The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service invites everyone to join the USFWS Library for its Summer Wild Read. The current book is “An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us” by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong. One copy of the book is available at the Portola branch of the Plumas County Library, and the book is also available as an audiobook and e-book through Libby, an app open to all Plumas County Library cardholders. Patrons may experience various wait times when placing a hold through Libby.
One new vocabulary word Summer Wild Read participants have learned is umwelt, a German word for environment that denotes an organism’s unique sensory world. Organizers say readers are stepping outside their own umwelten, their biases and human perceptions, to embrace those of other creatures. This book is about animals as animals and it’s written to better understand their lives. Yong celebrates the diversity of life in the animal kingdom. Organizers encourage everyone to pick up this book for summer reading.
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is capable of only perceiving a tiny sliver of the immense world. Every animal is uniquely made, each with its own sensory world. Animals have adapted over time and their senses are shaped according to their needs.
Organizers invite all participants to dive into the text with the following questions for their upcoming book discussion Thursday, Aug. 15, starting at noon. The discussion is held online via Zoom and all are welcome. “We can’t wait to hear your thoughts from the reading,” say organizers. Participants must register in advance.
Discussion questions
- Did “An Immense World” make you examine your own sensory experiences? If you could rely only on one sense, which would it be: sight, sound, smell, taste or touch? Why?
- As Ed Yong takes us through the senses, including those we know well and less familiar senses, we’re informed of swaths of interesting research to help us see past the perceptual worlds our brain automatically creates. Is there a species whose sensory abilities you’d like for yourself?
- What was it like for you to envision sensory experiences outside of your perception? How can humans address our perception bias?
- What are the impacts of the ignorance of other animal’s umwelten?
- Yong writes about sensory pollution as a facet of the Anthropocene. How can we be more aware of how human activity effects animal senses, and what can we do to prevent sensory pollution?
Presented by the USFWS Library, America’s Wild Read is a virtual book club in which organizers aim to inspire readers to engage with conservation literature and nature writing. The program features various conservation books every quarter in contemporary, traditional, new and classic categories.
Information provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with additional reporting by Ingrid Burke
