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BOOK REVIEW |
By Clark E Adams, Kieran J Lindsey, and Sara J Ash, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, 2000 NW Corporate Blvd. Boca Raton, Florida, 33431 USA. 2006. 311 pp. ISBN 0-8493-9645-X. US $79.95 (hardback).
"In the future, we’re all going to be urban biologists." With this sobering thought Timothy Quinn, Chief Habitat Scientist of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife opens Urban Wildlife Management. Most of us did not embark on a career in wildlife ecology, management, or disease to study in the urban environment. It is an unfortunate reality, however, that we must understand the issues surrounding urban wildlife populations in order to make appropriate decisions about wildlife diseases.
The focus of Urban Wildlife Management is not on disease; in fact, potential disease problems associated with urban wildlife populations are given only cursory treatment. Rather, this book serves as a synthesis of most of the complex topics on which urban wildlife management is based. The lack of depth when discussing wildlife disease issues throughout the text is surprising, however, because wildlife management professionals and students of wildlife sciences should understand the basics of disease in relation to urban wildlife management.
In the preface, the authors express the hope that their book will serve as a guide for urban wildlife management courses in colleges and universities, and have clearly designed it with this specific purpose in mind. The structure and style suit a college text well; the writing style is easy to follow and consistent from one chapter to the next, with quotes, simple tables, case studies, perspective essays, and sidebars to give examples and keep the reader interested. The authors cite their sources extensively, listing references at the end of each chapter. The photos are appropriate and helpful in illustrating the text, but their impact would have been far stronger if color photos had been provided throughout the book rather than just a few color plates added toward the end. An extensive index has been provided, which facilitates easy navigation of the text.
Five sections and 12 chapters divide the book, which opens by discussing the reality of urbanization and the ways in which it is changing the face of wildlife management. The building blocks of ecology, food webs, energy cycles, and communities and relationships are then introduced, with a focus on how urbanization affects these complex interactions. The main thrust of the book starts in section three, which covers habitats in green spaces, grey spaces, and urban streams and soils. Section four delves into the sociopolitical issues of urban wildlife management, though only brief reference is made to the importance of disease in human–wildlife interactions. Section five focuses on a few selected wildlife species in order to illustrate several urban wildlife management scenarios. Urban Wildlife Management was clearly written for the US audience; however, there may be lessons in it applicable to other areas of the world.
Although the focus of Urban Wildlife Management is not on disease, the information presented in this text will still be valuable to students as they progress toward becoming wildlife disease specialists. The reality that wildlife management increasingly encompasses urban landscapes as a working environment with which students must become familiar is an important lesson. Those already established in the wildlife disease field will find Urban Wildlife Management useful for teaching purposes, and as a foundation for understanding and collaborating with wildlife managers.
Edited by Charles van Riper III, charles_van_riper{at}usgs.gov
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