The Age of Deer
Ratings1
Average rating4.5
15
Ratings1
Average rating4.5
A masterful hybrid of nature writing and cultural studies that investigates our connection with deer—from mythology to biology, from forests to cities, from coexistence to control and extermination—and invites readers to contemplate the paradoxes of how humans interact with and shape the natural world Deer have been an important part of the world that humans occupy for millennia. They’re one of the only large animals that can thrive in our presence. In the 21st century, our relationship is full of contradictions: We hunt and protect them, we cull them from suburbs while making them an icon of wilderness, we see them both as victims and as pests. But there is no doubt that we have a connection to deer: in mythology and story, in ecosystems biological and digital, in cities and in forests. Delving into the historical roots of these tangled attitudes and how they play out in the present, Erika Howsare observes scientists capture and collar fawns, hunters show off their trophies, a museum interpreter teaching American history while tanning a deer hide, an animal-control officer collecting the carcasses of deer killed by sharpshooters, and a woman bottle-raising orphaned fawns in her backyard. As she reports these stories, Howsare’s eye is always on the bigger picture: Why do we look at deer in the ways we do, and what do these animals reveal about human involvement in the natural world? For readers of H is for Hawk and Fox & I, The Age of Deer offers a unique and intimate perspective on a very human relationship.
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Took me completely by surprise: informative, entertaining, thoughtful, and compassionate. I’d say there’s good material here for nearly everyone who lives in the lower 48, although it seems particularly apt for those of us in deer-overrun areas.
Howsare looks at human-deer overlap from every angle I could imagine and more: biological, ecological, historical, cultural, economical, social. She considers broad ecosystem scales and micro ones and does so with curiosity and respect. She (correctly) dismisses the myth of “natural balance”; refrains from judging anyone (this reader can judge for himself: people who chase deer with ATVs and dogs to harass them into dropping antlers, for purposes of collecting their shed, are vile putrid monsters); and, over and over, presents complex issues with nuance and sensitivity.
There’s a lot to know. Much of it is uncomfortable even to people who’ve never seen a deer, because the built landscape that humans rely on causes harm, to deer and other species and even to ourselves, and Howsare does not sugar coat. She offers no recipes for absolution or improvement, she just wants us to be mindfully aware. It’s up to each of us to do better, however we can.
PS do not feed the deer.