Stephen Stringham

Dr. Stringham began studying bears in 1969, while earning his BSc degree at Humboldt State University in Northern California. He has since studied black and grizzly/brown bears and other wildlife in Alaska, Montana, New York, Vermont, and Austria.

His research on bear communication, aggression and coexistence with humans began during the summer of 1972, with grizzly bears at Katmai National Park -- projects which continue to this day. He has had in excess of 10,000 close encounters with wild bears. You can share some of his adventures by watching the videos: "GRIZZLIES AMONG GLACIERS" and "WOLVERINE CREEK WILDLIFE ADVENTURES" (both available from the Bear Viewing Association (Google it!).

Years ago, he mentored 3 orphaned cubs, helping them learn to fend for themselves in the Alaskan wilderness -- as recounted in his classic narrative "BEAUTY WITHIN THE BEAST." This delightful blend of high adventure, low human, and fascinating scientific insights is now available in a SECOND EDITION which is filled with new photos.

His second book, BEAR VIEWING IN ALASKA, is based on his many seasons of experience guiding people to see wild grizzlies and other wildlife up close and personal. In addition to individual clients, he has guided film crews from Wild Things (which featured him in 1998), National Geographic (which aired a segment on his work in 2007), BBC, Nature, Discovery, Blue Planet, Firecracker and other major studios.

He is Director of the Bear Viewing Association. BVA's website (Google it!) contains hundreds of pages of additional information on bears, viewing, safety, conservation, and related topics. Included there are maps and descriptions of the top 100 viewing sites in North America.

Safety and etiquette tips for bear viewers -- embodied in the "Ten Golden Rules of Bear Viewing" were first presented in his book the ALASKA MAGNUM BEAR SAFETY MANUAL. Of course, not everyone wants to encounter bears. The Manual also provides detailed advice on avoiding encounters while hiking, camping, fishing, hunting or watching other wildlife. And, for those rare instances where you might encounter a truly aggressive bear, it gives detailed instruction on how to appease, intimidate, deter or kill the animal.

Dr. Stringham's book -- WHEN BEARS WHISPER, DO YOU LISTEN?: NEGOTIATING CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH WILD BRUINS -- teaches advanced techniques for winning the trust and respect of wild bears. Trust minimizes defensive aggression; respect minimizes bullying or predatory aggression.

If you are ever lucky enough to spend an hour or few watching bears, you might discover that it isn't always obvious which are females or. males -- if only because long fur can hide a female's breasts or a male's dong. Yet, to a knowing eye, the shape of a bear's head and muzzle, or a tuft of shiny hair under a bear's tail, or even the pattern of dribbles it leaves on the ground when urinating, can reveal a bear's sex. Even harder is estimating the age of a bear -- unless you know how head and body shapes change with age.

Sometimes its even easy to confuse a black bear with a brown bear, since both species come in nearly the same range of colors: black, white, brown, blond, cinnamon, etc.

But hardest of all is telling one bear from another if they are about the same color. Each bear has its own personality, personal history, social relationships, and tolerance thresholds for having people nearby. So telling which bear is which can add tremendously to your enjoyment and safety as you watch bears.

So how can you learn all those intriguing details and a great deal more? Read Dr. Stringham's field manual GHOST GRIZZLIES & OTHER RARE BRUINS: THE ART AND ADVENTURE OF KNOWING WILD BEARS. It's filled with color photos that make learning easy and fun (printing color photos is expensive and essential; hence the book's relatively high price).

Best of all, it tells of Stringham's adventures with the ultra rare GHOST GRIZZLIES, whose pure white coat (like that of a "spirit" black bear or of a polar bear) make them among the rarest of all bears.

His latest book TREASURES OF THE GOLDEN BOOK is perhaps the finest novel ever written about the bond between human and wildlife. Not only is the prose superb, and the adventures spellbinding, but it is filled with novel and fascinating insights of bears based on Stringham's firsthand experiences during more than 40 years of living with them. Unlike any other novel we've ever seen, it is filled with photographs -- mostly of bears, of course, showing them in action, doing the very things described in the novel. Well, in suspended action, anyway. But video footage will soon be available too. It's truly a "novel novel" and a wonderful read.

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In preparation are three more books:

• THE LANGUAGE OF BEARS: SEEKING MINDS WITHIN THE SKINS OF OTHER KINDS". This book explains how bears communicate with each other and how you might communicate with them too. Communication is the key to glimpsing life through the eye of a bear, and coming to understand at least a little about what goes on in their minds.

• BEAR AGGRESSION: You can’t have thousands of encounters with bears and avoid facing aggression now and then. Perhaps you’ve stumbled on a mamma bear desperate to protect her babies from predators – which is exactly how many bears see humans, if only because most of the humans they meet are trying to kill them! Bears haven’t all learned to reserve their aggression for people wearing an orange vest or a red checkered jacket. Or maybe a bear has stumbled on your scent trail and reacted as it were smelling roast turkey at Thanksgiving. Defensive fear by a mother bear is best curbed by winter her trust. Predatory aggression is best deterring by convincing a bear that you’re too nasty and tough to tackle – i.e., by winning its respect. Dr. Stringham knows, because he’s done it, many times. Read his book, and perhaps you can too.

perspectives on the ways bears compete with fellow bears for food or mates, catch salmon or other prey, and protect cubs from enemies.

BECOMING BEAR: EXPLORING NATURE’S MYSTERIES THROUGH THE EYES OF INDIGENOUS AND WESTERN SCIENCES. Although Dr. Stringham earned his Ecology PhD in the usual way through a series of fine universities, he isn’t locked into exploring Nature’s mysteries only through the methods of Western sciences. He also employs some methods perfected by Indigenous people whose survival depended on reliable knowledge of ecology,animal behavior, and numerous other fields that we now call science.

To learn more about the insights and methods of Indigenous peoples, he was spent years living in Native American communities – mainly in Alaska and Montana. . This book isn't about myths and legends. It's about how human beings have gathered the practical knowledge which has enabled them to survive and flourish under conditions that would quickly defeat most people from mainstream cultures. Most of all, its about achieving kinship and rapport with bears and other wildlife -- not just knowing "about" them, but sensing something of what it's like to BE a bear or wolf or moose or ... (becoming more than you ever thought you could be, without joining the military).

Dr. Stringham has taught bear safety and other courses at several colleges and universities, including the University of Alaska.

Since 1972, he has been President of WildWatch, a family business which began with guiding wildlife viewers, then expanded into consulting, research, education, video production and book publishing.

As a consultant, he has played key roles in preventing severe environmental impacts from construction of a pipeline, dumping of hazardous wastes, and other problems. He was founding Director of the Blackfeet Environmental Office, of the Blackfeet Indian Nation. Among his major interests are philosophy of science and the integration of western science with the "sciences" of Oriental and Indigenous cultures.