BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//sebbo.net//ical-generator//EN NAME:Cambridge Public Library X-WR-CALNAME:Cambridge Public Library BEGIN:VEVENT UID:fcf5824e-a8df-4360-a9cc-bb1b8a1cda58 SEQUENCE:0 DTSTAMP:20260826T055350Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260925T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260925T203000 SUMMARY:Author Evening with Dan Werb LOCATION:Old Post Office\nOld Post Office X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Old Post Office;X-APPLE-RA DIUS=10;X-TITLE=Old Post Office:geo:43.3583533,-80.3155265 GEO:43.3583533;-80.3155265 DESCRIPTION:Discover surprising stories of adaptation\, intelligence\, and coexistence from cities around the world..\nhttps://ideaexchange.libnet.i nfo/event/17162850 X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

Featured on the Globe and Mail's Best New Books of Summer 2026\, author and renowned Canadian epidemiologist\, Dan W erb\, explores the hidden lives of wild animals who've found ingenious way s to survive in urban communities in his book Our Wild Familiars.

In Our Wild Familiars\, Dan explores the intertwined relationship betwee n humans and the urban wildlife who live alongside us. The most obvious an d resonant example is raccoons in downtown Toronto but he also looks at ba ts\, coyotes\, and even marine life and tigers. This is definitely not a d ry\, scientific tome. Dan is a wonderful storyteller who takes us in-depth to urban locations around the world to illuminate how the behaviour of wi ld animals affects our daily living and ours\, theirs.

Some surpri sing examples include:

We know that racoons in Toronto have the ability to open garbage containers. But incredibly\, the knowledge of how to perform this feat spreads from one group of racoons to another so that when new bins are introduced\, soon racoons across the city can do it . Yet\, rural raccoons\, who never interact with humans\, do not seem to h ave the thinking skills to figure out how to open garbage bins.
In a small city of Saudi Arabia\, an on-going conflict between baboons\, f eral dogs\, and people\, spills over from a landfill site to the urban env ironment. But signs seem to indicate that the baboons are harnessing the b ehaviour of the dogs and perhaps\, in a sense\, even domesticating them.\n
While human waste is negatively impacting wildlife everywhere\, i n Seattle the underwater architecture of discarded man-made objects like o ld cars\, steel and concrete is providing a new and safe haven for the Gia nt Pacific Octopus to feed and breed. What seems like a destroyed environm ent is actually helping them thrive.

Stop by t he Woolf &\; Company table to purchase titles by the author and have them signed as a memento of this special ev ent.

Doors open at 6:00 pm.

Registration is required to co nfirm attendance. Please register for everyone attending. Limited entry wi thout registration may be available at the door\, but is not guaranteed.\n

Check out Dan Werb in our \;Connections 50+ Presen ts Cambridge Third Age Learning presentation earlier in the same day w here he discusses his book\, The Invisible Siege .

About the author

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Dan Werb\, PhD\, is an award-winning writer and epidemiologis t whose work has appeared in The Globe and Mail\, The New York Times\, Sal on\, Believer Magazine\, and many other outlets in Canada and the US. He i s an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California San Diego. His la test book is Our Wild Fam iliars: How Animals Are Adapting to Cities and Reshaping the Natural World . He is also the author of two previous books\, City of Omens and The Invisible Siege\, which won the Hi lary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. Dan Werb lives in Toronto .
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AccessibilityIf you require an access ibility accommodation for this program or event\, please tell us how w e can meet your needs as soon as possible so arrangements can be organized . If you require a sign language interpreter\, please let us know at least two-weeks (10 working weekdays) before the program date. \;
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COST: Free
\nhttps://ideaexchange.libnet.info/event/17162850 URL;VALUE=URI:https://ideaexchange.libnet.info/event/17162850 ATTACH:https://static.libnet.info/images/events/ideaexchange/Author-Evenin g-with-Dan-Werb.png END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR