Eat, Poop, Die: Wie Tiere unsere Welt verändern

by Joe Roman, Nikolaus Palézieux (translator)

Im Ozean vor Island bricht ein Vulkan aus. Eine Insel entsteht, auf der sich keine lebendige Zelle befindet. Bis ein Vogel darüber fliegt und auf die Insel kackt – und so Dünger und Pflanzensamen ihren Weg in die Lavawüste finden.

Der Biologe Joe Roman erzählt vergnüglich und hoffnungsfroh davon, wie unser Planet durch das Fressen, Kacken und Sterben von Tieren geformt
wird. Nicht nur zur Lektüre auf dem Klo bestens geeignet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Animals, Biology, Audiobook, Ecology

331 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 21, 2024

About the author

Joe Roman is a conservation biologist and author at the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont. His research, focusing on endangered species conservation and marine ecology, has appeared in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Trends in Ecology and Evolution, and many other journals. Joe has received a Hrdy Fellowship at Harvard University, a McCurdy Fellowship at the Duke University Marine Lab, a Fulbright-NSF Arctic Research Scholarship at the University of Iceland, a Bellagio Residency, a Fulbright Fellowship in Brazil, and a Science and Technology Policy Fellowship from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, among other awards. He was a Radcliffe fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute from 2022 to 2023.

Roman has presented his work in the U.S. Congress, South by Southwest, and universities around the world. Coverage of his research has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Washington Post, Atlantic, NPR, BBC, and many other outlets.

Joe Roman is editor ’n’ chef of eattheinvaders.org, a website dedicated to fighting invasive species one bite at a time. He is the author of Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World; Listed: Dispatches from America’s Endangered Species Act, winner of the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award; and Whale. He has written for Audubon, New Scientist, New York Times, Slate, and other publications.

He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2003 in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and his Master’s degree in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida. He has worked along the coasts of Alaska, Hawaii, New England, the Canadian Maritimes, Brazil, Cuba, and Iceland. Born and raised in New York, Joe considers King Kong as an early conservation influence.

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely want to read this book because of the title.

About halfway through, I stated I thought this would be my favorite book of the year because it mentioned Katrina Spade and Caitlin Doughty. In truth, it did not mention Katrina Spade, it mentioned her company, Recompose. Then there was a quote by Doughty and a sentence or two about corpse management then chapter ended and we moved on to another animal. That animal was not the exceedingly common human nor was the new chapter about what common humans do with their dead bodies. And I think that's sort of where the book fell off for me.
Not literally, the spine is still intact, the pages are still together.
It's just that, by that point, we were traversing the same ground, just in different spaces with different critters. Animals eat, they poop, and then they die and their bodies continue to deliver nutrients. Just like the title said. But there was no resolution, just repetition and while each chapter was interesting and informative on its own, it was pretty easy to guess what was coming: the landscape has been or can be perfectly managed by the eat, poop, die cycle.
Except not the exceedingly common humans. They're mentioned as the eating, pooping, dying animals here and there but they're mostly the villain of this story in that they get in the way, over and over, of animals eating and pooping and dying and it has created a problem that only biologists/ecologists/zoologists/other natural sciences scientists and atomic bombs can solve (the latter is only true in one chapter, it's not a theme throughout)
 
What started out as a fascinating and fun look at the role of wildlife in moving nitrogen and phosphorous and sequestering carbon throughout ecosystems turned into a long advertisement for rewilding in order to slow climate change, which was not where I thought we were going to end up.

Those first several chapters, though, they were such a delight to my little reading eyes.
I had no idea Surtsey was a new island but because I know a little about poop, the minute the question of how a blob of lava turned into tufts of grass was posed, I was jumping up and down with my hand up, thinking, "I KNOW! I KNOW! SEAGULL POOP!" That was fun for me and I was even partially correct! Other birds contributed, as well, it wasn't just seagulls.

Overall, this was not my favorite book of the year but I did enjoy reading it.

Edited to add:
This book also highlights why Girls in STEM programs are important. The vast majority of scientists Roman talked to were men. Possibly white men, it wasn't specified. I don't know if there were women and non-men scientists who were available but just didn't want to talk to Roman or if all the fields he walked among were overly saturated with dudes. Whatever the case, the result was the same: Very few women were highlighted in this book.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is rare for my taciturn, patient and supportive spouse to ask me to stop talking, despite the frequency with which I do it. So it is notable that this book led to a request for a new topic of conversation, after apparently one too many fascinating fecal facts were shared. I found this surprisingly frustrating - I mean, there really are a *lot* of fascinating things in this book. It isn't that Roman focuses especially on the defecation part, either, as much as you realise reading this how little other biology books discuss it. Animals contribution to our ecosystem is, after all, largely enacted through the consume. digest, expel waste cycle and it is the nature of what is expelled that creates our worlds.
Humans have an unusual aversion to poop, looking at other species (any pet owner will attest to this). And in reading this, you realise the impact that aversion has when we consititute such an enormous mass of the animals on the planet and what we want to do with our feces is to get them out of smell range as fast as possible. These kinds of musing may not endear you to your loved ones - even Roman's family drew the line at him introducing pee-cycling to their home - but they are helpful to think about how we might engage more sustainably with the planet.
But this was supposed to be explaining that the book is not primarily about poop. Which it isn't. Chapter by chapter, Roman looks at the role various animal species play in creating and sustaining ecosystems, from whales impact on the ocean, to the spawning salmon, to seabirds creation of whole islands (and our farming industries). It shouldn't be a revelation that animals are important to ecological processes, but Roman certainly paints the research world as being a tad surprised about it (noting that the strong differentiation into various disciplines which mean experts in fungi, for example, may know nothing about birds). But even while I am skeptical of whether there is a bit of exaggeration for effect at times, Roman gives a wonderful sense of knowledge opening up through research from a new angle, which just combines with the humour to make this a charming and engaging read. Just find a relatively uninhibited friend to talk it through with.

[Jena Best · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another stellar science read for 2023.
Not only is that title incredibly eye-catching, but the writing within really keeps you engaged. This felt like a great balance between quippy, humorous jokes (who doesn't enjoy a little scatological humor?) and lots of great field science. It feels obvious that animals change their environments, but this book really drives home what happens when those animals are LOST. Often due to human impact, it becomes very clear what we need to change if we want the planet to thrive.

[Rachel Vachon · Rating 4 out of 5]

More depressed about climate change than before I started this book, but I guess as a consolation I have learned some new poop facts…

Overall, a really interesting way to look at ecology

[Cari Ritzenthaler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! As an ecologist, I don’t feel like I learned a lot of new concepts, but I liked reading about the history behind some of these discoveries. It was written in an incredibly approachable, and some times funny, way with a great message of the interconnected web that is nature! The author takes a number of deep dives into the researcher behind these strange experiments and showcases a very human side of them (not often seen in depictions of scientists). My only complaint is that the majority of researchers mentioned in this book were male. Not to say there were no female scientists mentioned at all, and also this didn’t take away the enjoyment I felt in reading this book, but it was something that stuck out to me as a woman ecologist and disappointed me. Otherwise, it’s a wonderful and accessible way to learn about how animals build the heathy ecosystems that surround them!

[Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun read that explained the who, what, when, where, and why in a light informal way and didn’t feel too stodgy. I came into this book with zero background in the subject matter, and it never felt like Roman was talking over or down to the reader. It was very conversational and flowed well from one animal to the next.

[Ccaywood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, very readable and fun, while packed with important science. The author shows that the biological processes of animal lives are as important as plants in shaping the world we know. And humans have so disrupted animal life that we've short-circuited some of the means of re-balancing climate change.

[Questor German · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit short.

[Scott Lupo · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging and fascinating look at how animals and bugs distribute nitrogen and phosphorous into the natural cycle through their eating, pooping, and dying. The book starts with an island that was formed off the coast of Iceland in 1963, giving scientists a wonderful opportunity to observe how a new island begins to get plant and animal life. Hint: lots of bird poop. The book continues with tons of examples of these cycles in nature including salmon, bears, insects, bison, sea otters, and whales. While humans cannot possibly know all the factors that create changes in nature, this book offers some deep thinking on how nature can heal itself with the proper management (or no management at all) and, in turn, heal ourselves as humans on this one planet that has been given to us.

[Cameron Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting and engaging read. I learned so many things along the way. The book's main argument is for a more biodiverse world. In the end; however, I came away not knowing why a more biodiverse world should be my goal for the planet. It was very compelling but not so actionable.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand the planet and get better acquainted with the amazing animals that make up the world around us.

[Vikram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gives a new appreciation for animals in our world, especially poop. Starting the book with the formation of a new island was an instant hook.

[Carlie Duquette · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO GOOD! This was such a timely read for me this year having visited both West and East coasts this year, going on many whale watching tours and learning about various whales, sea birds and the importance of animals for our climate. I highly recommend this book and found it so well narrated, well researched and informative!

[grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

this took me like 2 months to read and i ended up rly annoyed with his narrative voice but it was interesting

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Little, Brown and Company for an advanced copy of this look at how everything we leave behind, from crumbs, to waste to even our bodies, helps the ecosystem in so many different ways.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. A pleasant way of saying from the Earth we are born, and to the Earth we shall return, continuing a cycle that began well before us, and hopefully for my nephews and their descendents will continue long after we are gone. However what gets missed is all that stuff happens in between the ashes, all the eating we do, all the wastes we eliminate, and the body that can be used before it turns to dust. And I am not excluding the animal kingdom, for their cycles of eating, waste, and decay create new life all the time, life that maybe can be used to help humans hold of climate catastrophe, if it is not too late. Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World by conservation biologist, academic and author Joe Roman, is a look at animals, the natural world, and what animals and humans leave behind and how it could help the planet.

The book begins with a smell of sulfur as a underwater volcano begins to erupt off the coast of Iceland. Soon the material lava rock is rising above the water, and creating a new island, Surtsey off the southern coast, and taking about 4 years to form. For a while it was just lava rock, but soon life began to appear on the island. As the island cooled, seeds carried by both air and water began to land, and nature being nature soon began to happen. As birds stopped to rest on their flights, and not being bothered by humans, began to leave their waste, which helped to enrich the soil, and allowing seeds to grow. Slowly on a barren rock, in the middle of the ocean, life took hold, and the author details the how and why, much better than I can write. The book travels the globe, looking at the Hawaiian islands, wolves in Yellowstone, and their influence on both flora and fauna. Roman looks at the consequences and benefits of what we leave, and how it can be used to enrich our future.

A very interesting look at a subject that many are not comfortable talking about, and I don't mean climate change. Human and animal waste is not a subject many like to think about, nor I am sure read about, but Roman makes it very interesting, with plenty of examples and uses. What really comes across in his writing is the problems the planet is having. Going to Yellowstone and being almost washed out in rains that flood the area. Weather problems in Iceland. This past summer is enough that most people should acknowledge there is a problem, and Roman points this out, in his writing. Another thing that is obvious is that many of these places are changing, and some of them might be appearing in this book for the last time. This is an interesting book for kids interested in biology and science, as title might make it more open to their minds. Recommended for climate and fans of animals as there are a lot of interesting places Roman travels to, and the writing makes the subject very easy understand.

[Brenda Greene · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engaging book by a curious biologist who studies global ecosystem processes as facilitated by a selected number of animal species in water and on land. It is pitched nicely for the novice and the expert and has implications for marine reserves, fishing, climate, agriculture etc.

Roman doesn't say it directly, but we get the gist that if we didn't introduce cats, rats and mustelids, seabirds would be providing free ecosystem services, fertilising the soil for our cattle and sheep. If we didn't kill 99% of whales as the oceans would produce more fish. If only we removed dams as then 95% of the lost millions of salmon that existed one human lifetime ago would return.

His description of Surtsky and colonisation of islands is terrific. How one thing leads to another in extreme, simple and novel environments is clear.

The chapters, overall, are slightly long. Some include side trips and meandering thoughts that don't contribute much to the book's theme.

Salmon eat, spawn, die. Poop is not important. Bears eat salmon and poop is not important. Trees were thought to benefit from mass salmon death but no they do not. Turtles eggs not poop seem important for dunes.

Unlike the whale pump (eat, poop, die) the relationship between soil quality, water quality, bears, salmon and trees via ecosystem processes is murky, complex, short term.

Poop from bison is colonised by psilocybin mushrooms. The drug acts as a weapon to defend the poop from others. Except the published literature says there is no evidence for that relationship. Oops.

Wolves cause trophic cascades by eating, not through poop or death. Except long term research shows that is wrong. Another nice story blown.

Bisons were driven close to extiction by criminal slaughter by men. Cattle on the park boundary of Yellowstone infect bison with disease. The relationship between indigenous agriculture and perhaps poop - Norman makes an oblique reference - is described.

Hippos poop and create pools of nutrients. What happens next isn't known or perhaps is known but Norman omits it. Crops do well when the dried up pools are planted.

Wilderbeast die in huge numbers as they cross rivers and insects take the wildebeast poop into the soil. Nutrient flows recycle life.

Then its chicken/human dominance of ecosystem processes. Followed by evolutionary history and ecosystem services of now extinct large animals, driven to extiction due to human activity.

Next is the rise of agriculture and the use of Nitrogen. Fossil fuel is used produced the stuff. A peace prize is awarded. Our population increase accelerates. The global climate warms from the 1800's onwards. Humboldt documents it. We ignore it.

Human sewage treatment has a glancing mention but no impacts are described. Refugee camps and diarrhoa. Dog shit, zoo elephants and aquaria dolphins. Again, no impacts or flows. Hints of composting toilets and burials.

The next chapters are just as breathless and disconnected from the central theme as they cover a myriad of other animald that eat, poop and die. Tropical beaches are dead shells. Insights appear to evaporate as the book goes on. Otters are killed by nuclear testing. Some reintroductions occur.

Finally, the link between restoration, the climate and planetary boundaries gives us hope. Is that where we were heading all along? Or is it a mass burial of human and chicken bones?

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Eat, Poop, Die" is a fascinating book, and I enjoyed every page of it as it recounted how living beings, from microalgae, sea kelp, sea otters, chickens, salmon, bison, hippos, parrotfish and coral reefs, elephants and wildebeests, midges and insects, to humpback whales, consume, then excrete (either by pooping or peeing) into their environments, and how their carcasses, too, affect those environments: zoogeochemistry and biogeochemistry that can create, maintain, or disrupt habitats and ecosystems. It's how life on the planet Earth works, or doesn't.

Nitrogen and phosphorous, the building blocks of ecosystems: nutrients delivered by urine and poop coming from seabirds, through whale pumps, guano islands mined to near nothingness. Roman's book is a readable explainer and advocate for diversity, rewilding, respect for ancient ways of husbandry that more or less kept ecosystems in balance.

This excerpt from the chapter "The Otter and the H-Bomb" gives an idea of the "animal circulatory system" that Roman champions:

"We have gone beyond the planetary boundaries for nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, and biodiversity loss. We have too many o these nutrients in some places, where they run off from fars and laws, prompting harmful algal blooms,and too little elsewhere, reducing productivity. Can animals help? To restore the world so that animals truly matter- as ecosystem engineers, sources of nutrient subsidies, and providers of daily wonder and free-roaming animals than by humans. This approach require land-sparing and land-sharing.

"One of the reasons that rewilding works is that it takes advantage of how animals eat, poop, and die and how they reproduce. It scales up because of the nature of biological processes such as population growth and expansion. ... When wales and other marine mammals feed at depth and relieve themselves at the surface, they move nutrients vertically through their poop and pee. Seabirds move nutrients from offshore to islands and other coastal lands, as we saw at Surtsey [a new island near Iceland that volcanically erupted into being in November 1963 and has become a protected biosphere studied by naturalists and ecologists]. Salmon and other fishes bring marine nutrients upriver, through carcasses, poop, and pee. Predatory bears, scavengers, and insects move these nutrients around. As the seasons change, migrating bison and other large animals disperse nutrients as they feed in grasslands and choreograph the green wave. Finally, there's a world of insects, global capillaries, moving nutrients across the landscape."

An absorbing book that I highly recommend.

[Mathieu]

Find out here the importance of animals to the ecosystem, to the functioning of the whole planet. While fungi and plants may form the base, without animals even they would not be so successful!

With interesting stories from around the planet, Roman describes the importance of animals to the movement of nutrients, the development of soils, and the expansion of plants. Without animals carrying nitrogen and phosphorus (the most important nutrients, as Roman also explains), plants would be struggling more and have a more restricted range.

OK, some details.

Surtsey is a volcanic island off Iceland that has been studied since it emerged from the ocean. Birds brought poop and seeds. New volcanic rock has plenty of phosphorus to start life with, but this erodes and washes away. Nitrogen is deposited in poop and pee in a form that can be utilized by plants. Both nutrients are required for life, for use in mitochondria and creation of proteins.

Birds, insects, plants, slowly colonize new land. Ocean creatures and plants slowly colonize the shoreline. Ocean organic matter, and poop from seals and other mammals, also start fertilizing the coastal areas and plants take hold. Pee and poop are important, but so are carcasses, bones adding to the phosphorus.

"Ecosystems are living things, emerging, maturing, dying, and even in death, they add richness to the web of life. Animals have major influences on these systems and the geochemical cycles that humans and all life-forms count on for survival." -- p. 10

Whale pump: bring nutrients from deep sea to the surface where phytoplankton utilize it.

Salmon in the Pacific Northwest of North America. Salmon bring nutrients from the sea to the bears and scavengers who spread them to the forest. Loss of this nutrient cycling, as with the loss of bison and other animal migrations, harms the ecosystem. Ecosystems evolved with animals, including arthropods, moving nutrients in massive amounts.

Elwha and Klamath rivers and dam removal, discussed p. 90ff.

"Unlike the enormous concrete impoundments, designed for stability, beaver dams are dynamic, heterogeneous landscapes that salmon can easily travel through. Beavers eat, they build dams, they poop, they move on. We humans might want things to be stable, but Earth and its creatures are dynamic." -- p. 93

Humans have altered the biomass of animals such that, by weight, animals we eat = 60%, humans = 36%, biomass of wild mammals = 4%. (p. 125)

Well referenced book. Promotes rewilding.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now there’s a sign you won’t see decorating someone’s living room. Their bathroom, maybe. Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World takes a look at the way animals shape ecosystems. It begins with the absolutely fascinating study of Surtsey, a volcanic island that was created in 1968 and which has allowed scientists to follow the development of an ecosystem ex nihilo, and then moves into some particular case studies across the world. Although there’s no limit to the number of potential books detailing the way animals are active ‘shapers of our world’, Roman focuses on dining, defecating, and dying. Taking center stage is poop — or ‘animal subsidies’, if you like. Poop not only serves to spread plant seeds around (and provide an initial bank of nutriment), but to shuffle the chemicals within across wide landscapes, as do animal deaths to smaller degree — except in the case of whale falls. Easily for me the most interesting part of the book was the fascinating history of Surtsey, which was born (happily) in an era where people could appreciate its unique promise, and guard it accordingly. Roman details the way an ecosystem slowly developed on the newly minted piece of terra firma, using it to highlight how important poop (from birds, mostly) is at providing minerals to seeds that found their way to the island; over the decades, the ecosystem has grown in complexity. From here we examine the way salmon runs enrich the trees along the rivers they use, thanks to the fact that bears are incredibly sloppy and wasteful eaters, and dive into the ‘whale pump’, the way whales continually move nutrients between the upper layers of the ocean and its depths. The book ends with cicadas and otters; a population of the latter was moved from an area of Alaska that DC wanted to nuke (and did, because DC is terrible) to a bay that had once had otters but lost them to the fur trade. Eat, Poop, Die is a quick, easy read with no shortage of interest.

Related:
Ghosts of Evolution, Connie Barlow. One of my favorite science books ever, this one looks at what happens to species whose ecological partners have gone extinct — like trees who made fruit for ground sloths, but which now struggle to find a way to spread their seed.
The Origin of Feces, David Waltner-Toews. I have to stop misplacing this book and read it. On the ecological importance of poop.

[Jessica Matts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ll fully admit—I bought this book based on the title….

Now…

I’m wanting to deep dive into so many different species…and topics.

The premise of this book—

Looking at how animals help shape the various ecosystems of the planet, and how we’ve screwed those up by hunting said animals (whales, sea otters, bison, wildebeests, & so forth), or how we’ve messed things up—by building dams, turning prairies into ranches & so forth.

Reading the book…one travels from ‘newly’ forming islands (islands are less than 250 years old), to tracking whales to collect their poop, to visiting Alaska to track salmon, and so forth.

While I knew that sloths were slow moving creatures…I hadn’t realized before reading this book—they only go to the bathroom once a week…after they slowly climb down to the forest floor from the canopy.

I hadn’t realized that the wildebeest almost went extinct due to a virus jumping from agricultural stocks to the wildlife in Africa…

Nor had I given it a thought to the role that biting flies or cicadas play in the ecosystem.

The human race has caused so many problems over the past several centuries (and actually longer than that)…to the point that we’ve messed up nutrient cycles throughout the world…can they be ‘fixed’…maybe…but to do that—we have to make changes in our own society—we need to break the chains of consumerism…of wanting more & throwing things away that are perfectly functional.

Climate change is causing problems…some of our solutions are probably going to also cause problems, because we’re looking to fix a ‘snapshot’, a small bubble/piece of the problem, & probably haven’t thought of the ramifications that fix may cause…

I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in ecology, animals, or just looking for something different to read. I’m now going to be on the look out for books on sea otters, sloths, wildebeests, hippos, and other animals….not to mention looking up one or two people mentioned in the book as well.

Five out of five stars.

[books4chess · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We stopped killing them…and now we’re killing their climate…and now we’re killing their food”.

Eat Poop Die is an engaging dissection of the structures that exist within our natural world and the how the urges that most living beings experience shape the world around us. To consider there is a whole island that emerged in the Nordics less than 100 years ago which has gone on to act as a hub of life and activity to many crucial living organisms - fuelled by the spread of natural ingredients deposited on a regular basis through bird excretion - I was gripped from the jump.

“Despite its scientific name, Osedax is an outlier among the animals in this book’s terrain. It doesn’t eat, and it doesn’t poop (but everything has to die”.

Roman doesn’t just deliver a couple of quirky examples you’d expect to read about in a biology lesson though - he contemplates how we’ve diverged as a society in our practices. He analyses the global shift from the cultivation of animals native to the lands around us and whose deposits enrich and fuel the ground for generations to come, into mass farming and the over-breeding of animals who may feed us well, but who are not able to meaningfully benefit the alien land around them, and vice versa.

When I heard the title, I anticipated a lot of informative insights into the impact of humanity on the animal kingdom, but I didn’t realise just how well Roman would articulate the challenges prevalent today and increasing the risk of irreversible extinction. The normalisation of the loss of the mammoth and the dodo have almost stopped a frank discussion about the potential impact of losing the animals we know more personally, and the significant damage that would do to the wider ecosystem. This was an informative read to help the reader reflect on where we are today from a fresh angle, and is a solid staple to understand the way the current tide flows.

[Carrie Ann]

4.5 stars!

I requested this book as it so closely aligns with my PhD research about nutrient cycling by fish, and this ARC was good. Each individual chapter presents as a new case study of how animals are important for the cycling of nutrients-- through eating, pooping, dying or a combination of these processes. The book covered a variety of animals from small cicadas and midges to large hippos from around the world, and it included both terrestrial and aquatic species. I was unaware of several case studies included here, and I definitely found new literature to include in my dissertation. I was also intrigued by some of the social and historical content that was presented. Furthermore, Roman's dedication to traveling to various sites to understand animal-mediated nutrient cycling is impressive. He shares the challenges of this undertaking while also acknowledging the immense help from collaborators and local residents.

There were a few things that disappointed me about this book. First, the start was a bit slow and technical, although the pacing did pick up. I think this slow start might make it hard to hook students or nonscientists (like my family). Also, as a freshwater ecologist, I wish a different example had been used for freshwater systems beyond salmon. This seemed like a safe and easy choice by the author as it's one that is already explored frequently in other literature.

Personally, I know I will use some of the information from this book to enhance my lectures and get students interested in science content. I could see myself using this book in an upper level (college) ecology or environmental science course in the future. I've also recommended it to some of my fellow graduate students.

Thank you so much Little, Brown for this ARC!

[Karyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean, who *doesn’t* want to read a book about animals pooping?

It may sound obvious that it’s quite important when a bear shits in the woods, but it’s clear that a lot of scientists have concentrated their studies on less… poopy areas. It’s fascinating to think that every little thing makes a difference to the environment, not only which animals are hunting which other animals, or which animals have decimated a particular plant species, but also which animals are eating and what they’re peeing and pooping out, and even how their dead carcasses feed the area in which they lived. Remove one species from the equation, and another one takes over with disastrous results. And without that animal peeing and pooping and dying, other animals/plants may not get the nutrients they so desperately need to thrive.

My only concern with this book (and I will admit it might be a me problem and not one with the author), but occasionally I felt that the author would plunk down an assertion as if we were right there in his brain with him, and he’d move on to the next topic without really explaining what he meant. There was one paragraph, and I cannot remember where it is, where the author write three sentences and I’d be damned if I could make out how they were related to each other and to his premise. It is entirely possible that my brain spaced out, however. As interesting as the material was, occasionally I would turn the page only to realize that I had not really absorbed much of what I had read.

This is definitely an interesting book, though it makes climate change even more terrifying. Bonus points for the mention not only of Caitlin Doughty, but also the Kamchatka expedition.

[Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an enjoyable but somewhat superficial treatment of the subject. It actually took me most of the book to understand the unifying theme because that theme was so broad: animals matter to how the earth works. Many of the topics treated here are classics in ecology and will be familiar to anyone who has read other books in this space. Otters create kelp forests by eating sea urchins, salmon swimming upstream transfer nutrients from ocean to land, buffalo herds stimulate grass growth, and beavers create entire wetland ecosystems. These stories are all old news. There are a couple others I hadn't heard about like dying lake midges fertilizing grasslands immediately around ponds and the "wolves keep elk from overgrazing in Yellowstone" story told about grasshoppers and jumping spiders, but these are just variants on an old tune.

My main complaint is that in most cases, the author shows that animals have an effect but not necessarily that it is a significant effect. Just because oceanic isotopes are detected in trees doesn't mean that the salmon nutrients are a significant source of nitrogen. It may be detectable but just a drop in the bucket compared to nitrogen fixed by bacteria in rhizomes. Trophic cascades that produce kelp forests are visually striking, but are they significant on a geological scale? Sometimes this is addressed, other times not.

In the end I was left feeling like this book lacked a really coherent theme. "Animals are important" is so broad as to offer very little organizational impetus. It is kind of just an excuse for the author to write about some of his favorite tropes among the tribe of charismatic megafauna biologists.

[Jerry Hillyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems to me that if humans are the cause of all the world's problems, as the author seems to suggest, then how can humans be a part of the solution? When he wrote about an experiment in which the scientists glued shut the mouths of spiders, I wept a little.

Many, many years ago, we had a local animal guy come to our church and do a little presentation for our youth group. He taught us this when it came to animals: look at them, learn about them, leave them alone. I have lived by that mantra for the last 30 some years. It's simple; it's beautiful.

I think this is an interesting book, and for the first 200 or so pages, I was captivated by his stories about animals and islands. By the last 40 or so pages, I had grown weary of his activism. His solutions are unrealistic because no one wants to pay more taxes, and no one, except strident vegans, is advocating the giving up of steak and eggs.

Maybe the problem is that science is too heavily invested in saving the world instead of just looking at it and learning about it. Maybe if scientists could just leave the world and its flora and fauna the f*ck alone, the world would heal itself. And, maybe, if people didn't feel the need to eat every damn thing they lay eyes on, there'd be more diversity. You ever watch a cooking show on TV?

For the sake of the earth and its life, I implore all you scientific types to stop trying to save it and us. Just leave it alone. Let it be.

Not a bad book for 200 or so pages. Too bad he wrote another 50.

[Rachma · Rating 5 out of 5]

The books make me reflect on the interconnectedness of my seemingly small and insignificant existence with the greater energy of Mother Earth. It somehow changed my perspective on my relationship with other creatures. I used to think it was cute to harass birds on the street (I’m not proud of my behavior), even though my boyfriend always said, “Hey, that’s rude!!!” At the time, I thought they were just birds, and it wasn't like I was hurting them, literally (just scaring them for a little bit). After reading the book, I realize they aren’t just birds; they maintain Earth’s balance, especially through their stinkie little poopies, which can turn barren land fertile. So, it is completely rude to scare them!

The book's information is mostly common sense (similar to high school biology), but the way Joe Roman's narrates the story made me feel like I was in the middle of a conversation with a close friend. His humour makes the lessons memorable without feeling condescending; in fact, it made me giggle many times.

So far, this is the best book I've read all year. It's not just informative; it's also filled with optimism about tackling climate change by allowing our animals to eat, poop, and die in peace.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly readable account of how important animals are to the proper functioning of ecosystems and the entire biosphere. This may seem obvious, but the 'bottom up' perspective of mainstream ecology focuses on the productivity of plants controlling organisms further up the food chain or trophic pyramid. In recent decades, the role of animals not only as consumers of plants, but regulating populations of other species, and the structure of entire communities and habitats has been researched in greater detail. From trophic cascades and now the critical function of moving nutrients, carbon storage and more is revealed in this book. Through a series of 'field trips' to various localities, the systems in each were described, and we meet the scientists and study subjects, from pacific salmon and bison to remote oceanic islands, coral reefs and the Serengeti. The author summed up the knowledge gained so far in a couple of chapters, putting it in a larger global context of human ecology and our impact on wildlife, laying out the reasons we should conserve nature, but not which strategies are more effective or preferred, leaving it to the reader to ruminate over.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A moderately better, definitely more scientific Mary Roach, but the book probably could have been long-form magazine length.

It's a fairly exhaustive, and somewhat exhausting, paean to how animals recycle nitrogen and phosphorus, and a lesser degree iron, to improve conditions for plant life in deep seas, along river banks, and on new volcanic islands.

And yes, it IS "somewhat exhausting." No shit. Except large whale shits, as that's the author's biological science background.

New to me but tangential was how this is wrapped up to some degree with climate change. (Cow shits and other domestic animal shits bad; whale shit good.)

The one really new thing to me was that there's a fair amount of debate, and it's not settled science, over how much of these nutrients returning spawning salmon deliver to streamside and creekside plants. Bears that shit in the woods? Obviously. Sitka spruce, other than indirectly via the bears that shit in the woods? Not so clear.

And, I've beat the shit out of punning on that dead horse.

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good and accurate facts for specific causes and effects. Animals convert ecosystems in myriad of ways.

Some of the personal opinion and self back patting virtue signaling lost a star. It is fully 3.5 stars.

Author states several times or implies that this is all new and was seldom if ever taught. I was taught at least 75% of this (nutrient cycles) within the 1960's or 1970's at U. of I. or a community college. Both.

Humans are part of the animal kingdom. This surmises a type of separateness and control that is far, far from element, microscopic or even within groups like mammal species "apart" to the extent that this is posited.

Excellent in the science of nutrient pumping cycles. The beginning with the formation of a volcanic origin island was 4.5 stars. It would have been a better book if that strain/ witness was continued and not so strongly interpreted (throughout every animal specific study) with copious lecturing for theory or agenda.

[Jim Folger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite its terse title, which suggests a casual approach to discussing animals lives, this book contains some real gems of knowledge that opens the reader’s eyes to the magnitude of the change that humans have wrought on planet earth. The scientific insights are most valuable along with information on many different animal types from whales to salmon, bison, otters, parrotfish and cicadas. The eruption of the volcano in Iceland in 1963, and the creation of new life on Surtsey Island was quite fascinating, as it explained the establishment of new animal life. It was especially interesting to learn that human species hunted out some 85% of all wild mammals, and that 2/3 of the animals on the globe are goats, cows and pigs, not counting the avian biomass of 50 billion chickens that are slaughtered annually. Well worth reading and pondering. Elizabeth Kohlbert’s comment that it “deserves the widest possible audience” is spot on.

[Merle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extrem interessant und witzig geschrieben, ich hätte nie erwartet, dass Ökologie so spannend und tatsächlich derartig relevant für den Klimawandel ist. (Durch Wiederauswilderung von Tieren könnte man die aktuellen Emissionen um mindestens 1/6 reduzieren!!). Wirklich alles hängt auf Weisen, über die man nie nachgedacht hat, zusammen.

Auch die kulturellen Aspekte waren sehr interessant - was die Wissenschaft erst jetzt über die Tierwelt entdeckt, wissen indigene Völker oft bereits seit vielen Generationen. Ich finde es auch hoffnungserregend zu lesen, wie viele Menschen sich aktiv für Ökologie und Wildtiere begeistern und weiterhin an eine Zukunft glauben, in der wir die Bedrohung des Klimawandels überwinden und wieder mit der Natur im Einklang leben.

(Das nächste Mal, wenn mich im Zug ein fremder Mann anspricht und fragt, ob ich mir vorstellen könnte, Insekten zu essen und mir die Zukunft der Toilette erklärt, werde ich vorbereitet sein)