The one thing Doug Peacock has never been called is a traditionalist, and few, if any, people have a more intimate knowledge of wild grizzly bears. Peacock's deep respect, admiration and appreciation of Ursus arctos horribilis comes through in the new The Essential Grizzly: The Mingled Fates of Men and Bears.
Because he doesn't "like to bother people with questions," Peacock worked with his wife, Andrea, an environmental and political journalist, to get the voices of ranchers, wildlife photographers, bear park managers, biologists and environmentalists into the book.
Andrea Peacock helps the reader through the complicated research and politics swarming around controversy of the probable delisting of the grizzly as threatened from the Endangered Species Act.
But it is the three grizzly profiles written by Doug Peacock that make this book so different than typical bear fare.
"I wanted something from the point of a bear for a change," said Doug Peacock, whose 1990 book Grizzly Years provided the first detailed look into the daily lives of the great bears holding on in the lower 48 states.
The profiles of "The Black Grizzly," a major character in Grizzly Years, "The Astringent Creek Grizzly" and "The Bear Who Crossed the Freeway" were created as Doug Peacock told bedtime stories to his now-grown children.
"I bored them to sleep," he joked during a phone interview from the couple's Livingston, Mont., home. "The Black Grizzly was the most important animal in my life for at least a decade. The portfolios are based on actual experiences I had with bears, but I had to make some things up."
Utahns might be interested in the part of the book dealing with people who raise grizzlies in captivity for public shows or for movies and television.
Peacock met Doug Seus, owner of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife Ranch in Heber and trainer of Bart the Bear, in 1982 and almost ended up working with the famous animal trainer.
Seus saw his first wild grizzlies during a trip with Peacock to the "Grizzly Hilton" in Glacier National Park in the late 1980s.
"Doug knows bears and the way they think more thoroughly than any human being I know," Peacock said of his friend.
The Peacocks identify the many complex issues facing wild grizzlies in the lower 48 states. But they say the major problem is a continuing loss of habitat, preventing the animals from expanding their range and mixing their genes.
"People, on the whole, are more tolerant of grizzlies, but it's those people who are helping to shrink the vital habitat the bears need," said Andrea Peacock. "Grizzlies are forced to wind their ways through townhouses and golf courses. Ranchers are much less of a problem for grizzlies compared to the rampant development."
Doug Peacock no longer spends entire summers with grizzlies, but he still manages to get out and see them on occasion. He said he has taken up grizzly conservation "simply to pay them back."
"In a very real way, those bears saved my life," said Peacock, who lived in wilderness frequented by grizzlies after returning from a soldier's tour of duty in Vietnam. "It is kind of a forced humility [living with grizzlies]. You realize you are not the top dog out there, and that allows you to examine your own life. That is what many people call wilderness, and it is a vital part of life for many people. By protecting grizzlies, we are protecting ourselves."
---
Contact Brett Prettyman at brettp@sltrib.com or 801-257-8902. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
Authors in Salt Lake City
Doug and Andrea Peacock will read from The Essential Grizzly: The Mingled Fates of Men and Bears (Lyons Press, $22.95) on Friday at 7 p.m. at Ken Sanders Rare Books, 268 S. 200 East, Salt Lake City.
Brett Prettyman's Tight Lines column will return next week.
