Tenacious Beasts, Christopher J. Preston
Tenacious Beasts, Christopher J. Preston
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Tenacious Beasts
Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals

Author: Christopher J. Preston

Narrator: Tristan Morris

Unabridged: 9 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/22/2023

Categories: Nonfiction, Nature, Animals


Synopsis

The news about wildlife is dire—more than 900 species have been wiped off the planet since industrialization. Against this bleak backdrop, however, there are also glimmers of hope and crucial lessons to be learned from animals that have defied global trends toward extinction: bears in Italy, bison in North America, whales in the Atlantic. These populations are back from the brink, some of them in numbers unimaginable in a century. How has this happened? What shifts in thinking did it demand? In crisp, transporting prose, Christopher Preston reveals the mysteries and challenges at the heart of these resurgences.

Drawing on compelling personal stories from the researchers, Indigenous people, and activists who know the creatures best, Preston weaves together a gripping narrative of how some species are taking back vital, ecological roles. Each section of the book offers a philosophical shift in how humans ought to think about animals, passionately advocating for the changes in attitude necessary for wildlife recovery.

Tenacious Beasts is quintessential nature writing for the Anthropocene, touching on different facets of ecological restoration from Indigenous knowledge to rewilding practices. More important, perhaps, the book offers a road map—and a measure of hope—for a future in which humans and animals can once again coexist.

About Christopher J. Preston

Christopher J. Preston's essays have appeared in the Atlantic, Smithsonian, and Aeon, and on the BBC website. He is also the author of The Synthetic Age. He teaches environmental philosophy at the University of Montana and lives in Missoula, Montana.


Reviews

Goodreads review by asti

I enjoyed this, and I sometimes found it hard to tell what animals were the stars of what chapters; though, many of the animals/plant life they discuss are reliant on one another, highlighting the growing concerns about our abilities to survive as certain animal populations go extinct. I definitely......more

Goodreads review by evie

ecology is so cool this writing style was interesting and very narrative-driven despite being nonfiction, which i appreciated; everyone out there has surely read a nonfiction book that bored them to tears that being said, it was slightly disjointed at times. the book set out to focus on 5 main keyston......more

Goodreads review by John

This was a pretty good book as far as course readings go. Some of us have the tendency to make total victims out of animals, that they are only ever endangered and therefore in need of human help. Preston sidelines this misconception of animals, highlighting that animals have the agency to make comeba......more