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One hell of a lot of books have been
written about Grizzlies. Ninety-five percent of them are shallow,
venal efforts posing as legitimate works concerning the great
bear, while anyone with a bit of vision can clearly see that
they are nothing more than slipshod attempts at literacy with
the prime objective being that of turning a quick buck. Such
has never been the case with Doug Peacock. Not in his books.
Not in his magazine articles. And not in his life--a life that
has been devoted to trying to understand grizzlies and in, turn,
protecting the magnificent creatures.
This holds true in spades in
his latest book, co-authored with his wife Andrea, titled The
Essential Grizzly: The Mingled Fates of Men and Bears. Sometime
back in the hazy past I spent many years living in northwest
Montana, a land of prime grizzly habitat. Whether I was fishing
for native westslope cutthroat or bull trout, camping or blindly
playing with a camera, every year I'd see a number of the bears--normally
from a distance but a few times oh so close. More exciting to
me was working up a trail and seeing fresh tracks, enormous ones,
so recent that they were still filling with water on the moist
path or I'd come across steaming mounds of bear sign and I'd
go "Damn, one of these guys is very close." That made
me feel alive in ways I can't
explain, even to myself. And over the course of these years I
came to recognize a few of the bears including one female that
I saw year after year along an isolated, high mountain valley
stream with different broods of cubs every few years. She became
a long-distance friend, a creature I looked forward to seeing
in late June.
The point of all of the above
is that because of my limited experiences, when I read The
Essential Grizzly it was like revisiting those happy times
only through the eyes of exceptionally experienced observers
of the bear. The authors convey in a direct visceral line this
emotion with such clarity that even someone who's never been
in grizzly country can feel the wild combination of fear, wonder
and exhilaration. And this book is so much more.
The style of this book is intriguing.
Doug has written several short stories, called Portraits, based
on his personal experiences with the bears around the northern
Rockies, while Andrea contributes chapters revolving around interviews
and reporting on the subject. The book closes with a chapter
titled "Practical Considerations in Grizzly Country",
an excellent treatise on what to expect and what to do and not
do if a person encounters a grizzly along the way in the back
country. This is simple unencumbered wisdom as exemplified by
the following:
"Once you have blundered
close enough to get a grizzly's attention, your options are indeed
limited, and the advice does become simplistic and redundant.
If you don't want to get charged, don't run or try to climb a
tree: in fact, in those first critical seconds, don't move a
muscle."
Most of us would instinctively
run away like lunatics and vainly try and climb a tree. Doug
goes on to explain why this is an exercise in futility.
He is a renowned bear expert
and nature writer. A Vietnam veteran and former Green Beret medic.
His memoirs, The
Grizzly Years and Walking
It Off (recently reviewed
on this site) detail one man's attempts to deal with the horrors
of war through his relationship with the continents top carnivore.
He is also the author of iBaja! And served as the "wild
grizzly consultant" for the classic Jean-Jacques Annaud
film, The Bear. He also writes extensively for magazines including
Audubon, Backpacker and Outside.
As I mentioned the style and
form of this book is unique as it alters between Doug's prose
and Andrea's journalistic takes. As seen in this juxtaposition.
First from Doug's chapter "The Bear Who Crossed The Freeway":
Now the men are visibly nervous.
Surprising a grizzly on a spring carcass is a perilous situation.
They try to back off the far side of the ridge. Below they hear
a branch break. The two humans freeze. They hear the conifers
rustle, then the brief murmur of brush. A bear bounds across
the open creek bottom and disappears into the timber beyond.
It is a grizzly bear. The animal has a bald spot on his rear
flank.
The danger is over. The two
skiers think they have heard of this bear. The grizzly is vulnerable,
so they will keep their discovery a secret. The men smile and
pat each other on the back. They have just seen something magical."
And this from Andrea's chapter
"The Bear Keepers":
When Casey Anderson and his
two business partners applied for a roadside menagerie permit
from the state of Montana, they included a laundry list of potential
uses for their bear exhibit. One of these was so bizarre, they
were nearly laughed out of the county: it was a grizzly motel
The plan was to build a set
of cabins, each sharing a one-way glass wall with the bears'
dens, so people staying there could see into lairs from their
rooms. Now, locals opposed Anderson's permit for every conceivable
reason--from fears over declining property values to concerns
for the animals welfare--but the sheer weirdness of the bear
motel eclipsed everything else.
This alternation of styles
gives the book a pace and rhythm that only adds to the compelling
nature of the subject. Perhaps one day Doug will write a novel
on the bears, and hopefully Andrea will produce more books on
the environmental degradations being visited upon Montana these
days.
Other chapters/short stories
include "The Black Grizzly" and "The Education
of the Astringent Creek Grizzly". Some of Andrea's other
chapters are titled "The Photographers", "Hunting
Grizzly" (the profile and interview with long bow hunter
E. Donnell Thomas is fascinating) and "Living With Grizzlies".
Ultimately what The Essential
Grizzly is, is just what the title says. Essential, professional,
and entertaining writing and reporting on one of the last of
its kind. One of the last apex predators on the planet. The Grizzly.
CounterPunch
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