Book Review for Where the Wild Things Were

 

Mr. Stolzenburg is a wildlife journalist by profession. His position as a science outsider provides a rather unique view, and makes the material more approachable to the general populace. The novel starts by chronicling a study performed on the starfish Pisaster ochraceous, and the interactions it had with other members of the tidal community in the chilly waters along the coast of Washington (state). This chapter establishes the theme of the book: the far-reaching implications of removing apex predators from ecosystems. The following chapters documented a wide array of ecosystems controlled by apex predators, and the problems caused by their removal. Stolzenburg established that many ecosystems fall into disarray following the removal of predators. The latter half of the book highlighted studies in which predators were reintroduced into ecosystem. Many of these studies found that ecosystems return to their previous "glory" following these reintroductions. 

The book ended by approaching some pretty controversial ideas. One such idea is of "rewilding" the North American continent. This plan would lead to the introduction of mega-fauna similar to what was present prior to the Pleistocene extinctions.  For example, elephants would be brought in to take the place of the now-extinct wooly mammoth. The idea being that these species could return the continent to a state similar to what was present prior to the Pleistocene extinctions.

Finally, you are left with the issue of shifting baselines. Is what you consider to be natural truly natural? It probably isn't as natural as you think.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in ecology, biodiversity, conservation, etc. It provides the reader with many answers, but also leaves questions unanswered, presumably because science has yet to provide definitive answers. It was thrilling to read this book, and I never wanted to set it down. As I read it for the first time sitting in the Sierras, my mind went wild with how those mountains might have once been. The boy in me imagined the howl of wolves in the valley below as they hunted down black-tailed deer foraging in the newly-green meadows. The ecologist in me wondered how that predatory pressure might alter deer behavior and spatial distribution, and thereby modify the composition of plant communities.

Read this book, it is more than worth your time.