Shadow of the Bear: Travels in Vanishing Wilderness

by Brian Payton

Overview

We've been meeting bears in the wilderness, and in our dreams, since the dawn of human history. Celebrated in art and myth since we began drawing on the walls of caves, they cast a long shadow over our collective subconscious. Wherever bears endure, they are an indicator of the health of their ecosystem. Their decline-some to the edge of extinction-foretells a bigger story: that of our planet's peril.
In a series of remarkable journeys, Brian Payton travels the world in search of the eight remaining bear species. Along the way, he confronts poachers in the jungles of Cambodia, witnesses the cruelty of the bear bile trade in China, and delves into the politics of panda sex. From the reclusive spectacled bears of Peru to the man-eating sloth bears of India, Payton captures the power and beauty of these fascinating creatures while exploring their unique place within very different cultures. Vivid characters, exotic landscapes, and deft storytelling make for an unforgettable trek down the braided path of bear and human history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596918757
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	12/11/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	955 KB

About the Author

Brian Payton's work has appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Globe and Mail, and Canadian Geographic. He is the author of the novel Hail Mary Corner. He lives with his wife in Vancouver.
Brian Payton's work has appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Globe and Mail, and Canadian Geographic. He is the author of the novel Hail Mary Corner. He lives with his wife in Vancouver.

Editorial Reviews

Canadian journalist and novelist Payton takes a globe-spanning tour of bears' habitats to see how they're faring. Not particularly well, he finds. If bear grounds are sufficiently remote (the Canadian far north), or if the animals are seen as a lure for eco-tour money (the polar bears of Churchill, Manitoba), or if they're adequately protected (the black bears of the Eastern United States), then populations are spared the greatest threats: habitat destruction, human encroachment and hunting. Life for the sloth bear of India, Payton discovers, is more precarious. Its domain is fast diminishing, as is that of China's giant panda. Though local traditions declare the mountain habitat of Peru's spectacled bear to be the preserve of the gods, keeping encroachment at bay, the bear is nonetheless heavily poached. So is the sun bear of Cambodia, whose paws are considered a delicacy. But Cambodia presents Payton with a vexing conservation question: "Just how far are we willing to go?" He sees desperately poor people trying to survive; the only land available is sun-bear turf. "I feel ashamed," he writes, when his comfortable concern for bears collides with such human misery. Yet he is also aware of the sanctified cultural place held by bears, even in places where aggressive bears routinely kill people. Such reverence is not new. The paintings and bear skulls in France's Chauvet Caves, subject of an especially resonant chapter on the bear as mythological force, suggest an ancient link between bear and human. The flip side of the question Payton raised earlier is exposed. Bears were once viewed as closely related to humans, as intermediaries with gods, as gods themselves: "Will their final role," heasks, "consist of serving as a nostalgic reminder of a part of ourselves we no longer understand?" Bears need protection now, this astute natural history/travelogue asserts, but so do the wretched of the earth. (b&w illustrations)

Kirkus Reviews