Smiling Bears: A Zookeeper Explores the Behaviour and Emotional Life of Bears

by Else Poulsen

Book Overview

Few people have known bears as intimately as Else Poulsen has. This remarkable book reveals the many insights about bears and their emotional lives that she has gained through her years of work with them. Always approaching each bear with the same two questions in mind -- "Who are you?" and "What can I do for you?" -- Poulsen has shared in the joy of a polar bear discovering soil under her paws for the first time in 20 years and felt the pride of...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1553653874
• ISBN13: 9781553653875
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Greystone Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A bookshelf staple!

I had heard about this book awhile back, and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Like most people reading these reviews (although there were near none when I had the means to buy), I was afraid that this was a hyped up story that had manipulated situations in order to get ratings.. aaaah, the fresh skepticism of a budding bear biologist. Reaction: I couldn't put this book down. The clean and personal writing style put me on the keeper's path, and led me to feel as if I had been looking through Else's eyes as she cared for these magnificent animals. The behaviors captured are not only awing, but inspiring. As a person who plans on spending the rest of my life dedicated to bear conservation....along my piles of research papers and journals, this book will always be a cornerstone! Thank you for a book well written. -Steve

Endearing....

After knowing the author for a number of years, I thought I should read this book to not only show a sense of support, but to understand her take on bears (and humans). Her experiences with wildlife, bears in particular, are more than endearing! You get a REAL sense of how animals are affected by US....humans, the good and the bad; and how bears interact and that they too have emotions. After all, they are living beings. After reading this book, I hope this volume will open the eyes of individuals as to what we have done as a society to wildlife. GREAT JOB ELSE! (I do believe that there's a child's book coming in the future, for those interested.)

Smiling Bears = Smiling Readers

Smiling Bears certainly offers something for readers with very different motivations. For those who are already convinced that animals have unique temperaments and personalities, Smiling Bears will be a joy to read. For the somewhat skeptical, it should enkindle a glimmer of belief that animals do have emotional lives. For those doing research in this area, it will provide a wealth of supporting anecdotal information and it is a springboard of questions for further investigation. The general reader, however, has the most to gain by reading Smiling Bears: rare insights into a bear's view of the world and communication between these magnificent creatures and the author. There are moving stories of animals rescued from horrific situations and rehabilitated. All are told in a down-to-earth, thoroughly enjoyable prose style by recognized bear expert, Else Poulsen. I am sure that the glimpse into the "essence of bearness" that Smiling Bears provides will produce many smiling readers.

Great Stories about Bears!

Else Poulsen has written a wonderful book that everyone can enjoy. The stories of the bears she has met and helped over the years are touching and full of compassion. Ms. Poulsen has a wonderful gift for story-telling and draws the reader in to share the tales of each of the bears. My personal favorite is the story of Barle and her road to rehabilitation after enduring many years in a circus in the tropics. This is a great read!

Smiling Bears is a richly rewarding read

Else Poulsen's *Smiling Bears* is both highly informative and delightfully entertaining. Ms. Poulsen knows bears intimately, and she shares her remarkable insights about bear behavior, natural history, and emotional lives with compassion and understanding. The book is organized around the relationships Poulsen had with the bears under her care over a period of several years, how she learned what they needed, and how she sought to make their lives enriching, healthy, and fun. Anybody who is interested in animal life, especially the lives of animals in captivity, will find this book enormously enlightening. Anybody who is curious about the work of zookeepers will find this book fascinating.