The Urban Bestiary Analysis

“Owls” by Mary Oliver is a complex and imaginative view of nature and an analysis of its beauty and, at the same time, frightening aspects through the lens of Oliver. Throughout her story, Oliver explores the paradoxical anomalies of nature: the beauty contrasted with the fear as well as the complexity contrasted with simplicity. Using sensory language, parallel structure, and alliteration, Oliver establishes her awe-struck yet cautious view of nature as a paradoxical masterpiece.

Kelly, Joseph. The Seagull Reader - Stories. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2008. 215-21. Print.

Karl Jacoby. Crimes against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation. Berkley: University of California, 2001.

In Joanna Klein’s, a science journalist, short argumentative essay, “A Birder’s Heaven: Just Follow the Stench to the Landfill”, expresses, some of the best places to see birds are places most humans do not want to go. Klein supports this claim by using humor, situational irony, and overstatements. Klein’s purpose is to expose the irony in nature, exposing the amount of beautiful birds in a landfill. Through the piece, Klein depolopes a a tone of optimistic tone for nature loving adults. She uses this tone to reflect back on the theme by introducing an area many of these nature loving people may not know about.

Remarque presents the negative in animals in the novel as well, “corpse rats”(102), they are so massive “they attacked two large cats and a dog, bit them to death and devoured them” (103). These “repulsive”(102) rats pose a threat as they fight for food from the soldiers some even “run over [their] face[s] to get at it (102) and they taunt the young men as the rats are seen eating at the corpses of dead soldiers “gnawing”(102) into the flesh of humans while their comrades must watch as they wait for the bombardment to finish, leaving a lasting impression on the soldiers

Audubon speaks about the phenomenon in seemingly awestruck way, noting their power and magnitude while noting the birds’ formation as a natural wonder. A striking characteristic of his description is his

Encounters With Unexpected Animals is a thought provoking title, especially when paired with Johnston’s writing ability. When I read the short story, I could not help but constantly look back at the title every few lines. What kind of encounter? What kind of animal? Are they literally going to be attacked by some sort of thought to be extinct bison bear

Analysis Essay: “A Tail of Treachery: Everywhere I go, the rodents find me.” In the essay “A Tail of Treachery: Everywhere I go, the rodents find me” by Erika Raskin, she informs us about her phobia of rodents and how this fear causes her to deal with a lot of chaos in her life. She states that, “rodent sightings send [her] right over the edge,” and her constant fear of finding the creatures in her house causes her to feel deprived of privacy and freedom.

"Birds don 't live alone, I told myself. They live in flocks. Like people. People are always in a group. Like that little wooden band. And whenever there 's a group, there 's fighting. If the people in the group get along, maybe they make good music instead of arguing....That 's how life is. I stared at that marching band. Then I got in the car and drove home” (Whirligig 62). This quote from Paul Fleischman’s Whirligig shows the reader his artful way of connecting nature to the human element; a way for those observing nature to learn from it. Throughout various pieces of Fleischman 's work, an insightful use of nature is used to help

Animal hunting is not only inhumane but can also lead to the extinction of many species. In the essay “Our Animal Rites”, Quindlen asserts that it is “pathetic to consider the firepower” the hunters use in order to “bring down one fair-sized deer” (33). In this quote, she explains that the use of firepower by human to kill innocent animals is unfair and heartrending. Furthermore, Quindlen describes that even though the bears are killed by the “smiling” and triumphant hunters after the “three bear days in the autumn,” the bears look “more dignified than they do” (33). This suggests that hunting animals is not entertaining but rather unacceptable and disgraceful. Furthermore, many species can become extinct due to excessive hunting. In an ecology class, I learned that the extinction rate of species each year is approximately two hundred to two thousand each year. This is an extremely high and alerting rate since there is only around two million species that has been scientifically identified on the planet. In these examples, it can be concluded that the hunting of innocent animals is atrocious and

James Thurber’s “The Wood Duck”, published in 1936, splits nature into multiple recognizable pieces, some to be hunted and used for human gain, while others are to be left alone for a distant enjoyment, like merciful gods gazing down upon a simple, weak being. Death would be easy for the small being, is easy, and yet it lives and so it is treasured as a small entertainment. “The Wood Duck”, rather than take an obvious stance against or for human industrialization and what it does to the ecosystems that share our small blueish planet, instead brings to light the jarring contradiction in which humans live with nature as both aggressors and innocently curious viewers of a nature that is forced to adapt to survive in a world humans had vitally

It's thought provoking to see how the birds will affect the environment and if they help or harm the local fauna. I'd like to see if the birds are could cause a native speicies to go extinct or if they will become intergrated into

This week, the most interesting article was the rabid beaver that attacked a paddle boarder. I thought this article was interesting because out of all the animals that can have rabies, beavers are not as common to contain the virus. However, it is important when in the wild to pay attention to all animals and to always be aware of surroundings. Beavers are not known to be dangerous creatures; yet, it is imperative to take necessary safety precautions to stay safe. Another common mistake is underestimating animals, although beavers seem friendly when their heads poke out of the water, they are huge and can cause harm. Another concern that a rabid beaver causes for the lake is the potential to have affected other animals. Animals such as raccoons,

Few books, however, have covered unwanted, misfit species in an essayistic way, despite the fact that many of them are thriving and can help us paint a clearer picture of the world’s present. Underrepresented, yet these creatures do seem to be getting more credit lately, a sign of growing interest. Robert Sullivan’s richly engaging, best-selling book, Rats (Bloomsbury USA 2005), remains popular but only profiles one of the creatures in my book. Richard Mabey’s much beloved Weeds (Ecco 2012) profiles and defends what you might expect, leaving the rest of misfit-kind to another author’s thorough engagement. Jim Sterba’s fascinating Nature Wars (Broadway Books 2012) examines human-species conflicts but focuses narrowly on the phenomenon of creatures invading suburbs. Dawn Day Biehler’s book Pests in the City ( University of Washington Press 2013) is an informative investigation but much more scholarly than Pandora’s Garden. Trash Animals (University Of Minnesota Press 2013), edited by Kelsi Nagy, is a fascinating collaboration but also scholarly. House Guests, House Pests (Bloomsbury USA 2015) by Richard Jones focuses mostly on bugs in the United Kingdom and does not cover the species nor geography of Pandora’s Garden. Fred Pearce’s The New Wild (Beacon Press 2015) and Ken Thompson’s Where Do Camels Belong? (Greystone Books 2014) bravely defend invasive species, though if with the single-minded intent to overturn ideas of invasiveness. Gordon Grice’s series of predator profiles, The Red Hour Glass (Delta 1998), The Book of Deadly Animals (Penguin Books 2011), and The Deadly Kingdom (The Dial Press 2010) investigate fearsome creatures but ignore almost all of the misfit species in this book and have a completely different

The first animal that we are introduced to is the reples griffon vulture. This bird is an amazing scavenger. This species of birds have large wings, and are almost twenty pounds in weight. They watch out for each other and one does not descend from the sky without several following him. In addition, they are responsible for keeping the land healthy. They keep the land health by feeding on dead animals. A great example of this, is when a lioness, makes a kill and the vulture descends from the air to feed on it. However, the spotted hyena has witnessed the killing and then the hyena chases the lioness off and the vultures continue to feed. Another animal that the viewer is introduced to is the wildebeest. The wildebeests feed on grass lands and they produce 400 pounds of dung a day. There are several other species that was introduced in the video: the leopard tortes, the jackal and they eat feed off of the dung beetle. The banded mongoose who, kill the dung beetle. African wild dogs, buffalo, zebras, the golden jackal, baboons, and ants are featured in this documentary. The ant is referred to as a small scavenger which is the most