This article was downloaded by: [McGill University Library]On: 03 November 2014, At: 05:31Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

Human Dimensions of Wildlife:An International JournalPublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uhdw20

Book ReviewsCarron Meaney aa Denver Museum of Natural History, and Universityof Colorado Museum Boulder, Colorado, USAPublished online: 10 Nov 2010.

To cite this article: Carron Meaney (2003) Book Reviews, Human Dimensions ofWildlife: An International Journal, 8:2, 161-164, DOI: 10.1080/10871200304305

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10871200304305

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Human Dimensions of Wildlife, 8:161–164, 2003Copyright © 2003 Taylor & Francis1087-1209/03 $12.00 + .00DOI: 10.1080/10871200390205110

Book Reviews

Ralph H. Lutts (Ed.). The Wild Animal Story. 1998, Temple University Press,Philadelphia, 302 pp. ISBN 1-56639-918-1. Paper.

Reviewed by Carron A. MeaneyDenver Museum of Natural History, andUniversity of Colorado MuseumBoulder, Colorado, USA

The wonderful stories in this book are a window into the social values attributed toanimals and the roles of wild animals in a changing society. Thirteen wild animalstories are presented (including a couple of dog stories), most written in the 1800sand early 1900s. The stories themselves are beautiful and fascinating for their animalinterest, detail, emotional content, social values, and historical perspective.

The realistic wild animal story originated in the late 19th century withstories written by Canadian authors such as Ernest Thompson Seton. They wereextremely well received and soon became equally popular in the United States bythe early 20th century. These stories were new and different in that they broughta fresh eye to nature; they revealed animals living their lives for themselves, withtheir own motivations, desires, and morality. A few of the stories are about animalparents training their young. “The Springfield Fox” (by Seton), for example, refersto both the evil tormenting of prey and the significant training of the fox pups;this brings to light the behavioral complexity of animals, their similarity withhumans, and the moral dilemma of the cruelty to prey. The stories emphasize theanimals themselves, are told as stories, and contain drama and pathos.

The second part presents 13 essays relating to the controversy that arose regard-ing the realistic wild animal story of the early part of the 20th century, a 4-yeardebate in which certain authors were dubbed the Nature Fakers, or Nature Fakirs.The third section contains five essays in which perspective, context, or particularauthors are discussed in relation to the controversy.

Three authors in particular were implicated in the controversy: Charles Roberts,William J. Long, and Ernest Thompson Seton. John Burroughs and TheodoreRoosevelt accused these authors of faking their stories by straying beyond pureobservational nature writing, which is their stated purpose. The issue reached a peakwhen wild animal stories were incorporated into school curricula for the purposeof teaching natural history. The Nature Fakers debate raged with accusations anddefenses on both sides about veracity, knowledge of nature, field experience, and

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factual detail of the accounts. The writers on both sides of the debate go to greatlengths to defend the factual truth of the details and the extent of the naturalhistory experience and knowledge that each author had in compiling the stories.

The controversy itself was very short-lived, and might seem to be a tempestin a teapot. But as the perspectives, angles, arguments, and points of viewemerge, it becomes abundantly poignant that this is in some ways an ongoingcontroversy, and one with which each generation, including our own, must cometo terms. There are some patterns that repeat themselves in our times, and relatein most interesting ways to this controversy that involved authors, animal lovers,an interested public, and President Theodore Roosevelt. For example, Burroughscriticizes Long for suggesting that animals do not rely only on instinct but alsolearn many of their skills, as is shown in a number of the stories. In fact, scientistsrecognize this to be true, and see a continuum of instinct and learning in ourpresent-day interpretation of animal behavior.

The impact of the book is to see the rich complexity that accompanies ourlove of animals, as each person defines the interpretations of animal behavior thatsuit them. To what degree is anthropomorphism allowed, or to what degree dowe allow purpose, intent, morality, and similar motivations to be attributed toanimals? Not too many years ago in graduate school, I was trained never to inferan animal’s emotion or intent because these could never be known. In the past 10years, however, scientists have begun to acknowledge the sentient and emotionallives of animals. Although this approach is becoming more accepted in the 21stcentury, there is controversy surrounding it perhaps not unlike the Nature Fakerscontroversy of 100 years ago.

The significance of this book to those who study human attitudes towardsanimals lies in the portrayal of the heated viewpoints played out in the literaryfield. The controversy itself reveals some of the differing attitudes about thefundamental nature and interpretation of animal behavior. And although theNature Fakers controversy occurred in the early part of the 20th century, there areparallels to the present.

Virginia A. Sharpe, Bryan Norton, and Strachan Donnelley (Eds.). Wolves andHuman Communities: Biology, Politics, and Ethics. 2001. Washington, DC:Island Press. 321 pp. ISBN: 1-55963-829-X.

Reviewed by Deborah Green Department of Psychology College of William & Mary Williamsburg, Virginia, USA

In 1992, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified Adirondack State Park innorthern New York as one of several possible sites for reintroducing the eastern

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timber wolf. This edited volume is drawn from a 1998 conference on the topic ofwolf restoration in the Adirondacks held at the American Museum of NaturalHistory, and funded by the National Science Foundation. Rather than attemptingto produce specific recommendations concerning wolf reintroduction, the editorsof this work hope it will contribute to debates on the “political, social, cultural,ethical values” (p. 3) that they believe should inform the decision-making process.Thus, despite its seemingly narrow focus, human dimensions professionals willfind much in this volume, not only of relevance to wolf reintroduction, but to thepolitics, ethics, and economics of the management of virtually any wildlifespecies.

The book consists of 20 chapters, written by an eclectic group of writers andscholars representing a variety of disciplines and points of view. The editors’organizational strategy is to address the issue “from roughly the specific to thegeneral, the present to the future, the local to the global” (p. 4), with the chaptersdivided into 7 sections, each introduced with an editors’ summary. Althoughthese synopses are a valuable addition to the book, reading them sometimesmakes the chapters seem anticlimactic. The editors incorporate some of theauthors’ most powerful statements word-for-word, often without quotationmarks, giving the reader a sense of déjà vu when the same material is encounteredin the chapters themselves. Nonetheless, this organizational structure, the decisionto incorporate the references into a single section at the end of the volume, alongwith a comprehensive index, makes the work much more accessible as a reference.

Of particular interest to human dimensions professionals is the discussion ofscientists versus the public’s role in wildlife management issues. The editors takethe stance that although scientific evidence concerning the feasibility of wolfreintroduction is essential, “the values that different stakeholders bring to publicpolicy debate are equally essential” (p. 2). In practice, contributor Schlickeisenacknowledges, wolf reintroduction will succeed “only if . . . the public wants it tohappen” (p. 62). But others express concern about the degree to which reintro-duction is simply a “feel-good” exercise rather than a useful scientific endeavor.Clark Wolf, for example, notes that “the value of wolf reintroduction may bemore symbolic than real” (p. 251). Dizard argues that the metaphor of suchreintroductions as restoring the “balance of nature” “has largely beendiscredited . . . . it has been replaced by new metaphors that invite us to imaginea world less likely to spin out of control. One such metaphor is ‘intact ecosys-tem.’” (pp. 83–84). He concludes that adding the wolf is “a cultural [emphasis inoriginal] good, not a replication of some imagined pristine ecosystem” (p. 84).

Among the philosophical issues the contributors struggle with is that ofhumans’ relationship to nature: how much are we a part of it or apart from it?According to Donnelly, “Large predators have an ultimate significance and cen-tral role to play in evolutionary, ecological and geologic time and the ongoingwell-being of ecosystemic nature, and the good human life” (p. 192). Midgleycharacterizes our relationship as ambivalent: “On the one hand, we know that we

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are part of the natural world . . . it continually pours out treasures that delight us.On the other hand, it is also a potent source of death and danger” (p. 180). Pickettand Rozzi state: “Ecologists have come to recognize that it is unproductiveand unrealistic to think of natural systems and human systems as separate”(p. 273). However, they emphasize that “To the extent that we use . . . culturalassumptions to guide restoration . . . we are as likely to do harm as to do good”(p. 269). Schadler observes: “As part of nature we eliminated one animal thatnature has replaced with another. We value the wolf, but dismiss the coyote”(p. 171). Indeed, the fact that the genetic origin of the wolf native to the Adirondackswas in dispute and that coyotes may be successfully filling wolves’ niche makesthe idea of restoration problematic.

On a more pragmatic note, much of the volume is devoted to problems forwolf reintroduction stemming from the nature of our economic priorities andlegal structure. The emphasis on political persuasion by those on both sides of theissue is an inevitable reality. Clark and Gillesberg conclude, however, that whileadvocates for reintroducing wolves “use strategies of education, litigation, research,and advocacy . . . . those opposed rely primarily on advocacy and litigation” (p. 139).From a human dimensions perspective we can only hope that whatever therecommendation and whatever the species, the most important factors in shapingwildlife public policy are research and education.

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