The Great American Bear
Jeff Fair & Lynn Rogers
(THE definitive book on black bears by the greatest living authority)
Spirit Bear: Encounters with the White Bear of the Western Rainforest
Charles Russell
(on the Kermode Bear - the white black bear and a unique friendship between man and bear. This is a very different kind of B.C. bear)
Among Grizzlies
Timothy Treadwell
(a foolhardy young man lives among Alaska's coastal brown bears, makes friends and enemies - has unique grizzly observations)
Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness
Doug Peacock
(a troubled Vietnam vet becomes the great defender of grizzlies,
powerful, insightful observations of bears living in deep wilderness)
Polar Bear: Living with the White Bear
Nikita Ovsyanikov
(Russian researcher lives among polar bears armed only with a big stick and a bad-assed attitude - a unique look at polar bears!)
Polar Dance: Born of the North Wind
Thomas Mangelsen & Fred Breummer
(A giant, coffee-table book full of gorgeous photography of polar bears. Expensive but worth it. Makes you realise just how beautiful, elegant and graceful polar bears are!)
Black Bear Daniel Cox; Black Bear Country Michael Furtman; Black Bear: Seasons in the Wild Tom Anderson
Black Bear Reflections
Ken L. Jenkins
(These are inexpensive books that present the life-cycle of black bears more or less according to the seasons. They are basically similar to The Great American Bear and are full of wonderful photographs. Black bears are often overlooked in favor of their more flamboyant grizzly and polar bear cousins, but these books make you realise what charismatic and wonderful animals they truly are. I have come to realise that black bears, quiet and unobtrusive as they usually are, are basically my favorite kind of bear.)
Every Autumn Comes The Bear
Jim Arnosky
(Water-color illustrated nature book for children. Very inexpensive. Wonderful artistic renderings of a black bear and his interactions with other animals. Although promoted for children, this book has nothing childish about it. The art work beautifully conveys the power, massiveness, dignity and pride of a really big male black bear. A personal favorite!)
Grizzly Cub: Five Years in the Life of a Bear
Rick McIntyre
(This book was written and photographed by Rick McIntyre, a
ranger at Denali National Park in Alaska who is one of the foremost grizzly photographers in the world. It tells the life of the grizzly, "Little Stoney," a cub whose life Rick followed for five years until the bear's sad and untimely end. Wonderfully expressive photos of an especially cute and personable bear. It helps you to appreciate what
