Among the Bears: Raising Orphan Cubs in the Wild

by Benjamin Kilham and Ed Gray

Book Overview

A first-person account of wild bear behavior that is both a thrilling animal story and a groundbreaking work of science.In the spring of 1993, Ben Kilham, a naturalist who lives in the woodlands of New Hampshire, began raising a pair of orphaned wild black bears. The experience changed his life.While spending thousands of hours with the cubs, Kilham discovered unknown facets of bear behavior that have radically revised our understanding of animal...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805069194
• ISBN13: 9780805069198
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Black Bears are great

I just finished reading Among the Bears and I think Benjamin did a great job at describing the bears body language, and his explenation of what their sounds and gestures meant are superb,,,I have seen a lot of bears in the last 40 years and have seen several of these gestures..This book starts out a little slow but soon picks up and then I could not stop reading, This book does tell it like it really is in the bears world good and bad

Meet the Bears

This book is basically a primary source about black bears, a subject that, as the author points out, has received spotty attention. "Among the Bears" partially remedies this neglect: it is rich in anecdote, modest yet persuasive in analyses.This book has many small, satisfying pleasures to it, not the least of which is the idea of a large, stereotypically manly guy like Kilham being a mother to these bears. And he is an amazing mother, patient, wise and tireless. He always lends his bears an ear, literally (for suckling). Another is the reader learns along with Kilham, who continues to turn over the behaviors of his bears in his head, often coming to explanations only after thinking and experimenting. Finally, his physical encounters with bears are entertaining and, I think, instructive about how bears (and humans) become at ease with each other.The book is very plain in language. As his story progressed, the content of the ideas was plenty engaging, and more than made up for any lack of style. Telling the history of his interactions with bears, including an unusually large male interested in Squirty, one of the female bears he has raised, Killham ventures prescriptive advice about how to handle a bear encounter only at the end of the book. "Hold your ground, stay calm, maintain eye contact, and let the situation resolve itself. It will." (245)Throughout the book, Kilham has relevant and undogmatic insights about hunting and hunters.A small complaint: A bibliography, or more simply--in the character of this straightforward, unpretentious book--a short list of suggested readings would have been welcome. However, the basic but thorough index is excellent.

Among the Bears

This is a wonderful book! Kilham does for bears what JaneGoodhall did for primates. He lives among them and and inso doing gains valuable insights into their abilities andbehaviors. He discovers bears to be highly intelligentindividuals, but with strong social connections, communicatingover distance and time by scent, sound, body language, anddeliberate trail signs. If you have any interest at all inbears or in social lives of animals, buy this book!

Excellent!

If you love animals, if you are interested in their behavior, or if you just enjoy a great read.......BUY THIS BOOK! Ben Kilham raised orphaned black bear cubs as a momma bear would. He successfully returned them to the wild and maintained a relationship with them, even after one had cubs of her own! This is no pet bear story, but a look at how one man changed the way we look at a species, while retaining a respect for their wild stature. Black bears are sensitive, intelligent and often altruistic, as Ben Kilham shows. He makes us realize that there are things to be learned about animals, especially black bears and their behavior, that cannot be taken lightly. We humans are not the only intelligent and emotional beings on this planet!

Beautiful, sensitive story

Ben Kilham's observations about bears are wonderfully told - funny, sensitive and insightful. Not a naturalist by trade - he's a gunsmith of all things! - he brings a fascinating perspective to the development of these animals. Highly recommended