Roach is an enthusiastic discoverer of facts, which makes it exciting to go along with her on her journey.
Fun fact: Mountain lion, cougar, puma, panther, and catamounts are all regional names for the same species. (Roach includes a bibliography for those who want to read more on any the subjects in the book, or to double-check her sources) For instance, Roach talked to a wildlife control officer in California who did not believe mountain lion interactions were rising, just doorbell cameras, which film the animals as they saunter down residential streets at night. Mary Roach is an entertaining writer, and a great journalist, meticulously tracking down experts on animal control around the world and reading dozens of extensive studies to try to find hard data, which is often elusive. From cougars accused of murders they did not commit, to the ineffectiveness of hazing bears, “specialists in human-wildlife conflict are starting to move their focus from animal biology and behavior over to human behavior.” As always, when it comes to nature, we’re the problem.
Even those fiberglass predators, such as coyotes and horned owls, meant to spook creatures, might actually attract them, because they signal that good food is nearby. In other words, this is a book about how the legal system does or does not regulate “nuisance” animals, a wildly unsuccessful enterprise. She is one of the best and funniest science writers around, and her most recent book, Fuzz, When Nature Breaks the Law, is about the often brutal interface where human culture meets wildlife, whether it’s deer in the road or geese on the golf course. Why is that? Why don’t deer jump out of the way when they see us coming in our speeding metal machines? Mary Roach will tell you. “Like a deer in the headlights,” we say about someone who freezes in the face of impending doom.
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