If you're one of those people who has shuddered at the thought of spiders, snakes, or other creepy crawlies invading your space, you might get new insight from Bethany Brookshire, whose book about pests makes the point that animals are just being animals.
"We believe we're in charge, entitled to space only for us," said Brookshire. "What we really hate about the pests is their success. They're where we don't want them," she said.
Brookshire divides her book into chapters devoted to different pests such as the pigeon (once favored but no longer wanted), mice, wolves, and elephants, to choose just a few.
"Pigeons are one of the oldest domesticated birds and may have been domesticated more than 5,000 years ago," the author noted. "They were used to carry messages, ...and they were considered delicious. Every pigeon on the streets today is the descendant of a domesticated bird," she said.
Brookshire sheds light on wolves and coyotes, animals that, as she told Steve Tarter, receive mixed reviews. Urban residents tend to honor the wolf while rural residents, particularly ranchers, call them pests.
Of the 41,000 cattle that died due to predation in 2015 in the United States, less than 5 percent were killed by wolves, said Brookshire.
As for the adventurous coyote, the animal has been sighted in New York's Central Park and Downtown Chicago, she said.
Pests is not a natural history of the animals we hate but a book about us. It’s about what calling an animal a pest says about people, how we live, and what we want. It’s a story about human nature, and how we categorize the animals in our midst.
Brookshire's research brought her in contact with indigenous people from around the world. While different cultures had different approaches, live and let live seemed to be the commonality, she said.
Brookshire told the story of a town in Canada besieged by bears (there was a salmon cannery there) that found the government approach to their problem (they shot the bears) unacceptable. So adjustments were made (the cannery was moved and garbage contained) and the town learned to live with the wildlife.