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© 2004 David Baron
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One of several interesting points in David Baron's 'Beast' book is that you can now be eaten in your own back yard. Large blocks of wild habitat are not needed to sustain our primary symbol of wildness. Increasingly, mountain lions are descending from their mountains and into the suburban communities spreading out from cities and towns in Southern California and the front range of the Rockies.
Natural Areas Journal [T]he reader cant help but to be struck by Baron's poetic nature he captures a scene eloquently, making the reader feel it, visualize it.... The book is best described as uncomfortably thought-provoking and would be an ideal selection for any book club interested in heated debate.
Pueblo Chieftain This engaging, important book deserves a wide audience.... Baron has written 'a modern parable of man and nature,' a most timely book from which experts and laypersons alike can learn.
Human Dimensions of Wildlife Baron closes this challenging work of nonfiction with this moral lesson: 'We are changing animal behavior in unexpected and troubling ways.... Reducing conflicts between people and wild animals will require controls on human actions where we build our homes, how we landscape our yards, the ways we dispose of trash and manage house pets.'
Virginia Quarterly Review This amazing book explains how wild pumas near Boulder, Colorado came to view humans as prey. The intriguing story, however, is only the frame that David Baron uses to painstakingly piece together a gigantic puzzle.... Baron never exaggerates the risks associated with pumas. Very few people will ever be attacked by pumas. Yet if we do not do more to educate people about the potential dangers of close contact with any wild animal, more pumas and people will be killed needlessly.
Animal People Baron weaves a fascinating account of people, geography, and mountain lions. His research is meticulous, and he has a good eye.... The Beast in the Garden ought to be required reading.
Colorado Central Magazine I would suggest that anybody who spends any time outdoors should definitely read this book. If you live in the foothills, you should read this book. If you send your kids off to summer camp, you should read this book. If you simply walk the suburban creek-side trails, read this book.
Clever Magazine Written in vivid, sometimes chilling detail, the book is mesmerizing, haunting and thought-provoking, with helpful suggestions on how to live in the mountains and forests with lions and other wild animals.
The Mountain-Ear (Nederland, Colorado) Baron documents how in the last two decades here, despite the best environmental intentions, mountain lion behavior has morphed from shy to sometimes murderous, and how human response beginning with a lethal level of denial on the part of the people at the Colorado Division of Wildlife has yet to adapt.
Redstone Review
(Lyons, Colorado) This book has much to offer for those of us interested in coexisting with wildlife. I encourage you to read it.
Wild Guardian The Beast in the Garden... is part adventure and part morality tale. [It] explores the individual and collective consequences of not paying attention, of misreading, of not respecting the natural forces that make, then remake, our physical world and the creatures that share it.
Illinois Issues More than the story of a death or a human-wildlife interaction, Baron's Beast in the Garden is a gripping account of what it means to live on the modern frontier. Not surprisingly for a tale of predator attacks on humans, many of the descriptions in the book are not for the faint of heart.
Montana: The Magazine of Western History A timely and fascinating book, just out in paperback, which is entirely nonfiction but which reads like a Michael Crichton novel. It has been extensively and meticulously researched.... I highly recommend it.
The Forum (Fargo, ND) In The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature, David Baron argues that as we continue to absorb natural habitat and transform it into suburbs, we would be wise to give our relationship with the animal kingdom a bit more thought.
Science & Spirit The Beast in the Garden is a superbly crafted work of narrative nonfiction, a style that became popular with the general public only in the past decade through the art of Jon Krakauer.... Baron similarly stitches together a powerful tale by using hundreds of sources from newspapers and eyewitness accounts to obscure scientific studies creating a masterpiece of a book.
Jackson Hole News & Guide David Baron's The Beast in the Garden is a clear must-read for anyone who wants to reasonably consider his or her place in a hastily shifting natural world.
Forum For Animal Rights
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