Customer Reviews

The Grizzly Almanac: A Fully Illustrated Natural and Cultural History of America's Great Bear

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Once again, Robert H. Busch has successfully compiled a complete and acurrate history of one of nature's greatest achievments. Written in terms that the general public can identify with, and accompanied by a multitude of photographs, charts, appendixes, and glossaries. This book displays all one would ever want and need to know about these great bears. An added touch of using his own photographs allows the reader to identify with the author--he or she is given a glimpse of everything that Busch saw through his camera lense. Quite simply, Busch has personalized the plight of the great bear in an effort to educate the greater population. His words linger long in memory, touching that piece of each of us that feels the need to rectify this outstanding injustice.

A really well developed and documented research account of grizzlies. Thoroughly enjoyable and enlighting.

Grizzly Almanac (143-4... provides a cultural history and almanac of the bear, covering everything from hunting regulations and changing environments to bear encounters with humans. An excellent guide to the grizzly.

Fine writing, but the facts are suspect. As an example, the chapter on bear attacks gives the usual spin that the odds of being killed in a car accident on your way to Yellowstone Park are greater than the odds of being killed by a grizzly in Yellowstone. Yeah, there's not much chance of encountering a grizzly in the vast parking lot at Old Faithful, but if you look at the rate of injuries from bears to hikers in Yellowstone's backcountry, it's readily apparent that people hiking in the backcountry are at far greater risk than people driving through the park in their Winnebago.

I give this book 3 stars only because the author is very sincere and trys to give a balanced presentation. In terms of accuracy and relevant facts, the Grizzly Almanac gets 1 star.

The book has some interesting photos and points, it's well-researched, but the information comes too quickly and succinctly. The book whets one's appetite for more information. While the author strays from being from the New Age "eco-nut" camp where wildlife biologists worship wildlife as if they are gods, there are few cliched contentions I have with the information Busch provides. We are told "Canadians seem never to have harried their varmints with quite the same addled glee as Americans." One obvious reason for this is the United States, even the remote west, has always out populated Canada by 10:1. The more people, the more bear interactions, and the more bear and people deaths. Also, I might remind people that Canada conducts the largest slaughter of any wildlife on the planet today with its annual baby seal butcher in Northeastern Canada--roughly 350,000 baby seals butchered each year, funded and encouraged by the Canadian government (the Canadian tax payer). I suppose that perhaps the "addle glee" for wanton death works both sides of the border. I won't even mention the odd section on global warming. Although Busch does mention that sometimes wildlife biologists' "good intentions" can have an adverse effect on bear populations, he evades condemning some more controversial wildlife management procedures. One in particular, Busch defends outright--the extraction of teeth from anesthetized bears merely to discern age. All in all, the "picture" book not a bad study. The author tries to be impartial, which is better than most from his ilk, but there should be more in-depth information.