Wild Life documents a nuanced understanding of the wild versus captive
divide in species conservation. It also documents the emerging
understanding that all forms of wild nature--both in situ (on-site)
and ex situ (in captivity)--may need to be managed in perpetuity.
Providing a unique window into the high-stakes world of nature
conservation, Irus Braverman describes the heroic efforts by
conservationists to save wild life. Yet in the shadows of such
dedication and persistence in saving the life of species, Wild Life
also finds sacrifice and death. Such life and death stories outline the
modern struggle to define what conservation should look like at a time
when the long-established definitions of nature have collapsed. Wild
Life begins with the plight of a tiny endangered snail, and ends with
the rehabilitation of an entire island. Interwoven between its pages are
stories about golden lion tamarins in Brazil, black-footed ferrets in
the American Plains, Sumatran rhinos in Indonesia, Tasmanian devils in
Australia, and many more creatures both human and nonhuman. Braverman
draws on interviews with more than one hundred and twenty conservation
biologists, zoologists, zoo professionals, government officials, and
wildlife managers to explore the various perspectives on in situ and
ex situ conservation and the blurring of the lines between them.
