VeganCleopatra

I was a bit disappointed after finishing Where the Wild Things Were as I believed it would be more focused on today's issues and have more in the way of information for myself. While it may come packed with information for the laymen, I am well-versed in ecology, ecosystems, the predator/prey relationship and am current on humans vs. nature issues that abound. So the book offered me very little in the way of new information, if any, although it did make me tear up quite a few times at the graphic depictions of wolf deaths that the author included. Hopefully such graphic scenes will make some think differently regarding their approach to nature. Overall, the information included became somewhat repetitive and was reduced for the non-scientific individual to understand that I found myself rather bored.

The chapters where I felt the author excelled were the ones where he stopped distancing himself in the name of scientific writing, leaving his voice to be clearer in both the introduction and epilogue. However, the chapters in between were riddled with scientists' bios, brief stories (in order to help individuals relate to the facts at hand) and such with the point of many things being buried in order to be non-biased/scientific/not to step on too many toes. But Stolzenburg excels when he decreases the distance between author and audience so I felt this distancing weakened the book overall.

One of the greatest stories in the book of predators being eradicated is regarding wolves. Wolves which have been vilified for centuries and were once nearly eradicated. With a wolf introduction program begun in 1995, wolves began a comeback. Much to the support of the information in this book, wolves brought a semblance to the ecosystem and helped keep the ecosystems in which they lived healthy. However, since the book has been published wolves have yet again become the focus of vilification. Wolves have lost protections in large regions of the U.S. and are being hunted once again. The very politician mentioned in the book that wished to see a population of no more than 100 wolves in his state is trying to make it a reality, and just might. The same vitriol many hold for nature is the vitriol I hold for human nature, absolutely vile creatures with greed beyond imagination.