predators as ‘keystone’ species
Predators are not just an important part of intact ecosystems, we learn. Often, they are true keystone species – remove the wolves from Yellowstone National Park, say, or the sea otters from a coastal kelp forest, and the whole natural edifice collapses.
A world free from predators might seem idyllic. But in a series of ecological case studies, Stolzenburg shows how removing the largest carnivores from an ecosystem lets lesser meat eaters, or newly carefree prey, come to dominate. He paints a disturbing picture of this new biological reality, from American woodlands and backyards overrun by marauding deer and raccoons to rampaging bands of meat-hungry baboons in Africa.
In doing so, he makes a strong case that we pursue our ongoing war against nature’s great meat eaters to our own detriment.
Aided by a graceful tone and a refreshing blend of scientific rigor and personal observation, Stolzenburg makes a reliable and pleasant guide through this potentially treacherous intellectual terrain.
Treacherous in part because ideas such as the large-scale reintroduction of dangerous animals are politically and scientifically sensitive to say the least; treacherous also because, to be frank, the real nuts and bolts of quantitative ecology can be astoundingly dull. Stolzenburg does a welcome job of understanding the data, methodology, and academic and political battles for us.
He clarifies without dumbing down and finds the deeper stories lurking behind the statistical models and dry language. And perhaps even more important, in revealing what might be termed the secret life of large carnivores, he helps us understand something of his own love for them.
Love for the fanged and clawed
Stolzenburg freely admits his fondness for the world’s most fearsome creatures, and while this is primarily a book of science, it is also an extended appreciation of the fanged, the clawed, and the taloned.
“All I can personally but crudely attest is that there is something fundamentally different about a land roamed by big meat-eating beasts, a sense that becomes forcefully apparent in a solitary walk through their realm,” he writes in conclusion. “And I can only believe, from somewhere deeper than any logic center of the brain, that a life of incomprehensible loneliness awaits a world where the wild things were, but are never to be again.”
“Where the Wild Things Were” is one of those rare books that provide not just an enriching story, but a new, clarifying lens through which to understand the world around us. The widespread loss of large predators is certainly not the only problem facing the natural world, but it is a significant cause of ecosystem disruptions and follow-on extinctions, and one that is often overlooked.
Make no mistake – this story is a depressing one, and the predator-centric point of view is not the only important idea in ecology. But as efforts to conserve the last bits of true wilderness intensify, and ecologists increasingly seek ways to restore ecosystems that have already been disturbed or destroyed, it is a perspective we can ill afford to ignore.
Thomas Hayden is co–author with Malcolm Potts of “Sex and War: How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism, and Offers a Path to a Safer World,” to be published in December.
Comments
2. Ineluctable Moe | 07.22.08
Great review and quite an evocative distillation of the author’s message. Can’t wait to read the book.
3. Nancy Owens | 07.22.08
i can not get out of my mind the little bear cub that was shown being treated for extensive burns on our nightly local news. Presumably from the California fires. He lay softly groaning the whole time and it was said that if he did not recover they would have to euthanize him. What are we doing to our world and our wildlife? Yes, there was much human tradgedy but people have crowded in on the natural habitats of these animals and often are the reason that they suffer and die like this little guy who I hope survives or they put it out of it’s misery.
4. Ramesh Raghuvanshi | 07.25.08
Why killing the animal inceased in recent time?From ancient time people were interested in hunting but at that time balance of nature was stable.As we inventing new and new weaponery it is easy to killed wild animal,we are creating inbalance in nature.
Iam fear i near future we will finish all wild animal our new generation may watch wild animal only in zoo.Another great fear aunting to me as we are inventing most dangerious weapon particulaly bioweaponery that will dimish whle mankind.
Man by nature irrational and greedy how can we stop this greediness of man?
5. Ramesh Raghuvanshi | 07.25.08
Why killing the animal inceased in recent times?From ancient time people were interested in hunting but at that time balance of nature was stable.As we are inventing new and new weaponery it is easy to killed wild animal,we are creating inbalance in nature.
Iam fear in near future we will finish all wild animal our new generation may watch wild animal only in zoo.Another great fear haunting to me as we are inventing most dangerious weapon particulaly bioweaponery that will diminish whole mankind.
Man by nature irrational and greedy how can we stop this greediness of man?
6. AJPemberton | 07.25.08
I often here similar arguments … ‘we don’t belong here’ , we’re by nature greedy and irrational’ . I know some think the planet would be better off if there were no humans at all ! I disagree. In part because that would mean I wouldn’t be here to experience this wonderful universe. And in part because we do belong here .. we evolved on this palnet … where else are we more suited ? We are after all the most successful primate ever ! Agreed : our nature’s can be greedy and irrational , but they can also be empathetic , altruistic and incredibly rational. Its just that , like those aforementioned deer and elk , we are out of balance. Simply put there are too many of us. I seem to recall reading some years back that the long term carrying capacity of this planet for humans was about 2 billion. That was a level which allowed other species to survive and ecosystems to remain largely intact. Get back to that level and almost all of our current problems dissappear.
7. vcarson | 07.26.08
I shudder to think what it will take to “go back” to a sustainable population level. I don’t know anyone volunteering to go first, do you? I remember being a schoolgirl back in the early ’70’s when there was a lot of talk about ZPG (zero population growth). My husband and I made a conscious decision to only have two children. Why did that idea never take hold as part of our culture of individual responsibility? I imagine it would have to be a cultural thing, as I can’t imagine trying to legislate it — can hear the debates now over limiting individual freedoms by legislating control over population growth. I recently heard someone say “don’t worry about it; one of the Four Horsemen will take care of it soon enough.” Too sad to think that our greedy and irrational species might have to come to that in order to restore balance. I hope we don’t become extinct in the process.
8. charls | 07.27.08
The great predators still exist; it just that you cannot see them.
Aids, TB, malaria and many others too numerous to name. They are waiting for mankind. The Black Death struck Europe and 1/3 of the population died in a few years. Somewhere, someplace another disease like The Black Death will appear. Its just a matter of time before Nature strikes back at mankind.
9. Dick Marler | 08.22.08
I live an hour away from Yellowstone, and the Redhead and I spend as many weekends as we can in the “park.” I also photograph and write stories about Yellowstone for a local weekly paper. “Where the Wild Things Were,” is the most important book I have read since “Silent Spring.” My thanks to the auther for making what I have been watching so clear.
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1. Joe Call | 07.22.08
I still recall listening to a play on a late night radio station while driving back from a camping trip to New England 30 plus years ago. My companions were asleep in the back as the story unfolded about the search for aliens on the planet Earth. Seem evidence was uncovered about an invasion in the distant past. I listened intently as the mystery was solved with the discovery that “man” was the alien on Earth. Then it all made sense, until man arrived there seemed some natural balance on Earth. Mankind seemed to throw that balance out of whack. Call it global warming, overhunting, over fishing or predator eradication, may be we are the ones that don’t belong here. Just a thought.