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    Gods, Wasps and Stranglers: The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees
    Gods, Wasps and Stranglers: The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees
    Gods, Wasps and Stranglers: The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees
    Audiobook4 hours

    Gods, Wasps and Stranglers: The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees

    Written by Mike Shanahan

    Narrated by James Cameron Stewart

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Over millions of years, fig trees have shaped our world, influenced our evolution, nourished our bodies and fed our imaginations. And as author and ecologist Mike Shanahan proclaims, “The best could be yet to come.”



    Gods, Wasps and Stranglers weaves together the mythology, history and ecology of one of the world’s most fascinating—and diverse—groups of plants, from their starring role in every major religion to their potential to restore rainforests, halt the loss of rare and endangered species and even limit climate change.



    In this lively and joyous book, Shanahan recounts the epic journeys of tiny fig wasps, whose eighty-million-year-old relationship with fig trees has helped them sustain more species of birds and mammals than any other trees; the curious habits of fig-dependent rhinoceros hornbills; figs’ connection to Krishna and Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad; and even their importance to Kenya’s struggle for independence.



    Ultimately, Gods, Wasps and Stranglers is a story about humanity’s relationship with nature, one that is as relevant to our future as it is to our past. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChelsea Green Publishing
    Release dateNov 14, 2017
    ISBN9781603587716
    Author

    Mike Shanahan

    Mike Shanahan is a freelance writer with a doctorate in rainforest ecology. He has lived in a national park in Borneo, bred endangered penguins, investigated illegal bear farms, produced award-winning journalism and spent several weeks of his life at the annual United Nations climate change negotiations. He is interested in what people think about nature and our place in it. His writing includes work published by The Economist, Nature, The Ecologist and Ensia, and chapters of Dry: Life without Water (Harvard University Press); Climate Change and the Media (Peter Lang Publishing) and Culture and Climate Change: Narratives (Shed). He is the illustrator of Extraordinary Animals (Greenwood Publishing Group) and maintains a blog called Under the Banyan.

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    Reviews for Gods, Wasps and Stranglers

    4.5/5

    13 ratings1 review

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    • 5/5
      I decided to listen to this audio book because I so enjoy the documentary "The Queen of Trees". I am not particularly interested in fig trees but this was an interesting, engaging book.