Crow Planet - Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness (Hardcover)

A self-described posthippie ecofeminist offers a quiet, genial book of "hopeful possibility" amid the current ecological crisis.Wildlife researcher and rehabilitator Haupt (Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin's Lost Notebooks, 2006, etc.) writes gracefully about the interactions between crows and humans in the urban landscape and what those interactions portend for the future of the zoopolis (where human and animal geographies overlap). For most people, notes the author, crows are the most commonly encountered native wild animal. Her fascination with the unusually intelligent birds began after a long depressive funk. One day she looked out her study window, saw an injured fledgling perched on an electrical wire and took the bird in. While nursing it back to health, she began to feel better. Haupt then spent two years studying the shiny black songbirds in her backyard and neighborhood. Found in growing numbers - there are more than 30 million in the United States - in densely populated towns and suburbs, the omnivorous American Crow thrives on the detritus of modern urban life, consuming everything from road kill to bread crumbs, bagels and McDonald's fries. The author discovered that watching the creatures mate, nest, forage and help one another encouraged a necessary awareness of the continuity between human lives and that of other species. Like her beloved Thoreau - who wrote, "There is no wildness distant from ourselves" - Haupt celebrates the interconnectedness of all life and urges readers to pay close attention to their home places. The chapter on the habits of amateur urban naturalists is a neat how-to guide for anyone interested in learning how the wild, nonhuman animals around us live. Even though we are unable to view our entire planet, she writes, we can take positive action by cultivating a sense of wonder at the wildlife at our door: "We practice wonder by resisting the temptation to hurry past things worth seeing."A fresh take on conscious living in the everyday world. (Kirkus Reviews)

There are more crows now than ever. Their abundance is both an indicator of ecological imbalance and a generous opportunity to connect with the animal world. CROW""PLANET""reminds us that we do not need to head to faraway places to encounter "nature." Rather, even in the suburbs and cities where we live we are surrounded by wild life such as crows, and through observing them we can enhance our appreciation of the world's natural order. CROW PLANET richly weaves Haupt's own "crow stories" as well as scientific and scholarly research and the history and mythology of crows, culminating in a book that is sure to make readers see the world around them in a very different way.

General

Imprint:	Back Bay Books
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	September 2009
First published:	July 2009
Authors:	Lyanda Lynn Haupt
Dimensions:	216 x 135 x 22mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	229
ISBN-13:	978-0-316-01910-1
Categories:	Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > Wild animals > Birds & birdwatching Promotions
LSN:	0-316-01910-0
Barcode:	9780316019101

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