THE BEAST THAT WALKS LIKE MAN: THE STORY OF THE GRIZZLY BEAR. By Harold McCracken.

(1955) 2003 new reprint edition. 8vo paperback. Ppxii,319. B/w photographs and illustrations, bibliography.

Harold McCracken was a respected and highly successful explorer, hunter and author. First published in 1955, this book describes the natural history of the grizzly bear, and details the history of its relationship with native Americans, and its subsequent decline at the hands of colonists. "Now found only in the northern Rockies, Canada and Alaska, the grizzly once roamed across nearly the entire continent, with one early nineteenth-century report claiming its territory extended as far as the east side of the Hudson River. Harold McCracken describes the first scientific classification of the species as Ursus horribilis in 1815..." McCracken's view of the grizzly's future was quite pessimistic, and his book, as with so many of its era, provides us with good-quality material to compare with the species' present state. "Observing and studying grizzly bears has proved to be far more gratifying than all the hunting I have done." A classic in its genre, of great interest to anyone sportingly, historically or ecologically inclined.