Alaska's Bears: Grizzlies, Black Bears, and Polar Bears, Revised Edition

by Bill Sherwonit, Tom Walker (Photographer)

Overview

Alaska is truly bear country. It is the only one of America’s fifty states to be inhabited by all three of North America’s ursine species: black, polar bear, and brown bear (also known as grizzly). Alaska’s Bears is a handy guidebook to the bears of Alaska, a book that slips easily into a jacket pocket or a day pack, and that provides entertaining armchair reading when you’re not in bear country.

Here in one compact edition is a book that can help you understand Alaska’s bears and their natural histories. Learn about their appearances, behaviors, yearly cycles, ecological niches, and relationships with humans. Find full details on how to visit Alaska’s prime bear-viewing and get tips for traveling safely through bear country. Complementing Bill Sherwonit’s text are photographs from longtime Alaskan Tom Walker, a premier wildlife photographer who has spent hundreds of hours in the company of bears.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781943328581
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	04/12/2016
Series:	Alaska Pocket Guide Series
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	108
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

For more than three decades, Anchorage-based writer Bill Sherwonit has written extensively about wilderness, the natural history of animals and plants, wildlife management, connection to place, conservation issues, and notions of wildness. He’s contributed stories and photos to a wide variety of national publications and is the author of over a dozen books about Alaska, including To the Top of Denali and Animal Stories. He also teaches nature and travel writing in his adopted hometown of Anchorage. www.billsherwonit.alaskawriters.com.

Tom Walker, a full-time freelance writer and photographer specializing in natural history and wildlife, is regarded as one of Alaska's premier nature photographers. His work has appeared in numerous national, local, and international publications. This award-winning photographer is active in local and national conservation issues. In 2002, Alaska's Governor appointed him to the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Alaska Interagency Kodiak Brown Bear Management Team and helped draft the first comprehensive brown bear management plan for the Kodiak Archipelago. www.tomwalkerphotography.com

Table of Contents

BEAR COUNTRY Map THE POLAR BEAR Home on the Ice Map A Diet of Seals Mothers and Their Dens Future of the Polar Bear THE BROWN BEAR/GRIZZLY BEAR Surviving Winter Life as a Cub Opportunistic Omnivores Social Life Future of the Brown Bear Tips for Traveling in Bear Country Is it a Brown Bear or a Black Bear? THE BLACK BEAR A Creature of the Forest Building Fat Reserves Into the Winter Den The Long Sleep The Young Bears Future of the Black Bear VIEWING ALASKA’S BEARS Prime Viewing Sites SUGGESTED READING INDEX

Editorial Reviews

Sherwonit outlines why Alaska’s brown, black, and polar bears have more to fear from us than we do from them. He dishes out a bit of natural history on each species, and brief outlines on how you should behave when meeting a black, brown, or polar bear. Walker provides top-flight photography.”—Anchorage Daily News

From the Publisher