Wild Animal Neighbors: Sharing Our Urban World by Ann Downer-Hazell
My rating: 4/5 cats
please enjoy this song as you read the review…
wild animal neighbors!! yes, please!! having just read My Backyard Jungle: The Adventures of an Urban Wildlife Lover Who Turned His Yard into Habitat and Learned to Live with It, i was well aware of the problems wild animals face when they start to move into urban areas. and the problems that humans face when animals get all up in our business. oh, co-existence, you are very tricky, indeed.
this one is a jr version of the same story, but it has PICTURES! none of which i can steal from the e-book, but i do have the internets, so i can still share some of the animals with y’all.
because you know i love pictures…
so, this book covers some of the same ground as the other one i read; bears traipsing through neighborhoods in massachusetts, those nimble-fingered raccoon bandits taking over suburbia, but it also had some stories that were new to me:
a coyote gets into a quiznos in chicago!
the flying fox “problem” in australia:
why aren’t my problems are cute as this??
but i guess this is less adorable.
and all squeeing aside, it is a real problem. as animal habitats shrink because of our urban progress, they are frequently pushed into places where people are already living—people with garbage and bird feeders and pet food…and tasty pets themselves. our highways and strip malls cut off animal hunting grounds and also their breeding possibilities, meaning that many animals are forced to inbreed, which is never healthy. but even relocating “problem” animals out of neighborhoods and public spaces is tricky—once they are used to the easy life of eating out of our containers, who wants to have to go back to eating faster-moving prey? not a raccoon, that’s for sure. and not a japanese crow.
and those poor sea turtles!! born on land, relying on the moonlight reflecting off of the water to guide them to their natural home, completely baffled by neon miami, and getting all turned around and just dying in droves. it is really heartbreaking.
but! because this book is intended for children, it’s not all doom and gloom—a lot of it is about preventative measures being taken to help everyone live harmoniously and respectful of all boundaries and needs, and there is hope.
it is only 68 pages, but it’s really good stuff.
i am pretty sure this is the documentary i loved about raccoons. the part about japan (mentioned in this book) is particularly awesome. http://video.pbs.org/video/2192070266/
i, personally, would love it if i had a little nature in my life—my dad’s night-visiting raccoon gives me so much pleasure when i see his little hands shoveling food into his mouth. apparently, he likes twinkles.
but i do, with the part of me that isn’t all gooing over the fuzzies, understand that animals aren’t there for me to hug, and they need their own space. they only like to cuddle with each other.
but, between you and me, apparently this picture was taken in queens, so there’s hope for me:
i will hug them all.
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