Eat, Poop, Die

September 1, 2023
A colorful picture of how wild animals can heal a damaged environment. A book dealing with feces and carcasses may not sound like an appetizing read, but conservation biologist and marine ecologist Roman, author of Whale and Listed: Dispatches From America's Endangered Species Act, delivers a thought-provoking, accessible text. His focus is on the interaction between wild animals and the environment, and he begins in Surtsey, a volcanic island that rose out of the ocean near Iceland in 1963. For years, it was a barren outcrop, but gradually seabirds began to nest there. Their excrement provided nitrates and phosphates for seeds to take root, and eventually the island became a lively place. This highlights the role that animals play in biological loops, and Roman continues his theme by tracing how whales spread valuable nutrients throughout the ocean. No armchair theorist, the author chronicles his treks through bear country in the Pacific Northwest to assess the environmental impact of salmon spawning. He sees great value in projects such as the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park and bison to the Great Plains. Ecosystems are basically puzzles, and each piece fits into many others. Even hippos play an important role as prolific contributors of fecal matter. At the tiny end of the size scale, insects like midges provide nutrition to plants through their decaying corpses. Roman makes a range of useful proposals, such as an expansion of rewilding programs and nature reserves. He points out that building up wild environments would help to fight climate change. While his commitment to the environment is clear, he avoids the hectoring tone of some ecologists, and the result is a book that entertains and encourages readers to see the world from a different perspective. With expert knowledge and wry humor, Roman returns animals to their rightful place at the center of the environment.

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September 11, 2023
In this enjoyable study, biologist Roman (Listed) explores the vital roles animals play in ecosystems across the globe. In the forests of northwestern North America, Roman explains, trees next to salmon-filled streams grow faster than their counterparts because salmon carry nutrients from the ocean as they swim inland, where bears consume them and deposit those nutrients in the soil through their urine, fostering the growth of plants that, by providing shade, keep the stream cool and conducive to salmon reproduction. Roman also describes how whales redistribute nutrients in the ocean by feasting in deep waters and expelling the remains near the surface, and how parrotfish “build” beaches by chewing up coral and limestone and excreting it as sand. Surveying the positive and negative ways humans influence their environment, Roman notes that conservationist efforts to reintroduce sea otters to Southeast Alaska revived the region’s kelp forests because the otters ate the urchins that had overrun the kelp. Animal farming, on the other hand, has been disastrous, with liquid manure from factory farms polluting groundwater and contributing to acid rain. The prose is pleasantly lighthearted (“Does a bear crap in the woods? Sometimes”) and the big-picture perspective illuminates the intricate ways organisms interact to shape their environments. This playful pop science outing satisfies. Photos.

October 1, 2023
Who would have guessed just how valuable (and oddly attention-grabbing) animal waste products are for the world? The natural bodily functions of defecation and urination--along with the decomposition of a creature after its death--return valuable nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron, back to ecosystems. Biologist Roman employs lots of synonyms for feces in his curious account of how nature moves and recycles waste. Excrement is central as he describes how the barren landscape of a new island off the coast of Iceland becomes colonized with life, the revival of populations of bison and wolves in Yellowstone, parrotfish and sandy beach-building, sea otters and rewilding, a deluge of cicadas and a multitude of midges, spawning salmon and the Pacific Northwest ecosystem. Bird droppings, the fecal plumes of whales, animal carcasses, manure, lava bombs, carrion flies, frass (insect poop), and bone-eating worms fertilize the discussion. Peculiar trivia (the size of an elephant's bowel movement is approximately five gallons) about the importance of excrement makes for perfect bathroom reading.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 13, 2023

Animals, from whales to bison to cicadas, are ecosystem engineers. This is the startling idea that conservation biologist/marine ecologist Roman (Univ. of Vermont; Listed: Dispatches from America's Endangered Species Act) explores as he visits Iceland, Hawai'i, and beyond. The book explains that as animals move across the planet, feeding, pooping, and dying along the way, they beneficially alter carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen cycles. The problem, which readers of environmental literature will be sadly familiar with, involves human activity that has left animals' vital nutrient transport system only a 10th of what it was. Roman's solutions include protection of threatened species and rewilding. It is a profoundly serious subject, yet the book has many droll moments. The author's witty approach is nicely matched to the book's weird science, such as mentioning researchers who study the fluid mechanics of defecation or their own fine appreciation of whale fecal plumes. Roman writes with flair, perhaps most noticeably in the brilliant chapter "Cloudy with a Chance of Midges," wherein he employs a full page of exclamation marks to suggest the insects' collective behavior. VERDICT This book finds beauty in messy ecological processes.--Robert Eagan

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