In a recent entry here in this publication’s Newly Noted column, I made mention that I am presently reading Mark Cocker‘s, 2007 book Crow Country. It’s a delightful book, filled with rich mixture of ornithology, natural history, and personal reflection. It has also caused me to be paying much more attention to the local American Crows and Common Ravens that inhabit our corner of northwest Oregon.
It also sent me climbing up Mt. To-be-read in search of books that I haven’t yet taken up of which these remarkable creatures are their subjects. And one that quickly caught my attention was Prof. Thom van Dooren‘s The Wake of Crows; Living and Dying in Shared Worlds.
Part of the Columbia University Press series Critical Perspectives on Animals: Theory, Culture, Science, and Law, Prof. van Dooren’s book examines generally the interactions and interrelationships between humans and corvids, and then focuses on five locations of particular corvid conservation interest: Brisbane, Australia, The Big Island, Hawai‘i, Rotterdam, Netherlands, the Mojave Desert in the United States, and Rota, Mariana Islands.
Admittedly on the academic side, my initial “thumb through” leads me to think there is much in this award-winning book that is applicable to everyone with a serious interest in these very interesting birds and the lives they live in the world we share.
It is also worth noting that Prof. van Dooren has another book examining the intersection of humans, non-human species, conservation, and extinction risk already announced, this one from MIT Press, titled A World in a Shell; Snail Stories for a Time of Extinctions in which he takes the land snails of the Hawaiian Islands as his subject.
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