The Skimmer

Where the Wild Things Were By William Stolzenburg; 291 pages

Nature's underdogs have no shortage of human protectors, but don't count William Stolzenburg among them. In Where the Wild Things Were, the seasoned wildlife writer reminds us that predation, not parity, is nature's organizing principle. Beyond his affection for fierce carnivores, he argues persuasively that keystone predators function as biological linchpins--without them, ecosystems plunge into chaos. To underline this point, he whisks readers from kelp forests to arctic tundra, revealing the "evolutionary dance between predator and prey"--how a dearth of wolves and cougars helped spur an infestation of white-tailed deer that...

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