As its full title suggests, Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators carries a familiar bleak warning about the direction our planet is headed, but the work stands out for basing its argument on the disruption to the food chain. Wildlife journalist William Stolzenburg explains how the wiping out of carnivorous predators from the head of the chain has caused an ecological imbalance in which ‘lesser’ predators have risen to the top of the pile, with a negative knock-on effect to biodiversity. He cites how the removal of wolves from Yellowstone National Park has led to an abundance of elk and deer, who have destroyed saplings and forest undergrowth – not just bad for trees, but also for soil and riverbanks. Many other examples abound, plenty of them blamed on human activity, and the conclusion is that it is up to humans to restore the balance.
further reading…
As its full title suggests, Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators carries a familiar bleak warning about the direction our planet is headed, but the work stands out for basing its argument on the disruption to the food chain. Wildlife journalist William Stolzenburg explains how the wiping out of carnivorous predators from the head of the chain has caused an ecological imbalance in which ‘lesser’ predators have risen to the top of the pile, with a negative knock-on effect to biodiversity. He cites how the removal of wolves from Yellowstone National Park has led to an abundance of elk and deer, who have destroyed saplings and forest undergrowth – not just bad for trees, but also for soil and riverbanks. Many other examples abound, plenty of them blamed on human activity, and the conclusion is that it is up to humans to restore the balance.