Everything
You Ever Wanted to Know about Bear Attacks
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Bear Attacks: Their Causes
and Avoidence
by Stephen Herrero
Who must have this book: Anyone who spends
lots of time in bear country or who wants to learn to avoid
bear encounters.
Who should have this book: Anyone who spends
time in bear country.
ISBN: 158574557X
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For
those of you who are parents and have read What to Expect When
Your Expecting, this book may seem familiar to you. After you
read every possible thing that can go wrong with your newborn baby,
you are terrified and start to wonder how anyone survives birth. This
book is very similar, it takes an academic look of every bear situation
you can think of and gives every outcome that has been recorded. By
the time you are done with the book, you wonder how anyone ever survives
a hike in bear country. It sometimes seems like What to Expect
when You Expect to get Mauled.
There are two reasons for this. First Herrero is attempting to document
all types of bear attacks. Second, Herrero is attempting to get across
that no two encounters are the same. His carefully culled stories
are meant to show that there is no way to predict what is going to
happen in any given bear encounter.
Herrero's scientific background comes out in his writing.
This is not so much of a Larry Kaniut thriller book. It is definitely
a little more academic. It is meant to educate the reader about bear
attacks which is does well.
I was a little concerned part way through when I realized that I still
didn’t know what to do in a bear encounter. I was hoping for
step one: wave your arms, step two: walk back slowly. What I got was,
if you wave your arms 94% of all bears reported walked away, 5% bluffed
a charge, and 1% ate the hiker. The information is vague because the
bear attack record is vague. The point is that bears cannot be predicted.
The book reads relatively well, especially considering its research
background. But if you are looking to learn as much as possible
about bears, and how to handle an encounter, this is the book to get.
I read the book before a Denali backcountry trip and it made the bear
sign as exciting as the bear sightings. I definitely know bears much
better after the book. If you asked if I have stopped fearing them,
you will have to ask my hiking partners.
Overview
This book is a very scientific and thorough book with plenty of action
filled anectdotes to make this a great read. The Book is broken in
to chapters dealing with both species of bears, types of attacks,
bear behavior, and advice on how to avoid injury. The book is well
illustrated with black and white photographs and illustrations from
the leading bear research. The research meshes well with the anectdotal
bear stories and both serve to get the appropriate points across.
Author
Stephen Herrero is a Biology and Environmental Science
Professor at the University of Calgary and one of the world’s
leading authorities on bears. He has had tremendous amounts of field
time working with bears which really comes out in this book.
