Grizzly Confidential
An Astounding Journey into the Secret Life of North America’s Most Fearsome Predator
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In?Grizzly Confidential, author Kevin Grange—former paramedic and park ranger at Yellowstone and Grand Teton—comes face-to-face with North America’s most fearsome predator, Ursus Arctos.
His quest takes him from his home in the Tetons to an eerie, mist-shrouded island of gigantic bruins; from the Bear Center at Washington State University—where scientists believe the secrets of hibernation might help treat diabetes, heart disease, and obesity in humans—to the dark underbelly of for-profit wildlife parks, illegal animal trade and black markets hawking bear bile.
Along the way, he meets fascinating biologists and activists and discovers that everything he knew about grizzlies was wrong. Ultimately, his odyssey leads him to find answers on a remote corner of the Alaskan Peninsula where, for the last fifty years, humans have coexisted peacefully alongside the largest gathering of brown bears on the planet.?? ??
Grizzly Confidential is about bears but also the inspiring people who look after them. This is a fast-paced, gripping story that educates, entertains, and gives a sneak peek into the secret life of a well-known species. Part science, part travelogue, and a passionate plea for bear conservation, Grizzly Confidential is a lively account for anyone who loves the outdoors and learning about the natural world.?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this eye-opening report, Grange (Wild Rescues), a paramedic and former Yellowstone park ranger, recounts traveling the U.S. to better understand grizzly bears and humanity's relationship with them. He describes watching a grizzly force its way into a cooler during a product test and stresses the importance of ensuring bears don't become reliant on human food, explaining that their preying on sick elk helps herds thrive by stemming the spread of disease. His nerve-wracking accounts of encountering grizzlies in the wild shed light on how to read the animals' body language. For instance, he recalls standing his ground after coming across a bear on Kodiak Island, Alaska, because the bear wasn't "huffing, clacking, or popping his jaws," indicating the creature was more curious than aggressive. Elsewhere, Grange discusses visiting a Utah ranch for training animal actors and attending a workshop on reducing human-bear conflict. Grange's elegant prose conveys the fearsome majesty of his subjects (he describes Kodiak grizzlies as "hulking bruins whose bellies nearly dragged on the dirt and who ambled with wide, prehistoric gaits"), and he provides enlightening trivia on their behavior and abilities (despite grizzlies' reputation as apex predators, they "prefer a mostly vegetarian diet with the occasional side of meat or salmon"). This will change how readers view "the largest terrestrial predators on earth."
