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Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion

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A stunning work of narrative nonfiction that asks: what is natural?

Now as never before, exotic animals and plants are crossing the globe, borne on the swelling tide of human traffic to places where nature never intended them to be. Bird-eating snakes from Australia hitchhike to Hawaii in the landing gear of airliners; disruptive European zebra mussels, riding in ships' ballast water, are infiltrating aquatic ecosystems across the United States; parasitic flies from the U.S. prey on Darwin's finches in the Galapagos. Predatory American jellyfish in Russia; toxic Japanese plankton in Australia; Burmese pythons in the Everglades-biologists refer fearfully to "the homogenization of the world" as alien species jump from place to place and increasingly crowd native and endangered species out of existence. Never mind bulldozers and pesticides: the fastest-growing threat to biological diversity may be nature itself.

Out of Eden is a journey through this strange and shifting landscape. The author tours the front lines of ecological invasion--in Hawaii, Tasmania, Guam, San Francisco; in lush rainforests, through underground lava tubes, on the deck of an Alaska-bound oil tanker--in the company of world-class scientists. Wry and reflective, animated and richly reported, Out of Eden is a search both for scientific answers and for ecological authenticity.

324 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

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About the author

Alan Burdick

13 books46 followers
Alan Burdick is an editor on the science desk of The New York Times, a former staff writer and senior editor at The New Yorker, and the author of Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation. His first book, Out of Eden: An Odyssey of Ecological Invasion (FSG, 2005), was a National Book Award finalist and won the Overseas Press Club award for environmental reporting. He has written for numerous publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, GQ, and Outside.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
Profile Image for Bill.
364 reviews
July 24, 2018
Interesting book, but I am disappointed (as a Florida resident) that the author chose to ignore the science fictional apocalypse unfolding here (burmese pythons, nile monitor lizards, parrots, monkeys, all manner of vicious insects, etc). Last time I went fishing, I caught a snakehead and an Oscar. Based on this book, despite the heroic efforts of a handful of scientists, the invading critters are winning hands down.
Profile Image for Cindy.
2,764 reviews
July 2, 2020
I finally finished this one and while it was really good, I couldn't help wondering how much things had changed since it was written. I was also curious what effect climate change would have on these invasive species.
Profile Image for Sara J..
35 reviews
July 20, 2018
At times this book was entirely too dense and technical, and at others quick paced and super interesting. Since I never read author descriptions it made so much sense to find later this was his first book, normally he writes magazine articles.

As a natural resource manager and a nature educator this book was a great series of discussions about the definition of nature, how we talk about it, interact with it and where the line is drawn for human-nature interaction. I found myself often pondering casual questions thrown out by the author such as "how much management can we give an ecosystem before we stop calling it natural?" or "what time frame do we consider as time zero for human manipulation of the environment?". Mostly I liked the theme of concern about invasive species as something that homogenizes the planet. For those that love to travel, for those of us that love to learn about far away places, animals and even cultures we value variety. When we move species from place to place, we make those places the same. Regardless of extinctions, cost to invasive removal, or species that seem to fit right in, I appreciated that we could all care about sense of place and keeping our places unique.
Profile Image for Bibliobites  Veronica .
246 reviews38 followers
January 2, 2025
Solid 3.5 stars. This book didn’t turn out to be exactly what I expected, but they style was engaging - you can tell Burdick is a journalist and not a scientist. But it also seemed slightly disjointed, like 2/3 of the way through the author began focusing less on the troublesome species and more on the men and women studying them. Which wasn’t terrible, because it was all interesting; I’m just still not sure if he fulfilled his purpose in writing this volume. To me, the best part of the book is that it raised more questions than it proposed answers for, and when it comes to scientific writing, I really appreciate that. The discussions on what makes a creature invasive, and whether that’s good or bad, and how we know what we know, and what, if anything, humans should do about endangered species and changing environments, is what makes this a great ecology book. I plan to give it to my homeschooled high schooler who is interested in wildlife biology and ecology - it’s not an introductory or a must-read title, but I recommend it to interested students wanting to dig a little deeper/go a little further into the topic.

*not a Christian title, some evolutionary content.
Profile Image for Sandy D..
1,019 reviews32 followers
March 8, 2010
This was fascinating non-fiction, but it was slow going in parts, because the author goes into such depth on some species and the mechanisms of their ecological invasions. He also describes the methodological and philosophical debates current among ecologists.

This is good, because he's not over-simplifying things, but it let's face it: reading about plankton identification techniques, the ways to test the climbing abilities of brown tree snakes, and our inability to know the history of marine invertebrate ecology may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Burdick focuses on three main areas: Guam and the brown tree snake (originally from Australia); Hawaii and it's native birds & fruitflies and intoduced pigs, earthworms, wasps, and trees; and San Francisco Bay and the green crabs and hundreds of other marine plants & animals that are rrevocably changing our oceans and shores.

I learned a ton of mind boggling things - for example, the Hawaiian Islands are part of an ongoing geological process, and its birds (the ones not already extinct), different on each island, are descended from birds that were blown from islands that have already sunk back into the ocean.

There are more bizarre varieties of marine invertebrates that I could have imagined. Many are larval forms of jellyfish, sponges, and things not clearly plant or animal, visible only under a microscrope. Every shoreline and different part of the ocean has native species with its own interactions, but ballast water (thousands of gallons pumped in & out to balance ships) has transported hundreds of these species to entirely new places, with unknown consequences. That's probably how zebra mussels came to the Great Lakes.

There are nice biographical bits on several seminal ecologists (with a few good jokes concerning their larval states), the history of "alien" research, what these scientists actually spend their time doing, and their hopes for the future.

What this book doesn't do is try to cover all of the different kinds of invasive species that may be changing your local environs today - so don't expect an overview of kudzu, the emerald ash borer, the mosquito that carries the West Nile virus, or carp.
Profile Image for Sarah Beaudoin.
265 reviews16 followers
February 4, 2010
Out of Eden examines a variety of different invasive species and attempts to look at the larger ecological issues that evolve when a single species alters the landscape of a location. The book moves around geographically, focusing first mainly on snakes, birds, and fauna on the Hawaiian islands and then moving to sea creatures on the Eastern and Western seaboards (with a nod to the Great Lakes). The author, Alan Burdick, spends nearly as much time discussing the people who study the invasive species as he does the creatures themselves, and as a result much of the book is an interesting look not only into environmental issues, but into academic and bureaucratic struggles as well.

Burdick is a senior editor at Discover magazine and this book both suffers and flourishes as a result. Flourishes because each individual chapter is riveting: new players, new habitats, new concerns. Any single chapter could have easily been featured in an issue of Discover and could stand alone as such with minimal editing. However, this harms the book as a whole because there is so little coalescence. Burdick makes no effort to unite the book around any sort of theme and I found myself wondering repeatedly what he was trying to do with the book.

Overall, this was interesting and I'm glad that I read it. Burdick raises some interesting questions about our perceptions of nature and what is natural. I don't wish that the book had provided the answers, since it's different for every individual, but I do wish it had gone further to provide some sort of unified foundation for the reader to begin to answer those questions for himself.
Profile Image for Katie.
43 reviews6 followers
June 12, 2008
I bought this book way back in January '08 as a motivation to get through the semester. Once school got out I cracked it open and pretty much devoured it cover to cover.

Out of Eden is written by someone whose strengths and background are not in biology, but that doesn't detract from the reading at all. Unlike Pollan, whom I feel is far too pop-sciency for my tastes, Burdick writes as an outside observer bringing the world of bio-invasions and invasive species studies to those whose interest range from passing curiosity to pursuit of a career. While the whole field appears somewhat romanticized at times, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. His case studies, in Guam, Hawaii, and various ports of call in the continental US were almost all known to me on some level. However, the really exciting part was reading about these researchers whose papers I've actually read in some of my bio courses.

Even if you aren't a total bio nerd, I think most people would enjoy it. If nothing else, the book poses some interesting dilemmas regarding our relationship to the environment and where we draw the line between native and non-native.
Profile Image for Matteo Negro.
205 reviews33 followers
August 21, 2017
Lontano dell'Eden è un saggio che riassume in modo chiaro ma allo stesso tempo scientificamente corretto un viaggio che l'autore ha condotto in giro per il mondo nei luoghi che potremmo definire "hot spot della biodiversità aliena". L'isola di Guam, infestata dal serpente bruno arboricolo di origine australiana, le isole Hawaii, un paradiso tropicale invaso da un numero elevatissimo di specie esotiche, la baia di San Francisco, uno degli ecosistemi acquatici maggiormente invasi al mondo, rappresentano tre buoni esempi di quel processo di omogeneizzazione della biodiversità animale e vegetale che ha avuto una rapita accelerazione con l'incremento dei commerci. Ogni giorno migliaia di organismi, definiti autostoppisti, viaggiano sui nostri mezzi di trasporto (aerei, navi, ecc.) e talvolta si insediano in territori distanti migliaia di chilometri dalle loro terre di origine causando enormi danni alle faune indigene, spesso già pesantemente impattate da fenomeni quali la distruzione, la frammentazione degli habitat, il riscaldamento climatico e l'eccessivo sfruttamento venatorio e alieutico. Un fenomeno che nonostante i controlli operati da diversi governi sembra impossibile fermare. Un saggio consigliato agli addetti ai lavori ma anche a tutti coloro che sono interessati al fenomeno delle specie aliene spesso pesantemente sottovalutato dall'opinione pubblica.
197 reviews4 followers
April 5, 2024
Burdick makes ecological invasion in Guam, Hawaii, and brackish estuaries around the world fascinating. For me, concerned mainly about degradation of nature around the Great Lakes, none of these examples seem directly relevant, but they make me appreciate how difficult it is to stop invasive species and to mobilize support for control of invaders before it is too late. Zebra and quagga mussels are just the latest pests to drastically change the ecology of the Great Lakes but because they cause expensive blockage of water intakes, North American politicians finally woke up to the invasive species problem.
For a good examination of invasive land plants in North America see The Aliens Among Us, Leslie Anthony, 2017, and for why native plants are better, see Bringing Nature Home, Doug Tallamy, 2007.
Profile Image for Bill.
517 reviews4 followers
July 30, 2020
The premise of this book is no matter where people go they will bring new species with them, intentionally or unintentionally. The book is also concerned with the state of taxonomy. No one is entering the field, univerisites are dropping professorships. Without someone who knows what species belong in a place, who is to say what is is indigenous and what is introduced. I have come across the same concern in other books. Like most of this type of book is ends in outer space. We cannot go to Mars without bringing lifeforms with us. They will survive. Will the newly found alien species be only an earthy invader brought in by a prior expedition.
25 reviews1 follower
September 6, 2025
In theory, this book is about an important and riveting topic. My only complaint is that it was just too long. I felt like if it was more condensed, the message would be more impactful. I did like the writing style, a combination of journalism, science, and reflection of humans, all done in a way that wasn’t too stuffy or scientific. Even some moments that made me laugh. An interesting read for anyone curious about the subject matter.
Profile Image for Linz.
17 reviews1 follower
March 1, 2018
I read this years ago, and it made an impression on me. it really sheds light on how humans have displaced animals so much, with air, sea, and land travel. This book takes you to different parts of the world shedding light on various examples of invasive species and how it effects the world as we know it. It was surprisingly interesting, and I'm glad I read it.
Profile Image for Rebecca Watts.
112 reviews4 followers
November 1, 2020
Whether it's trying to track the elusive brown tree snake, that hitches rides in wheel wells of cargo planes, or learning about ballast water in ocean-going vessels, this was a fascinating read. However, I did find there were spots where the scientific names bogged me down. I also really wished it would have had an index and references.
Profile Image for Sarah.
416 reviews
July 3, 2023
A little rambly and weak in the middle but the density of bizarre facts and fascinating character studies, all well told, kept me going. Same with the prose -- there's no mistaking the voice of someone seasoned in long-form explorations and it's so good. I will never look at barnacles, the island of Guam, or invasive species the same way again.
Profile Image for Ellen.
585 reviews13 followers
April 1, 2022
This was another one of those books that prompted me to text random science facts to people. (would have made for good cocktail conversation if we were still doing that.) I would have liked a chapter on plants but I guess animals are cool too.
130 reviews
June 16, 2020
Some interesting stuff, but a lot of work and a lot of boring expedition.
Profile Image for Emily Onufer.
122 reviews2 followers
February 7, 2021
"Silence has a way of doing that, of blanketing not only sound but the very memory of it, until the quiet - static and empty - comes to seem like the natural order of things." 74
54 reviews
August 27, 2023
4.5 stars. Very interesting read that made me nostalgic for my grad school days
137 reviews
January 13, 2025
Very well-researched and well-written. Usually these kinds of books hide from the nitty-gritty science; this one leans into it.
Profile Image for Cienna.
587 reviews8 followers
December 30, 2020
This book was well written and well researched. It was very dry however and could probably have taken 25% of it out for excessive narrative. Would not recommend for the casual reader.
Profile Image for Sara Van Dyck.
Author 6 books12 followers
August 31, 2012
Last year, after nutria – invaders from South America - chomped up the lettuces in my Oregon garden, I got an uncomfortable introduction to one of the questions that Burdick addresses. What happens when species are introduced into a new environment? And is there anything we can call truly “natural” any more?

Burdick show us animals that are introduced, unwanted and to our eyes unlovely: the brown tree snake and the drosophila flies of Hawaii, zebra mussels in the Great Lakes, and the millions of copepods swimming in marine ballast tanks. Since I’m not a biologist, at times I found myself struggling to follow the details of these creatures’ life cycles or strategies for survival. But the travels of a tiny microorganism suddenly become significant when we understand that this may be one source of cholera transmission.

The author meets the challenge of keeping this a story, not a textbook, as he joins the invasion biologists as they creep through forests, sift through seaweed, or slog through mud flats, searching for alien species. He manages to invest these rather obscure activities with excitement and humor – a young barnacle is a ”shrimp doing a headstand . “

One weakness is that the book does not have an index, unfortunate in such a detailed account . Overall it gave me lot to think about, especially the relationship between “nature and “humans;” we’ve deleted the dividing line. The researchers he interviews acknowledge that there’s no way we can stop the invasions, nor can we even fully grasp their impact. This to me is a cautionary, even frightening, book, reminding us of how little we are able to control the forces of nature and how unpredictable the interactions of organisms can be. Fascinating, colorfully written, and well worth reading for anyone trying to understand changes in our natural world and how they will affect us.
Profile Image for Nola.
253 reviews1 follower
July 30, 2014
This book definitely does not try to be a comprehensive treatment of invasive species. I’m not quite sure why the author selected the areas on which he focused. However, it does delve into some particularly key questions. How is an intact ecosystem defined? Are intact ecosystems better or more robust than ones that have been invaded? What are the quantifiable effects of invaders? Is there a difference between anthropomorphic invasions and other, sometimes much earlier, invasions? Are the species we consider native truly native, or were they introduced before documentation was done? What are the measurable effects of invasive species? The questions sound boring, but the book is not. It sparkles with the energy of people doing fascinating work exploring these questions.
Alan Burdick is apparently not a scientist himself, but he does a wonderful job of expressing the details of work done in the areas he covers. The reader gets the sense of being there, seeing what the author sees and being able to mull over the best solutions to invasive species. The author doesn’t stick to the subject terribly well. He gets off on tangents. One particularly egregious example is an aside on names at the end of chapter 22 which could have been skipped, but his writing is so good that it is still enjoyable just to go along.
Profile Image for Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance.
6,453 reviews336 followers
February 28, 2023
One of the oddest things I learned about when I became a Texas Master Naturalist is the idea of an invasive species.

Naturalists, I learned, want to get rid of invasive species. Naturalists loathe invasive species. Naturalists despise invasive species.

This is a very odd concept to me.

This book explains why naturalists loathe, despise, and want to get rid of invasive species. The author first looks carefully at the brown tree snake, a species of snake that has almost completely wiped out the native bird population of Guam, and it now appears to be making inroads on other islands, including Hawaii. This is startling and frightening. Now I see.

Alan Burdick goes on to explore other places that other invasive species are causing havoc, including the oceans of the world, where the ability to eliminate invasive species almost seems impossible.

Burdick talks about the idea of what makes a species an invasive species, and shares suggestions from other scientists that there is, perhaps, no true native species of a habitat.

This is a very readable account of invasive species, a great introduction for the amateur, but thought-provoking enough for the specialist.
Profile Image for South Orange Library.
83 reviews14 followers
May 28, 2014
If you have ever thought about the emerald ash borer, zebra mussels, purple loosestrife, or other invasive species this will give you a new world of context. Explore how research is done, question what is pristine, or native, or natural, ponder what actually constitutes an ecosystem and the effects of marine life traveling with shipping. Best of all are the things to think about. “In a homogenized world, where does one seek out novelty, surprise, wonder?” Are ecological communities ephemeral or stable? Does the answer depend on how time is perceived? How can cultural and economic, humanistic and environmental concerns be balanced? --Melissa
4 reviews2 followers
May 31, 2008
Burdick is an editor for Discovery Magazine, and I can honestly say I'd never heard of him until I found this book in a store in Denver. So far, it's essentially a history of ecological invasion using the modern-day Hawaiian Islands as the basis for the books framework. If you're into invasive ecology, it's a pretty good read. If you're into Hawaiian or tropical ecology, or how humans have impacted tropical or island ecology, specifically in the Pacific Islands, I'd guess this is a must read. Or, if you're just a huge fan of the brown tree snake, you gotta read this book.
Profile Image for Rhi.
407 reviews1 follower
January 12, 2009
I found this fascinating, learning not only about the various invasive species of today and yesterday, but also about the study of these invasions. There is a particularly interesting account of researches in Gaum trying to determine how agile brown tree snakes are. The last chapter was quite thought provoking - asking about the future impact of Earth on the rest of the universe.
Profile Image for Kirsten.
311 reviews8 followers
August 2, 2011
A fascinating book that gives an overview of invasive species. It uses a few in-depth case studies to explore the concepts and impacts of a growing problem. Well-told, with very interesting science! The only thing I would really improve would be to make it all a bit more cohesive - it seems like the case studies should be more clearly tied together, as they feel a bit hodgepodge.
387 reviews
January 15, 2016
Out of Eden is a deeply interesting read. Burdick presents a challenging issue with artful prose. I was surprised by the issue of Ecological Invasion. I thought it was a pretty cut and dry issue: Invasion bad. Burdick pushes the issue farther in a way that is intimately aware of the biology but a metaphor for globalization in other arenas. Well worth the read and the adventures.
11 reviews
May 5, 2008
Good overview of the ecological effect of invasive species on an ecosystem; author is open to the view that it's not necessarily a bad thing; ecological stability is not an end, but rather the means to an end
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