Feral Cities: Adventures with Animals in the Urban Jungle

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. [em](Apr.) [/em]