WILDLIFE CROSSINGS

Provides views of bypasses around the world that allow wildlife to cross dangerous highways and other human-made obstacles.

“Fishing gear is cutting across oceans, and fences run to the horizon to separate land,” Barr writes. Citing seven examples (plus seven more profiled in shorter entries at the end), she points to ways we are learning to live with animals that must migrate or travel to survive. She explores uncultivated corridors through farmlands for elephants in India, a fish ladder that boosts Atlantic salmon over a dam on the Moselle River in Germany, “hedgehog highways” in the U.K., and protected wetland stopovers on the Yellow Sea mudflats in Asia for the rare spoon-billed sandpiper (“spoonie”) and other migratory birds. In the United States, the soon-to-open Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in California gets a nod, and the author notes that 42 other states have similar access ways. In broad overviews and closer looks at specific areas, Engel depicts these protective efforts in painted landscapes teeming with wildlife. Her artwork will reward careful readers; children are asked to spot various animals within the scenes. Human figures are generally tiny but when large enough to make out are racially diverse.

Illuminating case studies in coexistence with wild nature.