Did you know that palm cockatoos beat hollow trees with drums as they build their nests, a type of drumming that can be heard up to 100 meters away? Or that a species of nettle found in limestone caves in China can survive with less than one percent of full daylight? Or that a type of moss grows in the Himalayas because of a type of fungi that grows on it?

These fascinating facts, and many more, about the world’s approximately 500 animals and plants can be found in Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: A Discovery Guide to the Living Wonders of the World.

Wild life is the third book based on Atlas Obscura, the website dedicated to increasing information about the hidden wonders of the world (the first book cataloged places, and the second book, food and culture).

The book is beautifully designed, with color photographs, illustrations and infographics accompanying the full-page articles on each species, as well as interviews with naturalists, scientists and conservationists.

The book is not merely a catalog of mammals, marine species, birds and insects. The book also highlights ecosystems, places, certain properties or behaviors that are scientifically significant, informative or simply delightful. An article about the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone describes how hundreds of species have been observed in the exclusion zone, and how scientists are studying how these species adapt to radioactive exposure – and enjoy the lack of human presence. Another article, titled ‘Useful Poop’, explains how various creatures – elephants, hippos, butterflies and storks – use poop, from everything to mark their territory to mating rituals.

Wild life is written and co-edited by Joshua Foer, co-founder of Atlas Obscura, and freelance journalist and former Atlas Obscura staff writer Cara Giaimo. Giaimo wrote half of the book’s 500 entries; the other half she commissioned and then edited from freelance writers.

Giaimo is proud that entries have been submitted from all seven continents and that “many writers have written about species that they have personal experiences with or that are close to their hearts or lives.”

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During the Portland Book Festival, Giaimo will appear at the Winningstad Theater at 10 a.m. on a panel with artist and educator Julie Beeler, essayist Elena Passarello, and a Eurasian Eagle Owl and its handler, from the Cascades Raptor Center. “It’s a multi-species panel,” she said, laughing. We spoke with Giaimo ahead of the November 2 festival. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

This is the third book of Atlas Obscura. Why did you want to do animals and species for this?

Giaimo: From my perspective, it is an inherently wonderful subject. We exist on this earth surrounded by all these beings who have so much in common with us, but are also so different. Thinking about their lives and understanding how they experience the world is something that brings me a lot of wonder every day and really opens up my curiosity. I think the hope is that it can do that for others too.

The book contains 500 plants, animals and more. There are many more types than that that in the world of course. How did you decide to curate and decide which one would do that appear in this book?

It’s such a good question. We could write this book hundreds of times and there would still be great things to talk about. I have a lot of very large spreadsheets that were the end result of how to choose what to include. I tried to do a few different things. First, I wanted different kinds of diversity. The book is organized by biome. It goes from forests through grasslands, through mountains, deserts, cities, oceans and islands. I wanted to make sure all these people were well represented.

I wanted geographical diversity, to have different species found all over the world. And I wanted different types of varieties. There are plants and animals, and within them different kinds of animals, different kinds of plants. And then of course fungi and microbes, all the other creatures that we might think less about.

Then several reasons why species are interesting. Maybe one species has very interesting anatomy, and the other has very interesting behavior; another has an interesting evolutionary history or plays a role in human culture that people may not know about. The goal was to make each page different from the previous one.

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I’ve really thought about this. There would be a chapter where I would say, “I really need a bug with unusual behavior here.” And then I said, “I need a plant from West Asia,” and I tried to find it. Then some of it came together organically.

I saw that there is a page for the Chernobyl exclusion zone. That is a specific place, but also a moment in time that has dramatically affected the landscape and the animals that live in it.

Yes. We wanted to make sure there was a real sense of place in the book. Sometimes that meant recording specific places. Or rather than write about the monarch butterfly, we write about the migration areas of the monarch butterfly, where they end up in Mexico during the winter. Other blurbs focus on specific species. The publisher likes to say that the book should feel like a bag of chips, where you read each page and then say, “Okay, one more.”

I thought about what Forrest Gump said about a box of chocolates, how you would never do that know what you’re going to get.

Yes. I think that’s probably even better because chips are generally all the same. (laughs)

This is all a little different, but connected.

Yes. That’s great.

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Do you have a favorite animal or species, or a species that you are simply happy with?

Absolutely. I really like insects. I’m a big insect fan. While writing this book I met many great insects. One of my favorites was the sea skater. I didn’t know this, but they are the only insects that live on the open ocean. They are similar to water striders in that they have long legs and light bodies so they can skate across water using surface tension. They’re really hard to study. There aren’t that many people who know about it. But what we know about them is very impressive. And it never occurred to me that insects might live on the surface of the sea.

I just flipped to that page. In the margin it is written: “a sea skater is the size of one peppercorn.” That’s a really great, evocative analogy that you wouldn’t necessarily do reading a scientific book. When writing and editing, were you aware of how the would writing make the subject accessible to readers in a different way?

That’s always my goal. I think Atlas Obscura definitely has a specific voice. People call it ‘stem-y’. It’s humorous. Images that are recognizable are used. I mean, who’s going to see a sea skater? You have to be very lucky to find yourself in a situation where you see one yourself. We really wanted people to feel like they were getting to know these creatures.

I imagine the research for either of these species could have taken days, and You could have gone down as many rabbit holes as you wanted. How did you I know you’ve done deep enough research to understand these species, but you haven’t become too complex?

That’s a great question. Because the short texts are so short, focusing on one aspect of the species was usually the best choice. Like the Mad Hatterpillars (a type of caterpillar), with a pile of heads on top of the head. You could probably say a lot about the life of this caterpillar, right? This one thing is so striking. Contextualizing that and describing it very well was the goal, rather than giving a comprehensive meaning. And once I found three or four good sources for something, I usually felt like I could quit.

I often think about climate change and how it affects biodiversity. I I wonder if that also occurred to you, given the number of species that could be in this book possibly affected by climate change.

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Oh yes, absolutely.

When I think about the emphasis you’ve placed on the wonder that Atlas Obscura is trying to create, I start to wonder if all this discussion about climate change is almost taking away from the wonder around biodiversity.

You mentioned the word ‘biodiversity’. One crisis that goes hand in hand with the climate crisis, is influenced by it and in turn influences it, is the biodiversity crisis. Due to climate change, habitat loss, resource extraction, and other things humans are doing to the world, we are losing species at an unprecedented rate.

That was certainly on my mind when I wrote this book. Sometimes I felt like I didn’t want to get too morbid, but I was creating a catalog of things that might disappear. It added a little extra punch to the task of writing a book about crazy, wonderful critters.

My hope is that the more wonder and awe and wonder and connection people feel with other species, the more they will feel motivated to make the changes we need to make to live well together on Earth. I think wonder is a beginning step on that journey toward thinking about how we live our lives as a species and what we could do differently.

Wonder is related to curiosity, awe, and appreciation for what someone could be learn about. All those things are connected in my mind.

I wanted this book to be truly respectful. It’s quite a funny word to use, but a lot of writing about animals and plants will focus on their use values: what is in it for us? Can we eat this? Can we turn this into a medicine? Certainly, that’s one way to get along. But I tried to stay away from that. I really tried to make it about how these creatures live, how they experience their habitat, the role they play in their ecosystems. And move away from the human-centered view.

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Amanda Waldroupe is a freelance journalist and writer based in Portland, Oregon. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The GuardianBklyner, The Brooklyn RailResearchWest, The Oregonianthe Portland StandOregon Humanities, and many others. She has been a fellow and writer-in-residence at the Logan Nonfiction Program, the Banff Center’s Literary Journalism Program, Alderworks Alaska, and the Sou’wester Artist Residency Program.