Ghost grizzlies
(Book)

"A John Macrae book."

Includes bibliographical references (p. [277]-284) and index.

The grizzly is naturally averse to human contact and is unlikely to attack a person unless provoked. By contrast, human reprisals have been brutal. Demonized along with wolves and other "inconvenient" wild species throughout our history, grizzlies have suffered incessant attacks by the "tamers" of our western lands. As with other native American species, both human and nonhuman, the fate of the grizzly has come to symbolize the fate of wildness itself. In Ghost Grizzlies, David Petersen considers a wide spectrum of views painstakingly gathered from all quarters - hunters ranchers, wildlife managers, biologists, rugged mountain folk of all stripes - and offers a few theories of his own. Along the way we are told hair-raising tales of sightings, close encounters, and ugly ends met by those unfortunate (or stupid) enough to incur the wrath of the fearsome griz. The book brims with intelligent natural history, dogged reporting, and a firm commitment to what's best for human and bear in a still robust but ever vulnerable ecosystem. Petersen's arguments about Colorado's need for conscientious wildlife management go to the core of the question of how much wildness today's citizen of the West really desires