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The most comprehensive and assiduous chronicle of human-grizzly bear interactions ever written.

 

In The Essential Grizzly, Doug and Andrea Peacock argue that the conservation of big, wild, sometimes dangerous animals is of absolute importance to modern humans, to the survival of our own species, and for rational thought. The emotional mindset behind reason is humility, a condition virtually guaranteed by a stroll through grizzly country, and a precursor to respect and tolerance for all other beings.

Together, the authors delve into the complex dynamics that characterize modern bonds between people and the great bear. They explore a wide range of human-grizzly encounters through interviews with biologists, mauling victims, hunters, and photographers who have had close contact with bears. To these they add unique portraits—sketches of real grizzlies from the viewpoint of the bear—drawn from Doug’s extensive knowledge of bear behavior, considered by many people to be the most authoritative in the world.

 

Filling a gap in the literature, The Essential Grizzly eclipses existing books on bear behavior, attacks, and how-to pamphlets, providing readers with a twenty-first-century context for revisiting the original shudder of Homo sapiens—the bear in the cave of our genesis—and finding a measure of familiarity and value there.

DOUG PEACOCK is a renowned grizzly bear expert and nature writer. A Vietnam vet and former Green Beret medic, his memoirs, The Grizzly Years and Walking It Off, chronicle the healing of his war-torn soul through his relationship with this quintessential carnivore. He is also the author of Baja and served as the "wild grizzly consultant" for the classic 1988 Jean-Jacques Annaud film, The Bear. Doug also writes extensively for magazines, including Audubon, Backpacker, and Outside.

ANDREA PEACOCK is the author of the critically acclaimed Libby, Montana: Asbestos and the Deadly Silence of the American Corporation. Her articles have also appeared in Mother Jones and High Country News. She is the former editor of the Missoula Independent. Andrea and Doug live in Livingston, Montana.

In September, the grizzly family begins another journey. They leave the high scree fields and start back north. At the head of the cutthroat trout stream, a long lake lies alongside the paved road. Tables and garbage cans occupy a picnic area just upstream. The bears will cross the road there.
The bears come to the head of the lake in the late morning. They hear traffic on the road. The mother grizzly can see the picnic tables; a couple of vehicles are parked in the area. The sow decides to bed. They can cross the road after dark, when the picnic area is deserted.
The bear can small the rich fetor of human foods emanating from the garbage cans and picnic fare laid out on the tables. She knows garbage is nutritious and she is aware of her own hyperphagia with the approaching winter. But people are monotonously tied to danger. The picnickers are linked to rangers with traps and guns. The mother grizzly balances the hazard with the puny reward; she sinks into her forest bed.
By midafternoon the cubs are fidgety. They wander a few yards from the day bed and start to wrestle, rolling over and over in the pine duff of the open forest. Mother lifts her drowsy head and sees her cubs in plain sight of the picnic area. Just beyond the cubs, a tall, pale human approaches rapidly. Behind the man ramble two children. The cubs now freeze with fright.
The man carries a video camera but doesn't seem interested in using it. He turns and shouts something at the children. The pale man comes to a stop four feet from the terrified cubs. He reaches out with one arm, as if to pat them on the head.
In an instant, the sow grizzly rises, standing on all fours, gnashing her teeth, her ears flat back, her carnivore nervous system overloaded with conflicting instructions. The protective maternal instinct takes command.
Mother bear charges, covering the short distance in seconds. The cubs jump out of the way as she flies by. Somehow, in the space of few feet, the sow slides to a halt, inches from the human. The man seems unperturbed, as if he were at the county zoo. The tall humans turns and hollers excitedly at the kids. The grizzly, unbelieving, approaches a step and sniffs at the human's pant leg. Then she issues a growl and, spinning, races off into the timber with her cubs.