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Rating: 
Summary: New knowledge displaces polar bear myths
Review: I devoured this book while traveling on a two-day business trip. Ovsyanikov's writing is clean and easy to read. His photographs are beautiful and revealing. Most importantly, he dispels many myths about the "beast" of the north and replaces them with hard won insights. As a scientist, Ovsyanikov does this by careful and sometimes brave experimentation and patient observation. I suspect that he may be the only person on the planet willing to stand up to a charging polar bear to assert his "dominance." He shares his love for the white bear and his concern for their future wellbeing. In these and other ways, he reminds me of Dian Fossey Anyone seeking to expand his or her knowledge of our natural world will treasure this wonderful book.
Rating:
Summary: Polar Wonders
Review: I devoured this book while traveling on a two-day business trip. Ovsyanikov's writing is clean and easy to read. His photographs are beautiful and revealing. Most importantly, he dispels many myths about the "beast" of the north and replaces them with hard won insights. As a scientist, Ovsyanikov does this by careful and sometimes brave experimentation and patient observation. I suspect that he may be the only person on the planet willing to stand up to a charging polar bear to assert his "dominance." He shares his love for the white bear and his concern for their future wellbeing. In these and other ways, he reminds me of Dian Fossey. Anyone seeking to expand his or her knowledge of our natural world will treasure this wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring and affectionate account of a fascinating animal
Review: I first encountered this book while on a ship, steaming along the Arctic ice edge on a research cruise towards Wrangel Island, the site of most of the author's research. Along the way, we regularly had the good fortune to encounter polar bears on the ice floes, often approaching within thirty metres of our ship. This book was the one that we all consulted -- devoured, really -- to learn more about these remarkable creatures. The author writes about them with great knowledge, but also tremendous sensitivity and understanding. While not compromising the information the book contains, he does not adhere to the objective distance typical of many scientists, but makes plain his love and fascination for these creatures. After reading this book, and gazing at the astonishing photographs, you will feel the same way.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging storyteller, zealot proponent of Ursus Maritimus
Review: This is the book for you if the imagery of Barry Lopez's Artic Dreams captured you. Dr. Ovsyanikov hung out with Bering population of Polar Bears, notably Wrangel and Hearld Island. A drawback is that there are only glimpses of the life cycle of the Polar Bear in his spring-fall trips he chronicles. In addition the most accessable bear population is trivially mentioned in one page (Churchill). So, this is a secular book, extraordinarily entertaining and full of facts and de-mystifying of the general ideas held of Polar Bear behavior, but of bears in only one part of the artic. It does stand alone as an appeal to understand these great mammals. Like grizzlies, these are individuals, and must be treated as such. Great work, Dr. Ovsyanikov!
Rating:
Summary: Engaging storyteller, zealot proponent of Ursus Maritimus
Review: This is the book for you if the imagery of Barry Lopez's Artic Dreams captured you. Dr. Ovsyanikov hung out with Bering population of Polar Bears, notably Wrangel and Hearld Island. A drawback is that there are only glimpses of the life cycle of the Polar Bear in his spring-fall trips he chronicles. In addition the most accessable bear population is trivially mentioned in one page (Churchill). So, this is a secular book, extraordinarily entertaining and full of facts and de-mystifying of the general ideas held of Polar Bear behavior, but of bears in only one part of the artic. It does stand alone as an appeal to understand these great mammals. Like grizzlies, these are individuals, and must be treated as such. Great work, Dr. Ovsyanikov!
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