“Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future” by Gloria Dickie
c.2023, W.W. Norton
$30.00
250 pages

Throughout most of your childhood, he was rarely more than three feet away.

He never said much, even when you hugged him too hard or let him fall to the floor. He kept your secrets but not all his fur; and he kept watch, even after he lost one eye. Your childhood teddy was an important part of your life but as you’ll see in “Eight Bears” by Gloria Dickie, his forebears are quite another story.

When she first moved to Boulder, Colorado, Gloria Dickie was charmed. she was once “a child obsessed with wild creatures,” and “bears were frequent visitors” to her new hometown. But over time, the romance waned. Having bears everywhere was not good for Boulderites or for bears.

That’s the story around the country: we don’t know how to live alongside bears and “so-called ‘problem’ bears” often die because they’ve become habituated nuisances. Bears are stronger than they look and can ruin a car in minutes. They can annihilate a farmer’s herd or flock. Some bear species — Dickie says that a mere eight of them survive on the planet today — are downright Papa-Bear-grumpy and will kill a human in a heartbeat.

And so she went searching for bears.

Ursas, says Dickie, were once thought to be our closest relative, perhaps because they look very human when standing. Humans haven’t treated them very well through the centuries, though, at least not until Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot one in 1902 and people started appreciating bears a little more.

Still, today’s bears struggle.

In South America, Dickie found that climate change is hurting the shy, gentle spectacled bear that lives in the cloud forest of Peru. In India, she discovered a small bear with big attitude, one that kills dozens of humans annually and maims even more. She learned the politics of pandas and she tried to visit a bear bile farm in Vietnam. She learned about super-smart black bears, the management of grizzlies, and a North American bear species that can hold an entire town hostage…

So, it turns out that Goldilocks was correct: “Eight Bears” is just right.

Rather than go all science-y on her readers, author Gloria Dickie brings the story of the world’s bears to a level that’s understandable by almost anyone. Oh, there’s science in here, yes, but it’s accessible, even fun, and can easily be paraphrasically explained to a youngster. That’s great, if you’re going on vacation to Bear Country.

Speaking of which, the globe-trotting adventure that Dickie took to find out about the bears is good reading, too, and filled with stories. Animal lovers will enjoy knowing what’s being done for the bears around the world, while bear victims will learn what’s being done to ursines to keep them from destroying livestock and lives.

Don’t be surprised, in either case, if you’re not happy.

This is a wonderfully accessible book that’s deep enough but not fluffy, and that’s really quite informative. If you know bears — or you want to — “Eight Bears” is a book to cuddle up with.