The Grizzlies of Mount McKinley

by Adolph Murie

Book Overview

For 25 years, Adolph Murie, one of North America's greatest naturalists, spent his summers in Mount McKinley National Park (since renamed Denali National Park) tracking, recording, and interpreting the lives of grizzlies in one of their few remaining strongholds.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0295962046
• ISBN13: 9780295962047
• Release Date: April 1985
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.1"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Lumbering Book on a Lumbering Bear

Murie's book (originally a scientific monograph) on Ursus horribilis, the great brown bear, is a 242-page collection of observations of the grizzly's actions and relationships with its habitat. Murie's first-hand observations date from 1922 to the 1960s and were made around Denali (the original native name of Mount McKinley).Murie's observations are dispassionate and objective, seemingly free of any bias for or against the great bear (although, at the conclusion, his admiration for the beast and his passionate desire that mankind refrain from "managing" wildlife do emerge). His observations include such topics as bears' range and movement, mating, mother-cub interaction, food habits, and relationship with various types of potential prey such as caribou, moose, Dall sheep, squirrels, marmots and mice.As mentioned, Murie's observations deal only with the grizzlies of interior Alaska around McKinley National Park. He occasionally refers to but does not report on the brown bears of the Alaskan southern coastal areas, although he does accept them as a variety of grizzly (some feel that they are different species or sub-species).Before buying this book, the reader should understand that it is not a "story book" about bears. There is no connected "story line" throughout the book, nor is it a collection of harrowing tales about grizzly attacks on hapless humans. Readers looking for entertainment or excitement should seek elsewhere. However, the book is quite illuminating as to the normal habits of normal grizzlies in their normal environment, and readers who wish to understand the actions (and, dare I say, the thought processes) of these animals will find the book a realistic, down-to-earth resource. It does not propose any encompassing scientific theories or postulate new hypotheses about grizzlies; it merely reports on how they act, where they roam, and how they live. In the end, this fairly long series of observations is quite effective in painting a very realistic and useful picture of both the grizzlies and, to a lesser extent, of the animals upon which they prey or with which they coexist.There are a few somewhat grainy, black and white photographs reproduced in the book, indicative of the photographic technology available to Murie. Somehow, though, their quality adds to the overall impression of the book as the product of a keen observer of wildlife half a century and more ago. In brief, I found the book interesting and informative, if not exactly a "page-turner," and it should be useful to those who would become naturalists, who are curious about grizzlies, or who, like me, will always feel somewhat entranced by Alaska, the Last Frontier, and its still-wild creatures.

Classic Murie

There are so few grizzly bears left alive in the Lower 48 that grizzlies have become mytholigized as either demonic carnivores or hapless river wading salmon fishers. Adolph Murie was one of our greatest naturalists. His books on wolves, mammals, and grizzlies all share the same great style of writing; that mix of wonder and research that illuminates the true nature of wildlife and man's place among them.