Sweet in Tooth and Claw: Stories of Generosity and Cooperation in the Natural World

Summary

Sweet in Tooth and Claw extends the concept of cooperation in nature to the life-affirming connections among microbes, plants, fungi, insects, birds, and animals—including humans—in ecosystems around the globe.

For centuries, people have debated whether nature is mostly competitive—“red in tooth and claw,” as the poet Tennyson wailed and Darwin insisted—or innately cooperative, as many ancient and indigenous peoples believed.

In the last 100 or so years, a growing gang of scientists have studied the mutually beneficial interactions that are believed to benefit every species on earth. This book is full of stories of generosity—not competition—in nature. It is a testament to the importance of a healthy biodiversity and dispels the widely accepted premise of survival of the fittest.

Ohlson tells stories of trees and mushrooms, beavers and bees. There are chapters on a wide variety of ecosystems and portraits of the people who learn from them: forests as in the work of Suzanne Simard; scientists who study the interaction of bees and flowers in the Rocky Mountains, inspired by the work of Russian scholars in the nineteenth century; the discovery of bacteria and protozoa in the mid-1600s by Dutch scientist Antoni von Leeuwenhoek; a stream biologist restoring wetlands from deserts in Northeastern Nevada; and more.

Ohlson also covers older cultures that recognized the necessary balance between nature’s and human’s needs and to which we must turn at this time of climate crisis. It is a rich and fascinating book full of amazing stories, sure to change your perspective on the natural world.

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