Cockroaches, cowbirds, gulls, raccoons; all widely derided animals, and yet all also remarkable in their lives and ecological roles if only ill-informed popular prejudices are put aside to learn more about them. Prof. Marlene Zuk provides a superb opportunity to do exactly this in her new book “Outsider Animals.”
In his recently published “Bugwatching; the Art, Joy, and Importance of Observing Insects,” Eric R. Eaton presents his readers with a method for developing a practice of observing arthropods that is not dissimilar to that of watching birds.
For an upcoming business trip to Los Angeles, I’m taking full advantage of a very interesting book published in 2024 by Heyday, Craig Stanford’s “Unnatural Habitat; the Native and Exotic Wildlife of Los Angeles,” to prepare myself for opportunities to observe and casually study the native and non native plants and animals I may see while there.
Newly published in the U.S. as of March 2026, “Bats of the World: A Guide to Every Family” by Winifred Frick and M. Teague O’Mara offers a richly illustrated profile of every family of the Order Chiroptera.