Customer Reviews:
 Still, nobody knows what to do about the problem... May 4, 2005
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
The "problem" illustrated by this 278-page non-fiction book is the increasing contact between humans and mountain lions (cougar, puma, whatever...) in the Western United States.
Baron focuses on the encroachment of the big cats into urban Boulder, CO in the 1990s with a consequent tragic result for both cougars and people. The lion/human interactions escalate from the occasional urban sighting - at first denied by wildlife authorities - to cougars killing deer within city boundaries to killing pets to killing farm animals to stalking and threatening humans to, finally, an incident in which a lion kills a high school student athlete as he runs in broad daylight on a hillside above his school.
This tale, with lots of footnoted references, also tracks the efforts of a Boulder parks department employee who, from his experience with people being killed by wildlife in Yellowstone NP, recognizes the growing potential for a deadly cougar/human encounter. But he can't convince state game officials to take the problem seriously, partly because game department officials believe Boulder brought the problem on themselves by allowing deer, the cougar's favorite food, to proliferate far beyond normal population density by the city's anti-hunting bias. Apart from the dead high school student, there are cautionary tales about a college-age woman who is treed (yes!) by cougars while running in a suburban area and an adult male attacked and injured on a popular day hike.
But other than recoding and mapping the locations of cougar/human encounters - which Washington state just passed a law requiring - what can be done to avoid cougars becoming habituated to (i.e., not fearful of) people with the eventual conclusion on their part that humans are valid prey? Nobody knows.
Baron's book is well written, entertaining and educational. My only complaints are about the author's occasional rambles into non-relevant aspects of some of the characters' lives and the lack of photographs. There's one photo of a cougar track in the snow (good to memorize if you live in or visit cat country!) and one of a cougar shot by Boulder police. But in a book which goes into depth about several characters I'd like to see pictures of them as well as some of the locations where incidents occurred.
Recommended for anyone interested in North American wildlife or anyone living in "cougar country", which currently is most any place in the Western United States.
 A Big Reality Check for Those Who Mythologize Nature March 8, 2005
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
This book does a superb job of helping the reader see nature as it is, as opposed to how many of us would prefer to imagine it to be. Although the book suggests some solutions to the macro sources of conflict between people and mountain lions, it doesn't provide much practical advice for surviving an aggressive encounter. Such advice can be found in the book Mountain Lion Alert by Stephen Torres.
One disconcerting detail that Baron provides in the description of the victim's remains is the damage done to the victim's face. Those familiar with the descriptions of other lion attacks in the past 15 years will recognize a pattern that is worth bearing in mind for anyone wishing to survive an attack. With a 65 - 150 lb animal attached to your head or face, you had better hope you have a suitably long knife located where you're conditioned to quickly find it if you want to have a chance of breaking off the attack. A hiking staff, pistol, can of mace, rock, backpack or any other weapon you might consider carrying in lion country will do you very little good once physical contact has been made.
If Baron decides to write a follow up book, I'd love to hear about the specific steps wildlife managers and citizens can take to help prevent cougars from becoming habituated to people. Some wildlife officers have attempted to reinstill or reinforce the natural fear cougars have of people by shooting them with rubber bullets or bean bags when they wander into residential areas. Frequent non-lethal hunts in areas where problems have begun to occur might be one of the most acceptable ways to stem habituation without killing any of these magnificent animals.
A Good, But Troublesome Read January 27, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
THE BEAST IN THE GARDEN
BY
DAVID BARON
2004
This 277-page book is an important contribution to our understanding of the increasing interactions between large carnivores and humans. The author is a seasoned writer about science and environmental issues for National Public Radio and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This factual book chronicles the series of develops in both human and mountain lion behavior that eventually lead to an unthinkable fatal interaction. The subtitle: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature is more than that, it is a warning that we best not ignore.
The true story takes place in the Boulder/Idaho Springs areas northwest and west of Denver, Colorado in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The book is a grabber and will keep you turning pages until the end. What Mr. Baron has so artfully done is clearly explain the major biological, cultural and demographic factors that inevitably lead to humans becoming potential prey for an increasing cougar (mountain lion, puma) population. There is a cautionary note for all of us, even if we do not now live in an area inhabited by this largest purring cat in North America.
A major player in this story of habituated-to-humans cougars are deer... their traditional and major prey. Boulder County reduced the hunting harvest of deer and allowed citizens to feed deer around their dwellings. With cougar hunting greatly limited in the second half of the 1900's, these usually solitary hunters began to reclaim their native habitat which now contains a very large deer population. All animals have natural factors that limit their numbers and range, for Puma concolor, theirs, gray wolves, are gone. In short, the sequence goes like this: humans move into good quality lion habitat, deer increase in numbers and move into human neighborhoods, both wild species become more active during the day, dogs and cats are easy prey and humans are of no consequence to lions. Lions are excellent ambush hunters. The rest you can piece together.
So, as we celebrate the return of lions in many areas of their former habitat, we have an added responsibility to understand the consequences of our wildlife policies; and by the way... watch your behavior with deer, pets and any habituated large carnivore.
Wendel Johnson
Marinette, WI
When cougars move to a community January 18, 2005
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
When cougars move to a community
By Elizabeth Laden
Island Park News
"Whether guided by a divine hand or biological imperative, the mountain lions are sending a message; they are signaling a change of era, not just to those few who have had direct encounters with them but to America as a whole. The cats, emboldened and proliferating, are heralds of a new stage in the nation's evolution, a changed relationship between man and nature that will require an attendant adjustment in cultural attitudes." - David Baron
When Elk Creek Estates resident Ron Wilkes told me about shooting a mountain lion recently that was in the middle of attacking his family's pet, I immediately thought of a book I had read last year titled, The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature by David Baron (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 2004).
This 277-page non fiction winner of the 2003 Colorado Book Award is about the growing number of cougar attacks in Colorado. It reads like a suspense-building thriller, and when I reread it this week, I wondered if Island Park would be the setting of a similar page-turner some time soon. Since the January 7 attack at the Wilkes place, at least one other mountain lion had been sighted in our community.
For more than 20 years, the "beasts" - cougars - in Baron's "garden" - the animal-loving community of Boulder, Colorado, have killed and injured both humans and animals. Cougars started coming into populated areas in this scenic part of Colorado soon after residents posted their land against hunting and decided that the would tolerate the large population of deer that had moved into their parks and residential neighborhood.
Cougars love deer, and when they followed their prey into town, people decided that they would tolerate the cats even after they killed pets and threatened humans. In an historic Colorado Division of Wildlife meeting to discuss the growing number of cougar attacks, the majority of people voted against hunting down the cougars. Although the vote was controversial, the Division of Wildlife's reaction was even more so. The agency decided to bend to the people's will and to manage the cats as little as possible They would not hunt, trap, or relocate problem animals.
Boulder is like many other modern day communities, Baron asserts, whose residents believe that wild animals have rights. Baron believes that people have "evolved" into this view of animals so different that 50 years ago, when predators were viewed as enemies that must be killed for the protection of people and more economically attractive species. Baron contends that the Endangers Species Act of 1974 advances the thinking that people have an obligation to protect animals and keep them from becoming endangered and extinct. Decisions about how to manage animals that a half century ago would have been exterminated without fanfare are most likely to occur in communities at the edge of wild habitat, says Baron. Communities like Boulder, Colorado, and Island Park, Idaho.
Wildlife biologists Baron interviewed noted that when one cougar is killed, another will move into its territory. Cougars learn from one another. In Boulder, they have developed a taste for domestic cats and dogs and they stalk people in places at the edge of town, like hiking trails, which they have learned people visit often. Researchers were certain that the cats stalk the pets before hey kill them, even learning when the pets' owners leave home, return home, and turn outside lights on and off.
Did the mountain lion that killed the Wilkes' pet have cubs who are now stalking pets and other animals? Perhaps other pets have been attacked, but dragged away without the owner suspecting that a mountain lion was the cause.
Time will tell if this area's mountain lion population is increasing and if the cats are getting bold enough to encounter people and domestic animals.
Meanwhile, it may be a good idea to read Baron's book and think about how this community would react to a population of habituated mountain lions. Perhaps if a Boulder resident had shot the first cougar that invaded a neighborhood, Scott Lancaster would not have been killed when he was running in the hills outside Boulder in 1991. Someday we may all be grateful that Ron Wilkes grabbed his gun rather than try to make friends with the beast in his backyard.
The memory of finding Lancaster's body will live forever in searcher Steve Shelafo's mind. Baron writes:
"During his years in wilderness rescue, Steve had seen plenty of corpses - dismembered in plane crashes, bloated from drowning, crushed after falling from cliffs. This sight was more than gruesome; it was both haunting and indescribably weird. The body, clothed in athletic gear, wasn't sloppily mangled; it was carefully carved, hollowed out like a pumpkin. Someone had cut a circle from the front of the sweatshirt and the turquoise T-shirt beneath, sliced through the skin and bones, exposed the chest cavity, and plucked out the organs. After conducting this ghoulish backwoods surgery the killer had removed the victim's face and then sprinkled moss and twigs on the lower torso as if to signify something profound, as if performing a macabre ritual."
David Baron has worked as a science reporter and a science correspondent/editor for National Public Radio, and currently serves as global development editor for the BBC program, The World.
For more information about The Beast in the Garden and photos of subject matter addressed in the book, go to www.beastinthegarden.com
parable for modern times, but have we learned anything? December 27, 2004
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I just finished The Beast In the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature by David Baron. This non-fiction book is a quick read and outlines the comeback of the mountain lion, or cougar, along the Front Range, during the late 1980s to early 1990s. The cougar had been nearly wiped out by government bounties in the early part of the twentieth century, but the explosion of deer along the Front Range, along with revocation of that bounty, led to a comeback. In parts of the Denver metro area, mountain lions came to co-exist with human beings. This was especially true in Boulder, where the nature loving Boulderites assured a plentiful meat supply when they wouldn't cull deer herds. The mountain lions grow familiar with human habits, learn that humans don't mean danger, and end up mauling a high school student.
I really enjoyed the way the events were outlined, and Baron does a good job of making sure the science and character development are well balanced. He follows a few of the key players for the entire time, while bringing in other interesting characters, like the cougar hunter, as they appear. The science seems reasonable to me, though I haven't taken a biology class since high school: large animals don't have a natural aversion to humanity. Rather, this is a learned trait passed from generation to generation. Remove the killing that caused the aversion, and the animals will become more and more comfortable around humanity, to the point of considering humans a food source.
In the larger sense, though, this book is about managing wilderness, and realizing that as soon as you put a house up in a forest, you've changed the stakes. Humans love being around nature, but bleat for help as soon as nature threatens. In some ways, we want a Disneyland version of the forest--all of the beauty with none of the danger. You see this all the time with folks who build around national forest; as soon as fires season comes, they need to be protected. This is a thorny problem, and answers aren't simple. The Beast In the Garden really is a parable, and I'm not sure we've learned the lessons.
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