Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law in Science and Inquiry

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Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law

Mary Roach

Start date: September 1, 2022

Finish date: September 30, 2022

Discussion: Book Club 2022

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Book Club 2022

November 2022 - Rise of the Mammals
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Oct 16, 2022 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, academic-notations, favorites, science, humor-hilarious-intentional-or-not

Exceptional science, and an exceptional science writer.

Mary Roach writes in an engaging tongue-in-cheek manner about subjects which often are horrible. In this case, it鈥檚 about conflicts people have with bears, elephants, monkeys, leopards, birds, rats, mice, and trees. Of course, it often ends badly for the animals, with the exception of some invasive species who run riot over environments where they have no natural enemies. However, some people want to move animals away or change the behaviors Exceptional science, and an exceptional science writer.

Mary Roach writes in an engaging tongue-in-cheek manner about subjects which often are horrible. In this case, it鈥檚 about conflicts people have with bears, elephants, monkeys, leopards, birds, rats, mice, and trees. Of course, it often ends badly for the animals, with the exception of some invasive species who run riot over environments where they have no natural enemies. However, some people want to move animals away or change the behaviors of animals instead of killing them. Roach examines a few species and how people hate/love them. Readers learn a lot from these few representative examples.

I have included the book blurb because it is accurate:

鈥� What鈥檚 to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. The answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.

Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and "danger tree" faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter鈥檚 Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque.

Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature鈥檚 lawbreakers. When it comes to "problem" wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem鈥攁nd the solution. Fascinating, witty, and humane, Fuzz offers hope for compassionate coexistence in our ever-expanding human habitat.鈥�

Roach somehow always manages to enchant while educating us on hard science issues, usually in a brief sketch of the facts she learned during a visit to some of the principal science investigators. Sometimes, imho, her books delve into science subjects that tend to have uncomfortable moral dilemmas attached to them. This book is one of those. Most of us are unaware or unthinking of how the amazing improvements to our daily lives happened. A Roach book doesn鈥檛 allow for looking away, but they do tend to feed us the facts with the sweetener of wry wit.

There is an extensive Bibliography. ...more

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Aug 19, 2022 Kathleen rated it really liked it

Solid Mary Roach - wacky sense of humor, thought-provoking. The chapter on the Vatican seagulls was my favorite.

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Dec 22, 2021 Nydia 鈥淐ookie鈥� rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bookmarks-suggestions

I enjoyed this deep dive into the problems that exist between humans and the laws and attitudes we have developed toward wild or unwanted animals in our proximity. So much great information and surprising events in this unusual book. Not for everyone, but a 5 star rating for those of us who are scientists, biologists, or just appreciate trivia in a well written story. I especially enjoyed the humor and looked forward to reading the entertaining footnotes(something I thought I would never say!)

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