My Backyard Jungle
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The Adventures of an Urban Wildlife Lover Who Turned His Yard into Habitat and Learned to Live with It
James Barilla
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Format: ClothPrice: $28.00
Out of Print
For James Barilla and his family, the dream of transforming their Columbia, South Carolina, backyard into a haven for wildlife evoked images of kids catching grasshoppers by day and fireflies at night, of digging up potatoes and picking strawberries. When they signed up with the National Wildlife Federation to certify their yard as a wildlife habitat, it felt like pushing back, in however small a way, against the tide of bad news about vanishing species, changing climate, dying coral reefs. Then the animals started to arrive, and Barilla soon discovered the complexities (and possible mayhem) of merging human with animal habitats. What are the limits of coexistence, he wondered?
“This is carefully researched, up-to-date, and above all readable work that explores the relationship between humans and other species by considering the pros and cons of ‘inviting’ (or at least tolerating) the presence of wild animals in urban (and even domestic) spaces. James Barilla interweaves personal narrative, philosophical considerations, urban planning concepts, and wildlife biology in a graceful, playful way reminiscent of Barry Lopez and Christopher Cokinos.”—Scott Slovic, University of Idaho
“James Barilla is a gifted story teller . . . a modern Gerald Durrell. . . . I have never been so enthralled with the notion of a zoo in our backyards.”—Margaret Lowman, author of Life in the Treetops: Adventures of a Woman in Field Biology and of It’s a Jungle Up There: More Tales from the Treetops
“Barilla’s gripping and provocative dispatches confirm that in our time, human and wildlife coexistence—a formula for awe, danger, and controversy—is a complex process of trial and error.” —Donna Seaman, Publishers Weekly
“I had the sense that he is the kind of author I’d like to have a coffee or a beer with, which is what you want in a storyteller. In this fun and compelling book, he is that guy, telling you about his yard.”—Rob Dunn, BBC Wildlife Magazine
Publication Date: April 22, 2013
8 b/w illus.
