Center for Scientific Studies

Review of "The Beast in the Garden"

by James A. Huggins, Ph.D., University Professor & Director of the Hammons Center for Scientific Studies

June 161, 2004 - We are a nation that is rapidly claiming its land area for human habitation. Urban “sprawl”, driven by ever increasing demand for suitable, spacious living conditions and a rapidly expanding human population, continues at an unprecedented rate. It is, in fact, pointed out by the author that it is currently impossible within the lower forty-eight states to be more than twenty miles from a road. However, expertly chronicled within the pages of this book, we find that America is enamored with the way our country and its ecology “used to be” and that we want it back. Feeling a nebulous loss of something primal in our journey from an agricultural to an industrial to an informational society, the majority of US citizenry now seems to be more than ready to shed the ideas that drove Manifest Destiny and to protect, preserve and, once again, coexist with nature. Urban sprawl, combined with this renewed connection with nature, does, of necessity, bring humans and wildlife together. Ecotones, or places of contact between one environment and another, already abound between man and nature and both will change as one influences the other. Species that normally do not interact will come in contact with one another will suddenly be forced to interact. Those species placed in contact with man must adapt. Numerous accounts of habituation tell us that animal behavior is malleable. We may be witnessing many species that are in “transition” as they learn to live within the shadow of man. Concomitantly, we too must learn to coexist or abandon the hope of preserving our natural heritage within the urban setting. It is no wonder that the study of urban ecology is one of the fastest growing arenas within the realm of biology.

Our country has done a remarkable “turn around” on the issues that surround wildlife and human conflict. Baron, per the superb investigative reporter that he is, does a yeoman’s job of documenting the historical clash that has occurred between civilization and nature and particularly the extirpation of cougars from much of their historical range. He explores a myriad of reasons surrounding this conflict but found that none exceeded the economics of cougar depredation. He astutely notes that one subspecific name given to cougar was hippolestes, meaning “horse thief”. The predator that was vilified for robbing us of our livestock has more recently become a symbol of our wanton waste of natural resources. Indeed, massive efforts have been launched in the Florida Everglades to save the last remaining viable population of the eastern cougar. The United States, since the time of Theodore Roosevelt, has done much via the “Endangered Species Act” and the setting aside of Federal and state lands, to preserve the land, the habitat, and the creatures of the wilderness. This effort has now evolved to the point where, we not only set aside huge tracts of land for our cherished feral flora and fauna to which our cities adjoin, but municipality planners design city “green belts” so that we may cohabit with nature. I am, in fact, a proponent of such efforts but communities must seek expert planning and advice, much of which will be specific to their region, before embarking upon an adventure that places the ethics of nature along side the domicile of man.

This book presents the historical account of one Coloradoan community which sought the miscegenation of wilderness and human society. There are problems incumbent upon such a marriage: disease may be transmitted from wildlife to humans or domesticated animals, wild animals will do damage to human property, wildlife will interfere with human activities. Each of these problems has been well documented and is a story unto itself but this narrative focuses upon the problem of predation; human predation and the circumstances which led to this avoidable and regrettable consequence. It is possible that other communities could easily find themselves similarly embroiled within a scenario that would lead them to the same tragic conclusion. California has had incidences of coyotes having preyed upon children and cougars upon children and adult alike. Other states have lost human life to wildlife depredation: Montana to grizzly bear, Tennessee to black bear and Florida to alligators. This book, which reads like a novel, will introduce the reader to the “players” in a drama which unfolded over a period of several years: state wildlife officials, university researchers, the people of Boulder, Colorado and the young athlete who died as he trained just beyond the boundary of his high school grounds. Paramount to this true tale of an urban experiment is a young Tennessean, Michael Sanders, who studied black bear biology at the University of Tennessee with now retired professor Michael Pelton. While experience gleaned from his job and his research with another biologist suggested that mountain lion habituation to people would soon spell disaster, public outcry and official state policy prevented measures such as aversion conditioning, tagging and removal of problem animals, and even the radio-collaring and tracking of urban lion activities from being implemented. As humans we tend to anthropomorphize most situations with wildlife. Have we not removed the proverbial thorn from the paw by discontinuing the bounties of old, provided a place for them to live and protection from human depredation? However misguided this notion, we want to believe that we can, in the manner of Androcoles, befriend wild animals. In retrospect, some might speculate that Scott Lancaster, the young man who lost his life, was killed by the protectionist direction that the people of Boulder and the state of Colorado had taken toward urbanized lions. Had this community and the Colorado Division of Wildlife embraced a myth? We certainly do not, as the author points out, live in a utopian state devoid of carnivory and there is no reason, unless we provide one, that a cougar should not see us as a prey item. Original sin brought death and predation into this world and we can not expect the lamb to lie down with the lion before the Millennial reign of Christ. In the meantime, should we choose to become familiar with nature we might also expect nature to become familiar with us. There is much to be learned from this book and the experience of the Boulder community.

Just as the cover of this book proclaims, this is a modern parable of man and nature. It is, in addition, an essay which follows the forces of history, politics and ecology as they are woven together in just the right mix to form a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, recipes can be varied and improved. I can not help drawing comparisons between the recently reviewed Eating Apes by Dale Peterson and this book. Both plead for the wise management of our God-given wildlife resources. Both reveal politics, ecology and history as being instructive to the recipe for achieving success or failure in our quest to promote adequate and uncompromised levels of wildlife conservation. However, these tales are quite different in perspective as one chronicles the tale of paradise soon to be lost (our tropical forests) and the other of our attempts at paradise regained (return to nature here in the USA). Eating Apes, with its African setting, simply chronicles an earlier stage of succession in the battle to preserve our earth’s biodiversity than does The Beast. Both offer insight to the current state of affairs as applies to our planet’s ecology. Both highlight the need for the application of Christian ethics and intervention.