(Note: Attacks that happened in a wilderness area before the creation of a national or state park were added to the park that is now on that land. This gave me a list of 71 wild bear–related deaths in (or near) US state and national parks. I wanted to look only at attacks that happened in the wilderness, so I excluded these. Paring this down to just US fatalities, 26 of 97 were caused by captive bears - those kept in zoos or as pets (as was a short-lived trend in the early 20th century). Of these, 61 occurred in Canada and 97 in the United States. Since 1900, there have been 158 fatal bear attacks in North America. Half of all wild bear attacks in the United States happen in six national parks On October 1, 2016, Todd Orr, of Bozeman, Monana, was attacked twice by a grizzly bear in the in Madison Valley area. I’m seven times more likely to be struck by lightning than to lose my life to a bear here.īut I still feel discomforted, so I’m going to turn to the numbers. During that time, 20 million tourists have come through the park. In the past five years, three people have been killed by bears in nearby Yellowstone National Park. Freshly deposited on the path, berry-filled mounds of feces catch the sun. Claw marks and clumps of coarse hair extend 9 feet up the pine trees. I know they’re here: The mud is indented with Shaq-size prints. LOVED the narrator and his deep piercing voice.High above the glassy waters of Hebgen Lake, just outside of West Yellowstone, I’m armed with an industrial-size can of pepper spray and scanning for grizzly bears. What about Kevin Pierce’s performance did you like? Also, I truly appreciated all the changes that came about from the deaths of the campers. But here's one: at the end when The Journalist gets outraged about killing one of The Grizzly's Cubs, he unsheathes his knife which he flings to the ground and yells, "Dammit, the cubs would not come around if you just stopped feeding them!" Pretty much sums up the whole book. There were so many great moments…don't want to give any spoilers. What was one of the most memorable moments of Night of the Grizzlies?Īs a camper and hiker and someone who has lived in Alaska, I truly appreciated the ENTIRE STORY. It was like listening to a very REAL campfire story-a great way to hear the tale. Would you consider the audio edition of Night of the Grizzlies to be better than the print version? The Night of the Grizzlies is a really great story, and an important story, told by two masterful storytellers. He humanizes them and gives their stories dimension and impact. Pierce has a special sensitivity for the plight of victims. Like his earlier books that I've heard: the Bundy Murders, and the Black Dahlia Avenger, Mr. Kevin Pierce narrates with just the right tone of authority and passion. It is by turns terrifying and deeply emotional. The third act is a description of the atrocities that occurred that night, and the human reaction to it. It's as though a bear group-think has occurred, and they've told each other they're mad as hell and they're not going to take it any more. The fear mechanism that has prevented Grizzly bears from attacking humans for almost 60 years of Park history is beginning to fade, and the bears are becoming bolder, and more aggressive.
The second act rises in tension as rogue bears begin to behave very oddly. Then a long section on the history of bears in North America, the Black Bear, the now extinct Golden Bear, and Ursus Horribilis, the Grizzly bear. The second act focuses on people who live in the park grandfathered in because their homesteads existed before the park became a national park, the hikers, fishermen and rangers that enjoy and protect it. And we're presented with descriptions of the difficult, short lives of the beasts that live there. One can hear the birdsong, the splash of rippling waters, feel the frigid cold of the altitude, smell the scents of pine and loam. The first part of the book is a comprehensive description of Glacier National Park, and the flora and fauna that inhabit it. Jack Olsen, the legendary reporter, delivers a superbly crafted non-fiction account of a night of unprecedented violence, that is also a meditation on Man's humanity, and our relationship with the environment. The night the bears lost their fear of humans