Tracking Gobi Grizzlies: Surviving Beyond the Back of Beyond

by Douglas H. Chadwick (Photographer), Joe Riis (Photographs)

In the tradition of Douglas Chadwick's best-selling adventure memoir, The Wolverine Way , Tracking Gobi Grizzlies creates a portrait of these rarest of bears' fight for survival in one of the toughest, most remote settings on Earth. He demonstrates why saving this endangered animal supports an entire ecosystem made up of hundreds of interconnected plants and animals, from desert roses to Asiatic lynx and wild double-humped camels, all adapting as best they can to the effects of climate change. A parable of environmental stewardship in a legendary realm.

Genres: Animals, Wildlife, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published December 13, 2016

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book about a unique bear species. It’s almost like an extended National Geographic article with its many photos that are nicely interspersed with the text. Indeed the author did do an article for the magazine on one of his yearly trips. This book is more than one trip though. It sounds like the austerity and solitude of the Gobi as well as the friendship of the Mongolians and the plight of the bears demand a return visit. Several in fact.

Lots of amazing information imparted. The Gobi grizzlies are smaller than the North American grizzlies. None of the Mongolians dealing with sedating and trapping Gobi grizzlies carried a weapon! Chadwick opines that the Gobi is called a desert but it’s more a stonescape and he refers to it as Thirstland.

In North America you don’t feed beers. A fed bear is a dead bear. However, in the Gobi the government has built feeding stations at oases. These feeding stations are stocked with grain pellets once or twice a year and are subject to budget whims. There are only 40 or so bears in a huge protected area with little resources. The bears would be extinct without this human intervention.

In 1900 humans and livestock were 2% of the living biomass. Today it’s 90 percent!! The effects of overgrazing by a pastoral people have been profound too on the landscape. Wind and blue sky. The edge of nowhere. Quite an adventure. More Chadwick please.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit more of a personal travelogue than the more science-focused books Doug has previously written, this was much longer but still fascinating to read. It's interesting how the conservation methods to support grizzlies vary depending on the situation; in the Gobi, bears are offered supplemental foods whereas in Montana "A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear" is the warning mantra. Like American grizzlies, the Gobi grizzlies face challenges from many fronts, yet seem to eke out an existence against all odds. Fascinating.

[PaulS · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great author of natural history books -really feel like you are out there with him

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doug continues to endear his readers to adventurous terrain and incredible, rare species through his latest book about Ursus arctos gobiensis (Gobi bears). This is a beautifully produced book and the photos are as much part of the experience as the text. Well done, Patagonia books and Doug!