Among the Bears: Raising Orphaned Cubs in the Wild [Hardcover]

Benjamin Kilham (Author), Ed Gray (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0805069194 | ISBN-13: 978-0805069198 | Edition: 1st

A first-person account of wild bear behavior that is both a thrilling animal story and a groundbreaking work of science.

In the spring of 1993, Ben Kilham, a naturalist who lives in the woodlands of New Hampshire, began raising a pair of orphaned wild black bears. The experience changed his life.

While spending thousands of hours with the cubs, Kilham discovered unknown facets of bear behavior that have radically revised our understanding of animal behavior. Now widely recognized for his contributions to wildlife science, Kilham reveals that bears are altruistic and cooperate with unrelated, even unknown individuals, while our closer relatives, the supposedly more highly evolved chimps, cooperate only within troops of recognizable members.

Kilham, who turned a disability, dyslexia, to his advantage as a naturalist, offers fascinating insights into the emotional life of bears. His work-which has been featured in several National Geographic television specials-also illustrates the powerful black bear intelligence that has survived bounties and overhunting to make them North America's dominant omnivore, familiar to every reader. Beyond the natural history, he introduces individual bears who become enthralling and memorable characters.

As in the bestselling books by Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, Among the Bears explores the breaking down of mutual suspicion and building up of trust between species, with its hopeful implications for the shared future of humans and animals in the wild.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

When naturalist Kilham was asked to take in two orphaned black bear cubs, the conventional wisdom was that he would end up with 200-pound brutes too dependent to leave home. So Kilham decided to try his own unconventional method--he raised them in their natural habitat, surrounded by the wild bear-filled woods of New Hampshire. As their bear mother, he was given an unprecedented look into the lives of bears and what he observed turns bear stereotypes on their head. Black bears exhibit behaviors thought to be found only in humans and great apes, such as an intricate system of communication and cooperation, insight, planning, deception, and even ethics, like fair play, empathy, and altruism (qualities not found in apes). Kilham, who has now raised 26 cubs, is an intrepid bear mom, and a humble and delightful storyteller. This is an irresistible story of some of the most endearing rogues ever encountered. --Lesley Reed

From Publishers Weekly

Like any expectant parent, naturalist Kilham anticipated challenges in raising the newborns who joined his family in 1993. But as the "mother" to orphaned black bear twin cubs, he had no Dr. Spock to turn to for advice. A licensed wildlife rehabilitator, Kilham wanted to raise the cubs to live successfully in the wild, but had to rely largely on his own common sense to achieve this goal. So he let the cubs teach him, by closely observing and noting their behavior as they rambled together in New Hampshire's northern woods. This engrossing account, which Kilham wrote with the help of naturalist writer Gray, is both an affecting story of interspecies friendship and a surprising refutation of ursine stereotypes. To date, Kilham has raised 26 black bears; the experience has convinced him that, contrary to popular belief, these large carnivores are highly social and are as intelligent as the great apes; they can teach, learn and even deceive. Black bears, Kilham insists, can be "remorseful, empathetic, fearful, selfish, altruistic, joyful and deceitful" and have developed "mechanisms for solving disputes and demonstrating need." With the human population encroaching ever deeper into bear territory, however, human ignorance can create "problem" bears who raid backyard bird feeders or garbage cans. Having lost several of his young bears to bullets from such property owners, Kilham urges people to attempt a better understanding of an animal he finds "closely related" to humans. This important book is sure to be a milestone in the study of animal behavior. 8-page color insert not seen by PW. National author tour.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; 1st edition (March 6, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805069194
• ISBN-13: 978-0805069198
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,279,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Field Guides > Mammals

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Meet the Bears, September 16, 2002

By 

Adam A. Crane - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Among the Bears: Raising Orphaned Cubs in the Wild (Hardcover)

This book is basically a primary source about black bears, a subject that, as the author points out, has received spotty attention. "Among the Bears" partially remedies this neglect: it is rich in anecdote, modest yet persuasive in analyses.
This book has many small, satisfying pleasures to it, not the least of which is the idea of a large, stereotypically manly guy like Kilham being a mother to these bears. And he is an amazing mother, patient, wise and tireless. He always lends his bears an ear, literally (for suckling). Another is the reader learns along with Kilham, who continues to turn over the behaviors of his bears in his head, often coming to explanations only after thinking and experimenting. Finally, his physical encounters with bears are entertaining and, I think, instructive about how bears (and humans) become at ease with each other.
The book is very plain in language. As his story progressed, the content of the ideas was plenty engaging, and more than made up for any lack of style.
Telling the history of his interactions with bears, including an unusually large male interested in Squirty, one of the female bears he has raised, Killham ventures prescriptive advice about how to handle a bear encounter only at the end of the book. "Hold your ground, stay calm, maintain eye contact, and let the situation resolve itself. It will." (245)
Throughout the book, Kilham has relevant and undogmatic insights about hunting and hunters.
A small complaint: A bibliography, or more simply--in the character of this straightforward, unpretentious book--a short list of suggested readings would have been welcome. However, the basic but thorough index is excellent.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among the Bears, July 11, 2002

By 

zhivago (Nashua, NH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Among the Bears: Raising Orphaned Cubs in the Wild (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book! Kilham does for bears what Jane
Goodhall did for primates. He lives among them and and in
so doing gains valuable insights into their abilities and
behaviors. He discovers bears to be highly intelligent
individuals, but with strong social connections, communicating
over distance and time by scent, sound, body language, and
deliberate trail signs. If you have any interest at all in
bears or in social lives of animals, buy this book!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, June 3, 2002

By 

Gayle E Snyder (Brighton, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Among the Bears: Raising Orphaned Cubs in the Wild (Hardcover)

If you love animals, if you are interested in their behavior, or if you just enjoy a great read.......BUY THIS BOOK! Ben Kilham raised orphaned black bear cubs as a momma bear would. He successfully returned them to the wild and maintained a relationship with them, even after one had cubs of her own! This is no pet bear story, but a look at how one man changed the way we look at a species, while retaining a respect for their wild stature. Black bears are sensitive, intelligent and often altruistic, as Ben Kilham shows. He makes us realize that there are things to be learned about animals, especially black bears and their behavior, that cannot be taken lightly. We humans are not the only intelligent and emotional beings on this planet!