True Stories of Bear Attacks: Who Survived and Why - Softcover

Lapinski, Mike

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558686797 ISBN 13: 9781558686793

Publisher: WestWinds Press, 2004

Synopsis

Author and wildlife expert Mike Lapinski compiled this collection of true bear-encounter stories from throughout the western United States, British Columbia, and Alaska. Some have happy endings, some fatal; all are thrilling. But there's more to this book than a heart-pounding read. Think of these as campfire stories with a higher purpose. Mike strongly advocates the use of bear pepper spray for backpackers, rangers, anglers, hunters, photographers, anybody who hikes through bear country. Repelling and reconditioning bears saves lives, both human and bruin, he asserts. In TRUE STORIES OF BEAR ATTACKS. Mike also shares insights into bear behavior, why they attack, how to protect yourself in bear country, and thoughts on the future of the great bear in the Lower 48. Organizations such as the U.S.D.A. Forest Service and the Center for Wildlife Information, National Bear Conservation, in Missoula, Montana, have expressed support for Mike's work.

About this title

About the Author

Mike Lapinski is the author of eleven outdoor and nature books and hundreds of magazine articles. His photographs have appeared as inside and cover art in a variety of magazines and books. Mike is considered an expert on the use of bear pepper spray and often speaks on this subject, bears, and self-defense for nature lovers. He lives with his wife Aggie most of the year in Superior, Montana, close to grizzlies and grizzly country. While the bears are hibernating, Mike and Aggie live in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where Mike writes about jaguars, ocelots, and other wilderness animals of the Southwest.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

It's like that in grizzly country. You can do a lot of things that, in retrospect, are mistakes. Like hiking along a brushy trail. No bear, no problem. Big bear, big problem. As a recognized self-defense expert who spends the majority of his time roaming large-predator habitat, I've come to realize that sooner or later it happens to everyone. Through no conscious fault of your own, you find yourself in a potentially dangerous situation. And when that happens all the cute statistics-like the one about how you are 380 times more likely to die from a bee sting than a bear bite-vaporize in the twenty yards that separate you from an animal twice as powerful pound-for-pound than any man and capable of tearing out huge chunks of your flesh with its powerful jaws. -TRUE STORIES OF BEAR ATTACKS

Edition details

• Publisher: WestWinds Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1558686797
• ISBN 13: 9781558686793
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 224