Smiling bears : a zookeeper explores the behavior and emotional life of bears

Book

Smiling bears : a zookeeper explores the behavior and emotional life of bears / Else Poulsen ; foreword by Stephen Herrero.

Summary:

Few people have known bears as intimately as Else Poulsen has. This remarkable book reveals the many insights about bears and their emotional lives that she has gained through her years of work with them. Always approaching each bear with the same two questions in mind--"Who are you?" and "What can I do for you?"--Poulsen has shared in the joy of a polar bear discovering soil under her paws for the first time in 20 years and felt the pride of a cub learning to crack nuts with her molars. She has also felt the hateful stare of one bear that she could not befriend, and she has grieved in the abject horror of captivity for a sun bear in Indonesia. Featuring photographs from Poulsen's personal collection, this book provides an enlightening and moving portrait of bears in all their richness and complexity.--From publisher description.

Record details

ISBN: 9781553653875
ISBN: 1553653874
Physical Description: xxvii, 236 pages ; 23 cm.
Publisher: Vancouver ; Greystone Books, c2009.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-222) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: Prologue : Who are you and what can I do for you? -- Smiling bears : bears do things for bear reasons -- Three Rocky Mountain grizzlies : from the wild to captivity -- Sex and the single grizzly : Skoki moves in -- A pacing polar bear : Snowball's inner demon -- Polar bear on Prozac : Snowball gets her life back -- Conversations with a polar bear : Misty asks for stuff -- Being a spectacled bear : Melanka and Nicholas -- Raising Miggy - raising me : learning lessons from a cub -- Rehabilitating Bärle : from circus bear to polar bear -- Bärle, Triton, and Talini : rehabilitation comes full circle -- Epilogue : What bears need - you and me.