Book Review: Animal Architects by Wanda Shipman

By Cara Davenport, Education Manager

I often find hidden gems on the bookshelves at the Visitor Center- over the years the space has accumulated a diverse and eclectic collection of books, from field guides and IDs, to construction manuals, to local historical nonfiction, to educational resources and curriculum. Recently, I was perusing the shelf closest to my desk and discovered a book called “Animal Architects”, published in 1994 with a charmingly illustrated glossy cover depicting nests, webs, beaver dams, and underground tunnels and burrows. The subtitle stated “How Animals Weave, Tunnel, and Build Their Remarkable Homes.” Immediately interested, I pulled it off the shelf and flipped through to the first chapter, entitled “Blueprints for Survival,” and was hooked by the way the author (who is from nearby Pawlet, Vermont!) explored the building materials and designs of animals’ homes.The description on the back of the book summarizes it well: “Animal Architects explores the many ways mammals, birds, insects, and fish use their instincts and creativity to take what the environment provides them and shape it into a home.”

Accompanied by pen and ink drawings, the book highlights an assortment of insect, mammal, and bird shelters and constructions, with appreciative examples that paint the animals as engineers, skilled at their methods of designing, constructing and maintaining homes for themselves and their young. One chapter that particularly caught my attention was “The Orb Weaver’s Silken Sculpture”, as this is a spider that I’ve been seeing all over the place in the fields at Merck Forest this year. Complete with diagrams of the process that the spider goes through to carefully craft her web, the chapter explained the different parts of the Orb Weaver’s web, and I came away with a new appreciation for how systematic and purposeful each element of the web is.

This summer during summer camp sessions, one of my favorite things was to watch campers creating structures with natural found materialswhether it was forts, fairy houses, nature mandalas, daisy chains, or acorn cap towers. Seeing the creativity and imagination behind which materials they decided to use, watching them puzzle through how to fit something into place or problem-solve to keep a structure standing, and getting to admire the beautiful, crafty, imaginative results- it’s a really wonderful way to spend time in the woods, with anyone of any age.

We have a Fairy House Workshop coming up in October, and I’m looking forward to another chance to spend time in the woods with creative people, seeing the forest as a place filled with possibilities and creative opportunities for building some tiny temporary structures. For us, it’s more play than survival, but as we build we’ll be in good company- animals and creatures will be constructing and maintaining their homes too, below, beside, and above us!

Check with our Visitor Center and/or your local bookstore for availability of these books.