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Toronto the Wild: Field Notes of an Urban Naturalist
Shortlisted for the City of Toronto Book Award
“City dwellers,” writes Wayne Grady, “are conditioned to look for ‘Nature’ outside the city: at the cottage, at summer camp, up north. Somewhere else.” These, he maintains, are not the only places to look. Nature lush, untamed, and fertile is thriving right where we are: in the not completely concrete jungles of our urban core.
As Grady convincingly demonstrates, the city is a natural ecosystem unto itself. It nourishes thousands of species of native flora and fauna, welcomes hundreds of others that have immigrated and adapted, and provides still others with the only environment that will ensure their survival. This is true for any city, but especially so in Toronto, home to 40,000 raccoons, the world’s largest colony of ring-billed gulls, and probably more termites per cubic metre of wood than anywhere on Earth. Indeed, there is more wildlife in Toronto today than in the last century: brown bats wouldn’t winter in town if city homes didn’t offer attics for their use; cockroaches wouldn’t have spread this far north if we hadn’t invented central heating; a single vacant lot in the Annex was recently found to contain 32 species of wildflowers. And there are coyote dens in the Don River Valley.
In fourteen engaging essays, Grady introduces us to these and other natural wonders of Toronto, from snakes and mosquitoes to black squirrels and house sparrows. Following in the tracks of urban naturalists before him - Catherine Parr Traill, Ernest Thompson Seton, Anna Jameson and Fred Bodsworth - and effortlessly blending science, history, and literature, Grady writes wittily and gracefully about the evolution, eating habits, mating rituals and turf wars of your most common - and wild - city neighbours.
“City dwellers,” writes Wayne Grady, “are conditioned to look for ‘Nature’ outside the city: at the cottage, at summer camp, up north. Somewhere else.” These, he maintains, are not the only places to look. Nature lush, untamed, and fertile is thriving right where we are: in the not completely concrete jungles of our urban core.
As Grady convincingly demonstrates, the city is a natural ecosystem unto itself. It nourishes thousands of species of native flora and fauna, welcomes hundreds of others that have immigrated and adapted, and provides still others with the only environment that will ensure their survival. This is true for any city, but especially so in Toronto, home to 40,000 raccoons, the world’s largest colony of ring-billed gulls, and probably more termites per cubic metre of wood than anywhere on Earth. Indeed, there is more wildlife in Toronto today than in the last century: brown bats wouldn’t winter in town if city homes didn’t offer attics for their use; cockroaches wouldn’t have spread this far north if we hadn’t invented central heating; a single vacant lot in the Annex was recently found to contain 32 species of wildflowers. And there are coyote dens in the Don River Valley.
In fourteen engaging essays, Grady introduces us to these and other natural wonders of Toronto, from snakes and mosquitoes to black squirrels and house sparrows. Following in the tracks of urban naturalists before him - Catherine Parr Traill, Ernest Thompson Seton, Anna Jameson and Fred Bodsworth - and effortlessly blending science, history, and literature, Grady writes wittily and gracefully about the evolution, eating habits, mating rituals and turf wars of your most common - and wild - city neighbours.
- GenresNonfictionScienceCanada
274 pages, Hardcover
First published September 21, 1995
42 people want to read
About the author
Wayne Grady
51 books34 followersWayne Grady is the award-winning author of Emancipation Day, a novel of denial and identity. He has also written such works of science and nature as The Bone Museum, Bringing Back the Dodo, The Quiet Limit of the World, and The Great Lakes, which won a National Outdoor Book Award in the U.S. With his wife, novelist Merilyn Simonds, he co-authored Breakfast at the Exit Café: Travels Through America. And with David Suzuki he co-wrote the international bestseller Tree: A Life Story.
He has also translated fourteen works of fiction from the French, by such authors as Antonine Maillet, Yves Beauchemin, and Danny Laferrière. In 1989, he won the Governor General’s Award for his translation of Maillet’s On the Eighth Day. His most recent translation is of Louis Hamelin’s October 1970, published by House of Anansi Press in 2013.
Grady teaches creative writing in the optional-residency MFA program at the University of British Columbia. He and Merilyn Simonds live in the country north of Kingston, Ontario.
He has also translated fourteen works of fiction from the French, by such authors as Antonine Maillet, Yves Beauchemin, and Danny Laferrière. In 1989, he won the Governor General’s Award for his translation of Maillet’s On the Eighth Day. His most recent translation is of Louis Hamelin’s October 1970, published by House of Anansi Press in 2013.
Grady teaches creative writing in the optional-residency MFA program at the University of British Columbia. He and Merilyn Simonds live in the country north of Kingston, Ontario.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 18, 2023
I learned all sorts of fascinating things about the wildlife in my own city. I would have rated this book more if it was a more recent publication - there is something somewhat unsatisfying about learning neat things but not knowing whether what you are learning is still true (this book is nearing 3 decades old). I also found that, although very interesting, I could only read a bit of this book at a time. In fact I started it several years ago, read half, and only just came back to it to finish it.
August 14, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyed this journey through Toronto in search of it's hidden (and not so hidden) wildlife. The text is very thoroughly researched drawing on historical documents and interviews with current specialists on species (plant and animal) indigenous and introduced to the city. It will make you look twice on your next walk.
October 20, 2016
I really enjoyed this book of essays about the wild in the city where I live. I learnt so many things and feel that I have a new appreciation for the nature in the urban setting. I wished though that there were some more recent facts as some of the updates were almost 20 yrs old - given when it was written.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews