The Mammals of Washtenaw County, Michigan Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, No. 123

The listener is taken on a vivid tour of Washtenaw County’s three distinct glacial landscapes—rugged moraines dotted with knolls and swampy basins, rolling clay‑morainic hills crowned by oak‑hickory forests, and low‑lying former lake plains spattered with marshes and tamarack bogs. Each region’s plant communities are painted in careful detail, from towering sugar maples and dense hickory stands to the open “oak openings” that early settlers called plains, setting the stage for a rich tapestry of wildlife.

Against this backdrop the book surveys the mammals that once thrived across the county, from the common white‑tailed deer to the elusive wolves and bears that roamed the early nineteenth‑century wilderness. It blends natural history with a glimpse of pioneer life, noting how French traders, Native pathways, and the first permanent settlements began to reshape the habitats. Listeners will gain a clear sense of how the land’s varied terrain supported a diverse animal community before human impact altered the scene.