Bear Attacks

This is the single greatest academic look at bear attacks. Herrero is so exhaustive in his efforts to describe every type of bear attack that after a while you wonder how you can possibly survive a night outside. It seems that in every situation, no matter what you do to avoid a mauling there is a story where it leads to a mauling. But his complete look at all types of maulings comes to two conclusions. First there are basic strategies that work in almost all situations and second, bears are unpredictable so there is no magic answer for all situations. The book does have a lot of graphic bear attack stories, but this is not a typical "bear attack" book. In the end this book is an academic book full of scientific analysis and statistics. Between attack stories, it can be dry, scientific reading. But if you want to know everything you can about you won't do better than this book

This is it!! The authoritative piece of literature on avoiding bear attacks. An absolute must for anyone who travels or works in bear country, especially grizzly bear country. I have over 350 books and publications on bears and refer to this book when friends want advice on their next hike in bear country. I learned how really useless "bear bells" are in bear country and that in itself might have saved me from many "ugly" encounters of suprising a grizzly bear on the trail. Sometimes it is only one small bit of advice that "saves" you from so many problems in life and this book is full of great advice.

This is a great book. I love to hike in bear country and feel much more prepared now that I have read it. Herrero presents his data in both a scientific and honest way careful not to overstate what we do or don't know about bears. He is clearly the world's authority on bear behavior as he has been on site after nearly every bear attack in north america in the past 30 years. He describes in detail (often gorry but necessarily so) what happened in each account and provides a critique of what the injured did or did not do correctly in the given situation. Clearly anyone who reads this book will be better prepared to enter bear country with both respect for bears and how to avoid confrontation. I highly recommend this book.

Having a fondness for the God's nature, I find myself in it when possible. I have never encountered a bear in the wild yet. But when I do, this book will have me prepared. Why? Because this book will educate you in bear behavior and give you the tips to avoid or survive an attack. And it will scare the pants off you!I also recommend seeing the documentary film Bear Attacks (1997). I just saw it on the Discovery Channel. It also was very interesting and it reinforces the reality of the book.

I've worked with the (volunter) Nat'l Park Service for three years with the bear division in Sequioa Nat'l Park Califonia,I came face to face with many of bears, I thought I knew almost everything about bears.People thought I was nuts getting so close to them.This BOOK openned my eyes (I guess I was nuts)it scared me,made me realize how close to death I was a number of times. The next time I went back to the park I was alot more educated and aware, I recommened this book to any body and everybody, backpackers, weekend family campers, hunters any one who enjoys the great outdoors. Billy Bear.......