Coyote at the Kitchen Door: Living with Wildlife in Suburbia
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A moose frustrates commuters by wandering onto the highway; a cougar stalks his prey through suburban backyards; an alligator suns himself in a strip mall parking lot. Such stories, which regularly make headline news, highlight the blurred divide that now exists between civilization and wilderness. In Coyote at the Kitchen Door, Stephen DeStefano draws on decades of experience as a biologist and conservationist to examine the interplay between urban sprawl and wayward wildlife. As he explores what our insatiable appetite for real estate means for the health and wellbeing of animals and ourselves, he highlights growing concerns, such as the loss of darkness at night because of light pollution. DeStefano writes movingly about the contrasts between constructed and natural environments and about the sometimes cherished, sometimes feared place that nature holds in our modern lives, as we cluster into cities yet show an increasing interest in the natural world.Woven throughout the book is the story of one of the most successful species in North America: the coyote. Once restricted to the prairies of the West, this adaptable animal now inhabits most of North America—urban and wild alike. DeStefano traces a female coyote’s movements along a winding path between landscapes in which her species learned to survive and flourish. Coyote at the Kitchen Door asks us to rethink the meaning of progress and create a new suburban wildlife ethic.Lyanda Lynn Haupt - Los Angeles Times Book ReviewDeStefano weaves personal stories of his own wild encounters with scientific evidence on the negative effects that light, noise, traffic, road building and other human activities have on the wild animals in our midst. As the book unfolds, readers are drawn into his questions and are called to rethink "our overwhelming occupation of the landscape."
Prologue: Suburban Beginnings 11 The World's Neighborhoods 102 The Form Setter 253 Gradient in Time: A Brief History of Wildlife in America 394 Suburban Wildlife Encounters 545 Mixed Messages 686 The Suburban Jungle 797 A Trilogy of Tolerable Nuisances, Part 1: Traffic 948 A Trilogy of Tolerable Nuisances, Parts 2 and 3: Light and Noise 1109 Home Ownership and Other Near-Death Experiences 12010 A Short Story about a Small Moose 13411 Coyote Spirits 14212 A Suburban Land Ethic 150Notes 165Acknowledgments 185Index 189Illustration Credits 197
