Winner of ForeWord Magazine's 2006 Gold Award for Nature Book of the Year

The most comprehensive and compelling chronicle of human–grizzly-bear interactions ever written, In the Presence of Grizzlies (formerly published as The Essential Grizzly) examines the fragile bond between ourselves and the quintessential alpha predator. Doug and Andrea Peacock contend that the conservation of big, wild, sometimes dangerous animals is essential for the survival of our own species and for the sense of humility necessary for rational thought. They explore a wide range of human-grizzly encounters through interviews with biologists, mauling victims, hunters, and photographers. To these they add unique portraits―sketches of real grizzlies from the bear's viewpoint―and up-to-date commentary on such developments as the declassification of grizzlies as an endangered species.

In the Presence of Grizzlies eclipses all existing books on bear behavior and bear attacks, providing readers with a twenty-first-century context for revisiting the original shudder of Homo sapiens―the bear in the cave of our genesis.