Stephen DeStefano (1)

I don't think his interspersing a descriptive page of life from a coyote's perspective between each chapter works very well. My attention was held throughout the book, despite being non-fiction. DeStefano writes about human perceptions of wildlife, how they are depicted in the news, at what point they shift from being "cute" to being seen as pests--he defines a "cultural carrying capacity" as opposed to the ecological carrying capacity that gets taught in Environmental Science. He identifies 3 different ways animals respond to human changes (and animals do change their behavior based on what we do--often losing their fear, or at least figuring out how to take advantage of food opportunities): 1)thrive in our human-made new habitat, 2)do poorly/decline (e.g. most songbirds, amphibians, butterfiles), or 3)species which will do well in any habitat. He talks about specific wildlife consequences of different ways we change the environment. He mentions the place for hunting and fishing in conservation of wildlife, and how out of touch with nature some preservation practices, such as zoos, actually make us.… (más)