As the U.S. – and many other industrialized nations as well – becomes increasingly urban, questions of wildlife conservation increasingly are expanded not just to consider those animals living in the countryside but those in cities as well. From the stereotypical rat and pigeons to the now increasingly seen raccoons, skunks, and coyotes, urban wildlife is rapidly becoming a topic of wide-spread discussion.
Through examining the types of locomotion employed by various living things and considering it agains that the environments in which each evolved, Wilkinson takes his readers through four billion years of movement and explains how the challenge of getting from place to place is really one of the driving forces behind evolution itself.
The search for the solution to what Sir John Herschel famously called the “mystery of mysteries” – how new species come to exist – has brought a myriad of remarkable creatures to the attention of science.
Last night in New York, the National Book Foundation announced the recipients of their 2009 awards.