Alaska's Bears ― Grizzlies, Black Bears, and Polar Bears

Alaska is truly bear country. It is the only one of America’s fifty states to be inhabited by all three of North America’s ursine species: black, polar bear, and brown bear (also known as grizzly).Alaska’s Bears is a handy guidebook to the bears of Alaska, a book that slips easily into a jacket pocket or a day pack, and that provides entertaining armchair reading when you’re not in bear country.

Here in one compact edition is a book that can help you understand Alaska’s bears and their natural histories. Learn about their appearances, behaviors, yearly cycles, ecological niches, and relationships with humans. Find full details on how to visit Alaska’s prime bear-viewing and get tips for traveling safely through bear country. Complementing Bill Sherwonit’s text are photographs from longtime Alaskan Tom Walker, a premier wildlife photographer who has spent hundreds of hours in the company of bears.

For more than three decades, Anchorage-based writer Bill Sherwonit has written extensively about wilderness, the natural history of animals and plants, wildlife management, connection to place, conservation issues, and notions of wildness. He’s contributed stories and photos to a wide variety of national publications and is the author of over a dozen books about Alaska, includingTo the Top of Denali and Animal Stories. He also teaches nature and travel writing in his adopted hometown of Anchorage. www.billsherwonit.alaskawriters.com.

Tom Walker, a full-time freelance writer and photographer specializing in natural history and wildlife, is regarded as one of Alaska's premier nature photographers. His work has appeared in numerous national, local, and international publications. This award-winning photographer is active in local and national conservation issues. In 2002, Alaska's Governor appointed him to the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Alaska Interagency Kodiak Brown Bear Management Team and helped draft the first comprehensive brown bear management plan for the Kodiak Archipelago. www.tomwalkerphotography.com