City creatures : animal encounters in the Chicago wilderness / edited by Gavin Van Horn and Dave Aftandilian ; assistant editor for art Lisa Roberts ; assistant editor for poetry, James Ballowe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Van Horn, Gavin, author, editor.

Aftandilian, David, author, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Urban animals--Illinois--Chicago.

Urban animals.

Human-animal relationships--Illinois--Chicago.

Human-animal relationships.

Animals and civilization--Illinois--Chicago.

Animals and civilization.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (390 p.)

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

We usually think of cities as the domain of humans—but we are just one of thousands of species that call the urban landscape home. Chicago residents knowingly move among familiar creatures like squirrels, pigeons, and dogs, but might be surprised to learn about all the leafhoppers and water bears, black-crowned night herons and bison, beavers and massasauga rattlesnakes that are living alongside them. City Creatures introduces readers to an astonishing diversity of urban wildlife with a unique and accessible mix of essays, poetry, paintings, and photographs. The contributors bring a story-based approach to this urban safari, taking readers on birding expeditions to the Magic Hedge at Montrose Harbor on the North Side, canoe trips down the South Fork of the Chicago River (better known as Bubbly Creek), and insect-collecting forays or restoration work days in the suburban forest preserves. The book is organized into six sections, each highlighting one type of place in which people might encounter animals in the city and suburbs. For example, schoolyard chickens and warrior wasps populate “Backyard Diversity,” live giraffes loom at the zoo and taxidermy-in-progress pheasants fascinate museum-goers in “Animals on Display,” and a chorus of deep-freeze frogs awaits in “Water Worlds.” Although the book is rooted in Chicago’s landscape, nature lovers from cities around the globe will find a wealth of urban animal encounters that will open their senses to a new world that has been there all along. Its powerful combination of insightful narratives, numinous poetry, and full-color art throughout will help readers see the city—and the creatures who share it with us—in an entirely new light.

Contents:

Contents; Acknowledgments; Introducing City Creatures - Dave Aftandilian and Gavin Van Horn; 1. Backyard Diversity; Up Not Out - Janice F. Meister; Keeping Chickens - Terra Brockman; Holding Backyard Chicken - Colleen Plumb; Consumes mi dolor . . . mi muerte (You consume my pain . . . my death) - Alma Domínguez; Looking Up - Melinda Pruett-Jones; Fieldguide - Mark Crisanti; Falling Apart - Tom Montgomery Fate; Five Squirrels Froze - Susan Hahn; The One That Hums - Kendra Langdon Juskus; Mysterium Opossum - Lea F. Schweitz; Raccoon - Amy Newman; Fox - Cannon Dill and Brett Flanigan

The Fox - Amy NewmanA Eulogy for My Friends - Steve Sullivan; Prayer for the Squirrel - Martha Modena Vertreace-Doody; Murder - Maskull Lasserre; Asha: jewel of the Nile - Xavier Nuez; The Western Scarab - Ed Roberson; Visits from a Messenger - Nora Moore Lloyd; The Oracle of Wasps - Patricia Monaghan; 2. Neighborhood Associations; Chicago Wildlife - Johannes Plagemann; Keegan's Story - Martha Modena Vertreace-Doody; Zoo Woods - Martha Modena Vertreace-Doody

Hubbard Street Murals - Leslie Berish, Augustina Droze, Ricki Hill, Chris Jones, Neil Shapiro, and the Hubbard Street Mural Project VolunteersA Tale of Two Squirrels and One City - Joel S. Brown; Noble Horse Stables - Brooke Collins; Rooftop Beekeeping - Kyle Gati; Pigeons - David Hernandez; DH + BH - Camilo Cumpian; Civitas Canis lupus familiaris - Michael S. Hogue; Y ora pa onde chingaos - Alma Domínguez; Aquí se hace tarde demasiado temprano - Alma Domínguez; Wanting Was an Alley Cat - Susan Hahn; Ferrets - ROA

Kiskinwahamâtowin (Learning Together): Outdoor Classrooms and Prairie Restoration at the American Indian Center of Chicago - Eli Suzukovich IIIOwl - Brooks Blair Golden; The Red Fox Who Toys with the Dead - Brenda Cárdenas; Remaking Our Covenants of Life and Death on the Dunes Commons - J. Ronald Engel; Nikki: (hiphop) dancing queen - Xavier Nuez; Crickets - Jill Spealman; The Boarding Stable - Joseph Kayne; 3. Animals on Display; Dolphins at Play - Gregory J. Auberry; Train to the Zoo - Joan Gibb Engel; Puma - Carlos Ernesto Uribe Cardozo

Bridging the Divide: Pondering Humanity at the Zoo - Andrea Friederici RossBushman, Field Museum - Colleen Plumb; Nature on Pause - Peggy Macnamara; A Museum of Change in Illinois - James Ballowe; Chicago Mammals, Field Museum - Colleen Plumb; A Living Taxidermy - Rebecca Beachy; Happy Birthday - Sonnet L. Schulz; Six Sketches at the Field Museum - Benn Colker; Playing for Life: Learning to Care about Nature at the Hamill Family Play Zoo - David Becker; Field Museum, Drawer of Bluebirds; Field Museum, Drawer of Cardinals; Field Museum, Drawer of Meadowlarks - Terry Evans

4. Connecting Threads

Notes:

Essays, poems, and artwork about the wildlife that inhabits the city of Chicago.

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-226-28929-X

OCLC:

1229161141