Chasing the Ghost Bear: On the Trail of America’s Lost Super Beast

by Mike Stark

Winner of the 2023 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award
Reading the West Longlist for Nonfiction

No animal shakes the human consciousness quite like a bear, and few compare to the giant short-faced bears that stalked North America during the Pleistocene. Even among the mammoths and saber-toothed cats, they were a staggering on all fours, the biggest would stare a six-foot person in the face and weigh close to a ton. On hind legs they towered more than ten feet, with jaws powerful enough to crush skulls and snap bones like twigs.

The bears weren’t invincible, however. Despite their size, they were swept off the planet in a mysterious wave of Ice Age extinctions more than ten thousand years ago, then mostly forgotten. Chasing the Ghost Bear is Mike Stark’s journey into the bear’s enigmatic story—its life, disappearance, and rediscovery—and those trying to piece it together today. An engaging guide through his intrepid search, Stark’s story leads us from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles to a cornfield in Indiana, the far ends of the Arctic, the plains of Texas, and the swamps of Florida.

Part natural history, part travelogue, and part meditation on extinction and loss, Chasing the Ghost Bear returns these magnificent beasts to their rightful place in our understanding of the world just an epoch past.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, Natural History

264 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2022

Reviews

[Amelia J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hats off to Mike Stark for such an amazing and insightful book about the extinct Giant Short-Faced Bear. His passion and admiration for the Arctododus radiates into this book, allowing for the reader to get sucked in and join him on his journey across the country to learn more. Despite my fear of bears, it was quite an enjoyable read! 10/10 bear-y good

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the author repeatedly noted, for all the charisma and attraction that bears bring to many people, it is surprising that the largest member of the family that ever existed gets so little attention such that most have probably never heard of it. But perhaps this is just because so little is known about the species. We just don't have quite the number of complete skeletons compared to say, sabertooth cats or even mammoths. The short-faced bear Arctodus was rare in the landscape to begin with, given its immense proportions and position at the top of the trophic pyramid. Despite this, Stark's obsession with the beast drove him to all corners of North America to uncover its remains and the stories behind their discoveries. He tracks down obscure natural history documents and research articles and speaks to paleontologists all over the country to find out everything we know. Still, there is much speculation even about Arctodus' basic ecology. What was its diet like, how did it move, hunt and live, was it primarily a scavenger or predator etc.

It is thus a short book given the lack of much information. He also threw in stuff about the debate surrounding the extinction of megafauna and whether and how de-extinction may occur. A firm 'no' for Arctodus was the answer from experts, given the absence of the supporting prey species they'd require. But with the remaking of the dire wolf, who is to say it'd never happen?

[David Corleto-Bales]

Mike Stark has channeled his obsession over bears into a very interesting book about the ancient giant short-faced bear, a species that disappeared during the end of the Pleistocene after reigning over North America for a million years. The largest bear that ever lived, the giant short-faced bear has been known to exist from fossils first collected from a cave in the Sierra Nevada in the 1870s, and then numerous other fossils collected from the La Brea Tar Pits, the Yukon, a cornfield in Indiana in the '60s, and many other locations. Stark delves into the various theories about the bear: was it a rapacious predator, or just a scavenger? What did it eat? Did its existence inhibit the settling of the interior of North America? And the most compelling question of all: why did it go extinct, along with the other mega-fauna between 10,000 and 13,000 years ago? Stark is what the world needs more of, that being, a bear nerd.

[Zachary Strong · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was very entertaining for me, and probably for any enjoyer of paleontology. My favorite parts are when the writer goes off onto tangents that I would not have expected. These tangents, however, provide a lot of context as to the significance of the particular places or situations he is talking about. Including the stories of the people that he helped write help to suck the reader into the book, making it less like a research paper and more like a historical fiction novel. One of the places where the bones of the Giant short-faced bear was found was the La Brea Tar Pits. At one point, Mike Stark talks about how a police officer once had to scuba dive into the tar pit to fish out a suspect’s gun. “Extraordinarily, while his fins and gloves began to fray from the heat and toxic chemicals and his other equipment started to fail, Mascarenas found what he was looking for and returned to the air and Los Angeles Sunshine.” This storytelling makes the book what it is.

[Dennis Robbins · Rating 5 out of 5]

A monster from the past. A bear on four limbs that could look a 6 foot human biped in the eye. Standing on its hind legs was 12 ft. tall. This prehistoric animal was carnivore equipped with massive jaws and teeth, possessed excellent vision, had broad nasal cavities for scenting prey, weighed over 2000 pounds, and could move with a speed up to 40 mph! Frightening. No worries, you won't stumble upon it as you walk through the woods because only the bones of the giant short-faced bear remain. It may have lived as recently as 10,000 years so earlier human beings may have had encountered it. This is untold story of the discovery the giant short-face bear which the author traces back to the 1870s. This is an interesting history and science book about a nightmare beast from the Ice Age.

[David Rudin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really, I'd give it 3.5 stars. A pleasant jaunt into the lost world of the Short-faced Bear, Arctodus simus, a giant beast that disappeared along with the rest of the mega-fauna, 10,000 + years ago under still unknown and disputed circumstances.
Following the fossil trail of this giant beast becomes an obsession for Stark who visits the places where fossilized bones were found, talks to the experts, and shares the various arguments on why Arctodus and the rest of the mega-beasts disappeared.
A relatively light and easy read, pulling back the curtain for a peak of a forgotten time and the life of one of the truly great beasts to walk this earth.

[Miles Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better books on Pliocene history I’ve read, and the unquestionably only book worth reading on Arctodus Simus.