"Deer in Manhattan, coyotes in the Bronx, wild turkeys flying down Broadway: among the traffic and tall buildings of America's most urban terrain, another city - suppressed and segregated during daylight, exceedingly lively from twilight to dawn - has begun to stake a new claim. Wild Nights is a startling tour of this other New York, revealing how stubbornly nature reasserts itself, adapting its survival strategies to even the most violently resculpted terrain.".

"In this first predominantly urban period in human history, confrontation and competition with the natural world are becoming everyday occurrences. Some encounters charm us; some we dread; some we badly misunderstand. Anne Matthews explores them, examining the implications of this unexpected and powerful resurgence of nature for the fate of a world of megacities and suburban hypersprawl.

Animated by her keen wit and eye, and anatomized by the often warring theories of scientists, historians, and environmentalists. New York emerges as a case study in civilization on the brink of environmental overreach."--BOOK JACKET.