The Essential Grizzly: the mingled fates of men and bears

Doug and Andrea Peacock.
The Lyons Press. Guilford, CT. 2006

Reviewed by Lance Olsen

Over the years, people have asked me what one book they should read if they wanted to learn about grizzly bears. My response has been simple: don't. No one book is enough, and the question is better asked in terms of which books belong on an essential list of reading. Doug and Andrea Peacock's The Essential Grizzly belongs on that list.

I recommend the Peacocks' book for its integration of danger, science, politics, and love -- each of which is an essential ingredient in conservation of grizzly bears today.

Many previous books about the bear focus on one ingredient to the relative exclusion of the others. For example, Enos Mills' The Grizzly and Adolph Murie's The Grizzlies of Mt. McKinley are great and - I think, indispensable -- books about the bear. Still, their focus on the bear leaves little room for discussion of, say, politics. Similarly, Steve Herrero's Bear Attacks covers the dangers that bears can pose to people, and Todd Wilkinson's Science Under Siege covers the dangers that politics can pose for scientists who study bears.

Each of these other books are excellent, and important, and I'd consider my knowledge of grizzlies incomplete without them. But the Peacocks cover the same subjects, and the range of topics they discuss puts The Essential Grizzly in roughly the same elite category as Frank Craighead's Track of the Grizzly, or Tom McNamee's The Grizzly Bear. And, of those two books, Craighead's is probably the closest comparison because, like Doug Peacock, Frank Craighead writes from the perspective of one who has spent many years spent in the company of grizzlies.

That said, there are still some differences between Craighead's book and the Peacocks', including that Craighead comes to his subject matter as a scientist. But the more recent publication of The Essential Grizzly lets the Peacocks give a nod to the threats posed by global warming, and that's become an increasingly crucial factor in evaluating whether the grizzly will sink or swim. As one who has been increasingly worried about the varied changes coming on the heels of global warming, I hungered for more treatment of it than the Peacocks' gave it, but was glad to see it given at least the nod it gets.

The Peacocks do a nice job of introduced readers to the political dangers of doing the science on grizzlies. In an era of heightened pressure on scientists to keep their goddamned mouths shut about the likes of wild species and climate change, no book on grizzly conservation can duck the dangerous politics of our times. And the Peacocks don't duck some frank analysis of the dirty political habitat that endangers the bear -- plausibly even after the election of November, 2006.

Some reviewers have come away from Doug and Andrea Peacock's new book concluding that it's a song of praise for the good ol' fashioned humility that the grizzly bear can confer on human heart and soul. Well, yes, but the humility angle may be just as well understood as another way of telling a love story. For that, the closest comparisons are the books by Enos Mills and Adolf Murie, whose careful telling of stories about the bear reveal a love that the Peacock's make explicit. So, at the very least, I'd put The Essential Grizzly on a shelf right next to Murie's The Grizzlies of Mt. McKinley.

The Peacocks, tale is one of love combined with danger. Because the dangers posed by this animal create some of the hottest controversies about it, I'm always glad to see the writing of authors who don't flinch in discussing it. And the Peacocks take this danger in stride. As they say in their introduction, the grizzly reminds us of "the ancient fear of falling prey to a wild beast."  To love them not only despite that, but because of it, takes a greatness of heart that few can match.

Lance Olsen contributes from Missoula, Mont. where he works with
Cold Mountains Cold Rivers.