A take on evolutionary biology that sees cities and human-created environments as a positive force on ecology, without in any way diminishing the effects of human-caused demage.

It’s an interesting perspective. Ecologists and the popular press often only see the damage, not the opportunity, of human construction, and regard species being forced from their “natural” habitats as always bad. Schilthuizen argues quite persuasively that habitat destruction has been mitigated by habitat construction, by creating urban landscapes in which (often other) species can thrive possibly more than they did before. This is especially true when we also consider “invasive” species transported from elsewhere, which find niches in their destination cities (often around their ports of entry). In some cases we find species that no longer have or inhabit a “natural” habitat at all.

And habitat destruction often isn’t as complete as it seems. Schilthuizen example is the mice of New York’s smaller parks, which form islands of isolation that in turn cause identifiable genetic differences between the inhabitants of the different tiny patches of land. Singapore similarly has tiny trats of native forest surrounded by city and cut-off from each other. He uses this carefully to argue that evolution requires neither great distinctions in environment nor wide reaches of time in which to operate in.

This is a careful book that doesn’t shy away from the difficult questions that evolution inevitably raises. Plenty of the cases discussed involve a complex mix of genetic evolution, epigenetic adaptation, individual learning, and group-based “culture” to change the animals’ relationships with their environments. It’s good to take on this complexity head-on, and that makes this stand out as a great introduction and illustration of the wider powers of natural selection.

4/5. Finished Wednesday 27 August, 2025.

(Originally published on Goodreads.)