How the Earthquake Bird Got Its Name and Other Tales of an Unbalanced Nature

by H.H. Shugart (Yale University Press / $30.00)

Ecology professor H.H. Shugart would like to share a few stories with you. “How the Earthquake Bird Got Its Name” is just one of nine parables from a truly unbalanced world of nature in which a warbler makes its living in the chaotic wake of hurricanes and earthquakes, and a runaway rabbit from Europe nearly devours the Australian continent. Each of these tales elucidates important ecological concepts while reminding us that change, though an essential part of nature, nonetheless comes with serious consequences. As engineers of some of the most profound alterations in the history of life, Shugart advises, “we need to understand where these changes will take us.”

— William Stolzenburg