Mary Roach is often known as America’s funniest science writer. You might recognize some of her popular titles like Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (571.0919 Roa), Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (611 Roa), or Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (355.07 Roa). But she’s back with an even greater topic (in my opinion) than ever before, animals breaking the law. Mary traveled the world to learn about animals breaking human laws, and humorously digs deep into the way that humans and animals co-exist in our world today.
Keep reading for a short teaser…
What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. The answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and “danger tree” faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter’s Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque.
Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature’s lawbreakers. When it comes to “problem” wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem—and the solution. Fascinating, witty, and humane, Fuzz offers hope for compassionate coexistence in our ever-expanding human habitat.
Librarians Note:
If you’re interested in this author or this book check out episode 393 of the podcast No Such Thing As A Fish where Mary Roach was a guest and shared a number of interesting facts about animals from the book. (warning: some adult themes)
Check it out today:
Print: 591.5 Roa
Ebook: Libby
