A full-color guide to the lives of grizzlies, black bears, and polar bears that inhabit North America. In addition to fascinating information on social structure, hibernation, and their legendary fishing abilities, there's also an exploration of the difficulties that bears and humans often have coexisting--as well as invaluable advice on how to act should you encounter a bear in the wild.
Presents an introduction to the polar bear, discussing its evolution, physical characteristics, life cycle, predatory behavior, habitat, and the threats to its existence from global warming.
It was a familiar sight at Yellowstone National Park: traffic backed up for miles as visitors fed bears from their cars. It may have been against the rules, but park officials were willing to turn a blind eye if it kept the public happy. But bear feeding eventually became too widespread and dangerous to everyone-including the bears-for the National Park Service (NPS) to allow it any longer. As one of the park's most beloved and enduring symbols, the Yellowstone bears have long been a flashpoint for controversy. Alice Wondrak Biel traces the evolution of their complex relationship with humans-from the creation of the first staged wildlife viewing areas to the present-and situates that relationship within the broader context of American cultural history. Early on, park bears were largely thought of as performers or surrogate pets and were routinely fed handouts from cars, as well as hotel garbage dumped at park-sanctioned "lunch counters for bears." But as these activities led to ever-greater numbers of tourist injuries, and of bears killed as a result, and as ideas about conservation and the NPS mission changed, the agency refashioned the bear's image from cute circus performer to dangerous wild animal and, eventually, to keystone inhabitant of a fragile ecosystem. Drawing on the history of recorded interactions with bears and providing telling photographs depicting the evolving bear-human relationship, Biel traces the reaction of park visitors to the NPS's efforts—from warnings by Yogi Bear (which few tourists took seriously) to the increasing promotion of key ecological issues and concerns. Ultimately, as the rules were enforced and tourist behavior dramatically shifted, the bears returned to a more natural state of existence. Biel's entertaining and informative account tracks this gradual "renaturalization" while also providing a cautionary tale about the need for careful negotiation at the complex nexus of tourists, bears, and all things wild.
Stan and Jan Berenstain take readers on a fun-filled trip to the beach in this classic Beginner Book, edited by Dr. Seuss. “Hooray! Hooray! We’re on our way! Our summer vacation starts today!” School’s out, and the Bear family is ready for a vacation at the beach. Whether the Bears are sailing, swimming, surfing, snorkeling, or having a run-in with an angry whale, Father Bear certainly knows how to find trouble. The Bears' Vacation will leave young readers eager for their very own summer fun! Originally created by Dr. Seuss, Beginner Books encourage children to read all by themselves, with simple words and illustrations that give clues to their meaning.
What main factors affect mammalian home range size and dynamics? To what extent do constraints on home range characteristics vary between the sexes? This book aims to address these issues by concentrating the authors' expertise and experience in studies of home ranges in general and focusing on their studies of black bears of the Pisgah Forest, North Carolina, in particular. The authors provide an overview of the black bears and methods for their study before discussing concepts of home range, developing predictive habitat quality models, addressing influences of food production on social organization and exploring the mating behaviour of male bears.
From National Book Award in Fiction finalist Andrew Krivak comes a gorgeous fable of Earth’s last two human inhabitants, and a girl’s journey home In an Edenic future, a girl and her father live close to the land in the shadow of a lone mountain. They possess a few remnants of civilization: some books, a pane of glass, a set of flint and steel, a comb. The father teaches the girl how to fish and hunt, the secrets of the seasons and the stars. He is preparing her for an adulthood in harmony with nature, for they are the last of humankind. But when the girl finds herself alone in an unknown landscape, it is a bear that will lead her back home through a vast wilderness that offers the greatest lessons of all, if she can only learn to listen. A cautionary tale of human fragility, of love and loss, The Bear is a stunning tribute to the beauty of nature’s dominion. Andrew Krivak is the author of two previous novels: The Signal Flame, a Chautauqua Prize finalist, and The Sojourn, a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Chautauqua Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He lives with his wife and three children in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Jaffrey, New Hampshire, in the shadow of Mount Monadnock, which inspired much of the landscape in The Bear.
The bears of the world—from the polar bears of the Arctic to the Andean bear of South America—are among the most studied and loved of all wild creatures. In this revised and updated edition, Gary Brown collects what is known about the world’s bears, capturing in words and images a complete factual compendium of bear knowledge for the amateur naturalist and the bear specialist alike. The Bear Almanac is for anyone who has ever paused to wonder at both the might—and the mind—of the bear. Beyond their well-known, imposing physical traits, these generally shy creatures command the ability to learn rapidly and to reason. In addition to addressing such topics as bear physiology, social behavior, and habitats, this comprehensive resource lists endangered bears by state and covers a breadth of other bear-related topics, such as the effects of war on bears and what to do if you meet up with one, as well as issues in the news related to the most beloved, and mysterious, of creatures.