The Urban Naturalist

How to Make the City Your Scientific Playground

Menno Schilthuizen, Jono Nussbaum

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Hardback

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English

MIT Press
01 April 2025

Urban communities; Sociology; Ecological science, the Biosphere

A manifesto-and a field guide-for a new dawn of natural history, practiced by community scientists in their own urban jungle.

A manifesto-and a field guide-for a new dawn of natural history, practiced by community scientists in their own urban jungle.

Imagine taking your smartphone-turned-microscope to an empty lot and discovering a rare mason bee that builds its nest in empty snail shells. Or a miniature spider that hunts ants and carries their corpses around. With a team of citizen scientists, that's exactly what Menno Schilthuizen did-one instance in the evolutionary biologist's campaign to take natural science to the urban landscape where most of us live today. In this delightful book, The Urban Naturalist, Schilthuizen invites us to join him, to embark on a new age of discovery, venturing out as intrepid explorers of our own urban habitat-and maybe in the process do the natural world some good.

Thanks to the open science revolution, real biological discoveries can now be made by anyone right where they live. Schilthuizen shows readers just how to go about making those discoveries, introducing them to the tools of the trade of the urban community scientist, from the tried and tested (the field notebook, the butterfly net, and the hand lens) to the newfangled (internet resources, low-tech gadgets, and off-the-shelf gizmos). But beyond technology, his book holds the promise of reviving the lost tradition of the citizen scientist-rekindling the spirit of the Victorian naturalist for the modern world.

At a time when the only nature most people get to see is urban, The Urban Naturalist demonstrates that understanding the novel ecosystems around us is our best hope for appreciating and protecting biodiversity.

By: Menno Schilthuizen, Jono Nussbaum
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 567g
ISBN: 9780262049092
ISBN 10: 0262049090
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 01 April 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface Part 1: Build Your Own Down House (We can all be Victorian naturalists now) Chapter 1. The age of the amateur Chapter 2. Rock vacations Chapter 3. Darwin @home Chapter 4. Soup kitchens for science Chapter 5. Virtual academia Chapter 6. On Chesil beachcombing Chapter 7. Dead bug becomes specimen Part 2: The City Is Your Galápagos (The urban as the naturalist’s goldmine) Chapter 8. Hidden riches Chapter 9. Nov. spec. Chapter 10. Urban islands Chapter 11. Involuntary slaughter Chapter 12. It’s a trap! Chapter 13. Animal architects of the Anthropocene Chapter 14. The accidental ecosystem Chapter 15. On the origin of urban species Chapter 16. We are a node Part 3: Knowledge Is Power (The urban conservationist) Chapter 17. Speak softly and carry a big stick insect Chapter 18. Tak kenal maka tak cinta Chapter 19. Let it grow Closer Acknowledgments Notes References Index

Menno Schilthuizen is a senior scientist at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden and Professor of Evolution and Biodiversity at Leiden University. He is the director of a nonprofit for community science, the Taxon Foundation, and with his wife, cave biologist Iva Njunjić, he runs Taxon Expeditions, a scientific travel agency focused on discovering new species of wildlife. Jono Nussbaum, born in London1967, studied art and design at Chelsea School of Art and Kingston University. He moved to central Italy in 2003. Inspired by a curiosity in nature and his rural surroundings, he now works as an artist, illustrator, and furniture designer.

Reviews for The Urban Naturalist: How to Make the City Your Scientific Playground

""A fascinating dive into community-science projects that will surely encourage and inspire interested readers."" —Booklist ""In The Urban Naturalist, the Dutch ecologist Menno Schilthuizen invites us to explore the small natural oases found in every city...Mr. Schilthuizen points out that being in nature, even in a city, contributes to mental and physical health. You don’t have to find a new species of ant, snail or spider to succeed as an urban naturalist, but with the author’s advice and encouragement, that might happen too."" —The Wall Street Journal