Our wild familiars : how animals are adapting to cities and reshaping the natural world / Dan Werb.
| Author/creator | Werb, Dan author. |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication | New York : Crown, [2026] |
| Copyright Date | ©2026 |
| Description | 321 pages ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Portion of title | How animals are adapting to cities and reshaping the natural world |
| Contents | Prologue: Death and desire -- Part I. The neighborhood ark. Puzzles -- The tower -- The soft intelligence -- Grave architecture -- Part II. Damnatio ad bestias. Neophytes -- The new animism -- Deep time -- Part III. The synanthropocene. Embracing the widow makers -- Listening to animals -- Epilogue: Humans, a species of least concern. |
| Abstract | "Synanthropes have always been an immutable part of the tapestry of our lives. They are the reason we hear birdsong in the morning and skittering throughout the day, and why we take such pains to fix lids to our garbage cans. But they are so much more than that, too: epidemic vectors, churners of soil, ecosystem evolvers, spiritual lodestars, and, sometimes, sharp-toothed marauders making their way through our most intimate spaces with cruel intent. But beyond their quotidian impact on our lives, synanthropes have a critical part to play in how our communities are shaped and how sustainably they will function. These creatures are ambassadors from nature, arbiters of our planet's future, and a key influence on our species' ongoing evolution -- and something essential has shifted with them. We are in a fraught era of environmental disruption, habitat destruction, and human population expansion that is ravaging formerly wild and untouched places. That's caused us to become ever more inundated with synanthropes, which are bringing delight, chaos, and danger to our doorsteps. These creatures, so long dismissed, are forcing us to reckon with them -- from the hundreds of thousands of raccoons in urban spaces that spread our refuse no matter how many 'raccoon-proof' bags and bins we invent to the invasive kudzu plants that grow a foot a day, enveloping houses, telephone poles, trees, and any other structures into their green abyss. Now, as urban spaces increasingly become wild spaces, we have a choice: continue to resist them by any means necessary or take the opportunity to promote a more harmonious coexistence."--Book jacket flap. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-310) and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version http://id.loc.gov/entities/relationships/onlineversion Werb, Dan Our wild familiars First edition New York, NY : Crown, [2026] 9780593799642 |
| Genre/form | Informational works. |
| Genre/form | Documents d'information. |
| LCCN | 2025050913 |
| ISBN | 9780593799635 hardcover |
| ISBN | 0593799631 hardcover |
| ISBN | electronic book |
| ISBN | 9781039056824 international edition |
| ISBN | 1039056822 international edition |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | New Books | QH541.5 .C6 W37 2026 | ✔ Available | Want This? |