Book ID: CBB395075282

Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West (2015)

unapi

Van Nuys, Frank (Author)


University Press of Kansas


Publication Date: 2015
Physical Details: 352
Language: English

It used to be: If you see a coyote, shoot it. Better yet, a bear. Best of all, perhaps? A wolf. How we've gotten from there to here, where such predators are reintroduced, protected, and in some cases revered, is the story Frank Van Nuys tells in Varmints and Victims, a thorough and enlightening look at the evolution of predator management in the American West. As controversies over predator control rage on, Varmints and Victims puts the debate into historical context, tracing the West's relationship with charismatic predators like grizzlies, wolves, and cougars from unquestioned eradication to ambivalent recovery efforts. Van Nuys offers a nuanced and balanced perspective on an often-emotional topic, exploring the intricacies of how and why attitudes toward predators have changed over the years. Focusing primarily on wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, and grizzly bears, he charts the logic and methods of management practiced by ranchers, hunters, and federal officials.Broad in scope and rich in detail, this work brings new, much-needed clarity to the complex interweaving of economics, politics, science, and culture in the formulation of ideas about predator species, and in policies directed at these creatures. In the process, we come to see how the story of predator control is in many ways the story of the American West itself, from early attempts to connect the frontier region to mainstream American life and economics to present ideas about the nature and singularity of the region.

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Reviewed By

Review Mark Harvey (April 2017) Review of "Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West". Environmental History (pp. 360-361). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB395075282/

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Authors & Contributors
Kinzer, Mark
Bathsheba Demuth
Leslie K. Miller
Gissibl, Bernhard
John Reda
Watt, Laura Alice
Concepts
Wildlife conservation
Hunting; trapping
Conservation movement
Nature and its relationship to culture; human-nature relationships
Ivory industry
Predators
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
20th century, late
18th century
Places
United States
Western states (U.S.)
California (U.S.)
Canada
Great Plains (North America)
Atlantic world
Institutions
Cornell University, Laboratory of Ornithology
Congaree National Park (United States)
Yellowstone National Park
United States. National Park Service
Smithsonian Institution
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