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My Backyard Jungle: The Adventures Of An Urban Wildlife Lover Who Turned His Yard Into Habitat And Learned To Live With It (2013)

by James Barilla(Favorite Author)

3.46 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0300184018 (ISBN13: 9780300184013)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Yale University Press

review 1: The author gets his yard certified for wildlife by the National Wildlife Federation to increase the local diversity and then struggles with the boundary between humans and wildlife. He goes to other cities in the US, Brazil, and India to see how the deal with local wildlife. He struggles with what to do about a garden and can a rat live in the walls of their house (No!)and other issues. I did not know there are monkeys that live in the wild in Florida.
review 2: Two years ago we received a Backyard Wildlife Habitat certification from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Thus, I felt a strong empathy with the author when he signed up for yard certification from the National Wildlife Federation. As stated in the book fly leaf, "it felt like pushing back ... a... moregainst a tide of bad news about vanishing species, changing climate, and dying coral reefs. Then the animals started to arrive...". I was also drawn by the extended title "The Adventures of an Urban Wildlife Lover Who Turned His Yard into Habitat and Learned to Live with It." And the cute raccoon on the cover looked just like the ones that come to my back yard every night.Well, I HAD to read the book, anticipating how his experiences might be similar to or different from my backyard habitat efforts. And the first chapter did focus on his blighted South Carolina yard and the hope he had for making it an attraction for local wildlife.But the second chapter side-tracked to wild monkeys in Florida. Chapter three detailed his futile efforts to grow peaches and nectarines. Chapter four was 70 depressing pages on monkeys in Delhi, India. Chapter five - eradicating rats in the bathroom crawl space. Chapter six - urban bears in Massachusetts. Chapter seven - a day in the life of a professional varmint remover. Chapter eight - bees in Brooklyn. Chapter Nine - a wildlife trip to Brazil.After 330 pages I find myself thoroughly irritated by this bait and switch. less

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