Book ID: CBB499746657

The Accidental Ecosystem: People and Wildlife in American Cities (2022)

unapi

Alagona, Peter S. (Author)


University of California Press


Publication Date: 2022
Physical Details: 296
Language: English

With wildlife thriving in cities, we have the opportunity to create vibrant urban ecosystems that serve both people and animals.The Accidental Ecosystem tells the story of how cities across the United States went from having little wildlife to filling, dramatically and unexpectedly, with wild creatures. Today, many of these cities have more large and charismatic wild animals living in them than at any time in at least the past 150 years. Why have so many cities—the most artificial and human-dominated of all Earth’s ecosystems—grown rich with wildlife, even as wildlife has declined in most of the rest of the world? And what does this paradox mean for people, wildlife, and nature on our increasingly urban planet?The Accidental Ecosystem is the first book to explain this phenomenon from a deep historical perspective, and its focus includes a broad range of species and cities. Cities covered include New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Austin, Miami, Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Digging into the natural history of cities and unpacking our conception of what it means to be wild, this book provides fascinating context for why animals are thriving more in cities than outside of them. Author Peter S. Alagona argues that the proliferation of animals in cities is largely the unintended result of human decisions that were made for reasons having little to do with the wild creatures themselves. Considering what it means to live in diverse, multispecies communities and exploring how human and non-human members of communities might thrive together, Alagona goes beyond the tension between those who embrace the surge in urban wildlife and those who think of animals as invasive or as public safety hazards. The Accidental Ecosystem calls on readers to reimagine interspecies coexistence in shared habitats, as well as policies that are based on just, humane, and sustainable approaches.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB499746657/

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Authors & Contributors
Benson, Etienne Samuel
Frederick L. Brown
Overhoff, Jürgen
Shih, Ashanti
Andrew A. Robichaud
Antoine Traisnel
Concepts
Animals
Human-animal relationships
Nature and its relationship to culture; human-nature relationships
Science and society
Science and culture
Environmental history
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
18th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Places
United States
Seattle (Washington, U.S.)
South Carolina (U.S.)
Southern states (U.S.)
Hawaii (U.S.)
New York City (New York, U.S.)
Institutions
Zoologischer Garten Berlin
Yellowstone National Park
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