City Critters: Wildlife in the Urban Jungle

by Nicholas Read

Overview

When we think of wild animals, we don't immediately associate them with the cities we live in. But a closer look soon reveals that we share our urban environment with a great many untamed creatures. Heavily illustrated and full of entertaining and informative facts, City Critters examines how and why so many wild animals choose to live in places that, on first glance at least, seem contrary to their needs. How do those deer, raccoons, squirrels, skunks, coyotes, crows, gulls and geese – not to mention the alligators, eagles, otters and snakes – manage to survive in the big city? What special skills do city critters have that many of their wilderness cousins lack? Why have they developed these skills? And what are our responsibilities in ensuring that these animals can continue to share our city lives?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459803237
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	04/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
Lexile:	1180L (what's this?)
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Nicholas Read is a retired journalist and journalism instructor who has written 12 books for children including two series about the Great Bear Rainforest with Ian McAllister. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Editorial Reviews

Read follows The Sea Wolves and The Salmon Bears with a thought-provoking investigation of the growing number of animals sharing urban environments with humans. “But how did we reach a point where having a black bear in your garden, while never desirable... is almost normal?” writes Read in his introduction. “Believe it or not, you can probably answer the question in one word: space.” In seven chapters divided by animal types (mammals like raccoons and deer, invasive species like the zebra mussel, urban standbys like spiders and pigeons) and illustrated with numerous color photographs, Read demonstrates how human developments affect animals’ abilities to thrive and survive, and leaves readers with plenty of food for thought. Ages 8–up. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"This lavishly illustrated work explains how wildlife across North America has adapted to our increasingly urban environment, and it champions the theory that people and other creatures can successfully co-exist...The book offers a plethora of interesting information—much of it based on recent scientific studies—and every page boasts at least one colour photograph and sometimes an explanatory sidebar as well. Read is a good writer, with a flair for conversational flourishes...Read’s engaging writing style should appeal to the target audience of junior and senior elementary school readers. Certainly this work could be utilized by science instructors across North America."

Canadian Teacher Magazine

"In the final chapter of this most readable book, the author offers ideas about what we can do to live with them in our neighborhoods. A glossary, a list of resources and an index are each helpful and are followed by an acknowledgement for the many scientists and researchers who study urban wildlife...There is so much here to read, to contemplate and to enjoy! Take the time you need to pore over the stories, the images, the information boxes and the humor infused into the sharing."

Sal's Fiction Addiction blog

"This beautifully illustrated volume introduces readers young and old to the diversity of wild animals that share urban environments with us. Through entertaining anecdotes and compelling and often humorous narrative, Nicholas Read explains where these animals live, how they have adapted to life in the city, and how we can better coexist with them...The book will find ready audiences among younger children, teens, and adults alike. A great resource for urban families seeking to learn more about the animals around them, City Critters also provides an excellent foundation for classroom studies in biology, geography and enviroment."

BC Studies

"An enjoyable exploration of urban wildlife...with lots of interesting stories and facts mixed in. This book should entrance city-living animal-loving tweens."

Washington State Young Adult Review Group

"This beautifully illustrated volume introduces readers young and old to the diversity of wild animals that share urban environments with us. Through entertaining anecdotes and compelling and often humorous narrative, Nicholas Read explains where these animals live, how they have adapted to life in the city, and how we can better coexist with them...The book will find ready audiences among younger children, teens, and adults alike. A great resource for urban families seeking to learn more about the animals around them, City Critters also provides an excellent foundation for classroom studies in biology, geography, and environment."

The British Columbian Quarterly

"Very informative...Readers will finish this book with a new appreciation of these [city-dwelling] animals."

Library Media Connection

"Read includes information about familiar wildlife (raccoons, skunks, coyotes) and often overlooked urban critters (rats, birds, turtles, butterflies, bees)...[City Critters] is geared for kids and would be a great addition to school classrooms."

The Vancouver Courier

"Read has provided a comprehensive examination of the types of animals found in urban and suburban areas...The book has beautiful colour photos...[and] is written in an engaging and colloquial style which may be very appealing to younger and adolescent readers."

Resource Links

"Balanced in-depth information about urban wildlife with a conversational tone and relevant examples from most major U.S. cities...The book manages to be unique without being overly sensational and is replete with factoids—I learned some new tidbits, and I have a PhD in this field! It has a little something for everyone, from younger kids newly interested in nature to teens and adults who may want to delve deeper into the causes of and solutions to conflicts between humans and wildlife. The issues surrounding urban wildlife go far beyond complaints about raccoons in the garbage or seagulls plaguing picnickers, and City Critters conveys that without getting too academic. Many animals' survival is contingent upon their ability to thrive in proximity to people, and we need resources like this to pass that message on."

The Chicago Reader

"Full of amazing, colourful pictures of mammals, birds, aquatic animals, reptiles and insects as well as informative facts. It makes one ponder what responsibilities humans must accept since we must share our space with these animals whose ancestors once ruled the wild space our cities used to be."

BCSPCA

"Not a book to skim through as the conversational writing style is meticulous and rich with fascinating anecdotes about various human/wildlife encounters. Read's wry sense of humor infuses many of the tales, but the serious nature of the topic is never underestimated...City Critters will add significantly to the bank of knowledge on this topic by filling a spot that appears to be occupied by only shorter, less comprehensive titles aimed at a younger audience. Highly Recommended."

CM Magazine

Gr 6–9—Animal adaptation is the theme of this interesting and fact-filled book about the many creatures sharing our urban landscapes. Firmly establishing that the loss of rural space is the primary reason that many more wild animals are finding their way into cities, the author goes on to discuss the multiple threats facing many species. Beginning with the more familiar mammals and rodents, including skunks, raccoons, coyotes, and rats, and then introducing a variety of other types of wildlife that live in, under, and surrounding our large urban areas, Read casts a broad net to include all of North America. Marine animals, aquatic creatures, birds, reptiles, insects, and spiders are discussed. One might not think of whales and sharks as urban, but they are included since they often wander close to heavily populated shores. Numerous full-color photographs and sidebars are scattered throughout. In discussing the plight of the many animals displaced from their more natural surroundings, the author makes a plea for the considerate and concerned treatment of them as well as for a general awareness of our changing world and the threats to wildlife everywhere. Attractive enough for general reading and useful for a variety of classroom studies of ecology, the environment, and biology, this is a welcome addition to most collections.—Eva Elisabeth VonAncken, formerly at Trinity-Pawling School, Pawling, NY

School Library Journal

An unfocused but mildly entertaining introduction to our nonhuman neighbors and housemates. Expanding his definition of "urban animals" to include butterflies, zebra mussels, cougars and even certain kinds of whales, Read presents quick tallies of creatures who have proven adaptable enough to thrive, or at least survive, in or near towns and cities. They do so largely, he claims, because we destroy their natural habitats and also, deliberately or otherwise, feed them. He seems fonder of colorful figures of speech than strict accuracy--deer in Boston are hardly "as common as dandelions," and conversely many might wish that city pigeons were only "as common as McDonald's outlets." Nevertheless, he presents a reasonably extensive menagerie of mammals, birds, reptiles and "creepy crawlies" that urban or suburban U.S. and Canadian readers are more than likely to encounter. Aside from one scene of falcons chowing down on a pigeon, the mix of close-up and mid-distance color photos on every spread present their subjects in fetching poses. A discourse on invasive species and a closing appeal to conserve wild spaces are tangential but not entirely foreign to his main subject. Not so much a systematic identification guide as a broad, engagingly informal reminder that we are sharing our immediate surroundings, as well as our world in general, with others. (index, glossary, online resources) (Nonfiction. 11-13)

Kirkus Reviews