Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future by Gloria Dickie
Nonfiction
What it is: This “ursine odyssey” travels the globe, providing a portrait of each of the eight bear species of the world. Dickie begins in the cloud forests of Ecuador & Peru with the shy spectacled bear, threatened by deforestation, then moves on to the sloth bear of India, whose proximity to humans has endangered both the people and the bears. Next, she travels to Asia and meets China's charming and clumsy panda, once nearly extinct and now resurging in population, but only in captivity--and the moon bears and sun bears of Vietnam, living in horrific conditions on bile farms. Finally, Dickie chronicles North America's three great bears--the American black bear, the brown bear, and the polar bear. An engaging and revealing study of the wonder and awe of these creatures, the threats they face in the world, and the humans who are working to save them.
Details please: The book is filled with fascinating tidbits of ursine biology. For example, mama bears are only pregnant for about 2 months due to delayed implantation of the fertilized egg (or blastocyst). And the bear bile that is so in demand has true healing properties—it staves off cell death during hibernation and has promise for reducing brain and heart injuries—but it can be synthesized from cow gallbladders. Dickie also reminds us of all the ways the bear is embedded in our culture, from Greek mythology and Indigenous folklore to Paddington, the ubiquitous toy teddy bear. As Dickie notes, “Without bears, our woods and our stories would be empty.”
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