by Mary Roach
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
#1 Los Angeles Times Bestseller
#1 Indie Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller
A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction Book of 2021
Longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
Join "America's funniest science writer" (Peter Carlson, Washington Post), Mary Roach, on an irresistible investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet.
What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and "danger tree" faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter's Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque.
Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature's lawbreakers. When it comes to "problem" wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem—and the solution. Fascinating, witty, and humane, Fuzz offers hope for compassionate coexistence in our ever-expanding human habitat.
An Instant New York Times Bestseller
#1 Los Angeles Times Bestseller
#1 Indie Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller
A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction Book of 2021
Longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
Join "America's funniest science writer" (Peter Carlson, Washington Post), Mary Roach, on an irresistible investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet.
What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and "danger tree" faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter's Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque.
Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature's lawbreakers. When it comes to "problem" wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem—and the solution. Fascinating, witty, and humane, Fuzz offers hope for compassionate coexistence in our ever-expanding human habitat.
Reviews-
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Starred review from May 24, 2021
Bestseller Roach (Bonk) sheds light on nature’s malefactors in this often funny, always provocative survey of species that “regularly commit acts that put them at odds with humans.” Readers will learn that most lethal bear attacks (which are very rare) are committed by what is commonly believed to be the less dangerous black bear, and that the animal responsible for the most damage to civil aircraft in the U.S. is, surprisingly, the white-tailed deer. Along the way, Roach attends a training for wildlife officers on using forensics to identify the culprits of attacks, where shop talk involves such questions as “ever tase an elk?” In Vatican City, papal officials have a scarecrow that uses lasers to scare off birds and keep them from destroying Easter flower displays. Roach hopes that humans can come to embrace coexistence even with creatures seen as pests—as she does the rat living in her own home. Roach’s writing is wry, full of heart, and loaded with intriguing facts: “You may be wondering: When you live off your own fat, do you need to use the toilet? If you are a bear, you do not.” This eminently entertaining outing is another winner from Roach. -
Starred review from July 1, 2021
The expert on quirky science writing doesn't disappoint. In Roach's (Grunt; Gulp; Stiff) newest book, she brings readers on her journey into the realm of human-wildlife conflict. Roach's writing combines research with firsthand experience, plus tips for handling an unplanned encounter with a wild animal. She observes and talks with international laypeople and specialists across many fields, such as animal-attack forensics investigators. Her natural curiosity and wit pair well with her topics, including her harassment by monkeys, and the way emus and albatrosses outsmarted the Australian and U.S. militaries, respectively. She gets elbow-deep in crime scenes with furry suspects and travels to India to investigate the high rate of deaths by elephant. Roach also explores how politics, climate change, and religion can complicate human-wildlife interactions worldwide. Like Roach's previous best-selling pop science works, this book is unpretentious and honest about what she sees and what she learns along the way. VERDICT A must-read for wildlife enthusiasts, popular science readers, and anyone who has enjoyed Roach's other books. Her occasionally awkward interactions with people and animals make for the engaging narrative style that Roach is famous for.--Cate Triola, Capella Univ., Minneapolis
Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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July 15, 2021
Tracing the line between wildlife and the law, the acclaimed science writer examines how humans interact with the natural world. "What is the proper course when wild animals break laws intended for people?" So asks Roach in a book that, in the author's characteristic style, ranges widely, from wild animal attacks to the inherent dangers of certain plants to ways in which we have treated animals that most humans consider vermin. The author begins by examining "the intractable nature of human-wildlife conflict--as it is known today by those who grapple with it professionally." Roach discusses well-known conflicts such as bear attacks before moving on to an account of her visit to a tea plantation in West Bengal, India, "a place where 'the elephant in the room' is not a metaphor." As in her previous bestsellers such as Grunt and Stiff, the author has clearly done her homework, speaking to professionals across a variety of disciplines, including members of the military; nuns, priests, guards, and other workers at the Vatican; and those with job titles that sound "like something you'd hear if you asked an animal-besotted ten-year-old, What do you want to be when you grow up?" (The lucky fellow in question, who has a doctorate in wildlife biology, researches mountain lions and gray wolves, two apex predators.) Traveling from a bear seminar in Reno to a bird-infested island in the Pacific that plagued the American military during World War II, among many other venues, Roach joyfully explores how human culture and wildlife, including plant life, have either found ways to coexist or are constantly at odds. Throughout, Roach highlights people who are genuinely passionate about the work, and she also includes suggestions for readers on how to deal ethically (and effectively) with their own wildlife issues, wherever they live. From the terrifying to the frustrating, a great starting point for understanding the animal world.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Starred review from July 1, 2021
In her previous adventurous books, Roach has explored the science of peculiar and familiar subjects ranging from human cadavers to life in space. In Fuzz, she entertainingly investigates "the intractable nature of human-wildlife conflict." (Think Amy Schumer narrating Nature on PBS.) About 2,000 species regularly perpetrate actions that disturb or harm human beings. Some offenses are quite serious (manslaughter, assault, home invasion), others less heinous (vandalizing, robbery, littering). But Roach observes that animals are following their instincts, not committing crimes. Featured creatures include California mountain lions, bears, wild elephants, leopards, white-tailed deer, thieving birds, macaques, mice, and rats. Roach accompanies investigators on the human-animal beat all over the world and explains their use of forensic science, DNA testing and GPS collars, scat examination, and humane methods of trapping and exterminating. She also reviews various remedies for problematic animals and notes that killing wildlife doesn't work as damage control--nature finds a way to compensate. Unusual terminology pops up, such as snarge (remains of birds scraped off an airplane), frass (insect excreta), and murmuration (a mass of birds flying in shape-shifting flocks). Roach writes splendidly about the often-surprising challenges inherent in coexisting with other animals in their natural habitats. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Intrepid, witty, and elucidating, best-selling Roach is an ongoing popular-science supernova.COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Amelia Urry;Washington Post [Fuzz is] powerfully propelled by the force of Roach's unflinching fascination with the weird, the gross and the downright improbable... There's a wacky genius to [her] interjections...[Her] curious and generous engagement with her subjects makes for world-expanding reading.
- Vicki Constantine Croke;New York Times Book Review An idiosyncratic tour with Roach as the wisecracking, ever-probing guide... My favorite moments, ultimately, weren't the funny ones, but those that reveal a bit of scientific poetry.
- Katherine E. Himes;Science Each chapter is packed with the results of [Roach's] detailed investigations. Roach uses footnotes to add both depth and lightness to the topic at hand by capturing misfit studies, asides, and hilarious tangents... Refreshing.
- Tiffany O'Callaghan;New Scientist With her characteristic dry wit, [Roach] brings an intense fascination to the seldom discussed details and the at times absurd miscellany in the unexplored corners of unappreciated research... It is impossible not to smirk, chortle and sometimes outright belly laugh as you read her many wry asides and funny but fascinating footnotes... But the real trick Roach pulls off is to keep you laughing while at the same time making sure the earnest points come across.
- Emerson Malone;Buzzfeed Full of kernels of fascinating information... Her approach is informative and unpretentious, and she's always armed with a dry sense of humor. Roach will change the way you think about the great outdoors. What more could you ask for?
- Bethany Brookshire;Science News The book brims with Roach's irreverent humor, which particularly shines when she experiences human-animal conflict firsthand... A blend of modern science and history, with Roach's flair for spotting hidden absurdities... As another entry in Roach's canon of books, Fuzz stands tall (and hairy), educating as much as it entertains.
- Ed Yong, bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes Reading a Mary Roach book is like spending a luxurious and joyful evening with the perfect dinner guest. Delightful facts become indelibly etched in your brain, and only later do you realize that hours have passed and your face slightly hurts from smiling too hard. In Fuzz, Roach's peerless storytelling skills are paired with a sense of moral urgency, as she recounts stories of humans and other animals, uneasily and clumsily learning to co-exist in a world that they must now share.
- Erik Larson, bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile Hilarious! With Fuzz, Mary Roach again takes us into an unfamiliar scientific realm, in this case the science of managing the conflicts between humans and the natural world—lethal leopards, rampaging elephants, jet-downing birds, even killer trees. It's an ever-widening conflict zone, but one that Ms. Roach gleefully mines for a multitude of bizarre facts that'll make you snort coffee through your nose.
- Alice Cary;BookPage (starred review) This book is such a rich stew of anecdotes and lore that it's best savored slowly, bit by bit... No matter the situation, Roach approaches it with contagious enthusiasm.
