Shadow of the Bear: Travels in Vanishing Wilderness - Hardcover

Payton, Brian

3.93

72 ratings by Goodreads

9781596911987: Shadow of the Bear: Travels in Vanishing Wilderness

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1596911980 ISBN 13: 9781596911987

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2006

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Around the world in pursuit of the beast we fear, revere, abuse, and adore.

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.

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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.

From Publishers Weekly:

Beginning with a dream in which he teaches a bespectacled bear to read, journalist and novelist Payton (Hail Mary Corner) chronicles eight worldwide adventures he took to see a variety of bears in their natural habitat and understand their "political, economic, and cultural environments," delivering an extremely satisfying and sometimes provocative read. His accounts of his travels always present engrossing information on a range of topics, such as the politics of Chinese panda preservation, the squalid living conditions of the endangered Cambodian sun bear and the struggle to protect the Italian brown bear from the results of financial mismanagement at national parks. Each chapter is nicely structured and displays investigative skill; Payton's concern for environmental issues never gets in the way of his reporting. His final chapter on the American brown bears of the Colorado Plateau stylishly concludes with a moving meeting with a Navajo medicine man, who helps Payton understand that his dream and his subsequent travels are signs that he has a responsibility to tell his stories in respectful acknowledgment of the "the spirit of the bear." b&w illus. (July)
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