Aside from all the Santa Cruz County place entries for Atlas Obscura, this is also the home of some fascinating wildlife! Bookshop Santa Cruz welcomes writer Cara Giaimo for a presentation about her new book Atlas Obscura: Wild Life: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Living Wonders, a dazzling, over-the-top collection of the world’s most extraordinary wild species that takes you to all seven continents and beyond. It’s more than a field guide, it’s an adventure. 

• Learn how dung beetles navigate by the stars, and trees communicate through their roots. 
• Meet one of the strongest animals in the world: the puny peacock mantis shrimp. 
• Pay your respects to a 44,000-year-old shrub, float along flying rivers, and explore a garbage dump overseen by endangered storks. 
• Examine old examples of bird song notation written on sheet music. 
• Also, first person interviews: hear from a honey hunter and his avian partners, a scientist working to find the world’s only ocean-dwelling insects, and an offshore radio DJ who is at the heart of the local fishing community.