Description:
Bears, those massive residents of forests and mountains around the world, are creatures of astonishing antiquity. When ancestral humans migrated out of Africa hundreds of thousands of years ago, bears were likely among the first creatures to greet them as they passed into Europe and Asia. Bears have weathered the encounter badly, writes biologist Lance Craighead, and especially in recent years with the rise of powerful firearms. Of the eight living species of bears worldwide, he observes, only two are not endangered or threatened. Craighead, who has spent more than 40 years studying bears in the wild, is an authoritative, literate guide into their world, and this slender book is a wonderful education in all things ursine. He discusses the genetic ancestry and life history of bear species past and present and gives notes on current views of ursine evolution--by which, for example, polar bears are considered to have descended from some brown-bear-like generalist and thence to have specialized "to exploit an unused carnivorous niche, the marine mammals of the polar ice pack." Craighead includes giant pandas, sun bears, sloth bears, and South American spectacled bears in his discussion, although the bulk of the book is devoted to bears of the world's boreal regions. Craighead's text is matched with handsome color photographs that illustrate aspects of the bears' habitat and sometimes playful, sometimes dangerous behavior. The book is a fine addition to any wildlife lover's library. --Gregory McNamee
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