There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
Tracking Gobi Grizzlies - Douglas Chadwick - 2017.
Growing up in the American West, I was fascinated by nature and never-tamed places. That didn't change as I got older. I majored in biology during college and did my graduate field research on the social behavior and ecology of mountain goats. Under heavy pressure from sport hunting combined with the expansion of road networks ever farther into the backcountry, the goats were in widespread decline. Grizzlies, whose numbers had fallen to perhaps fewer than 700 south of Canada by the 1970s, needed protection even more urgently. I carried out some small-scale surveys and follow-up lobbying that played a minor role in getting the bears listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Next, I went to work as a seasonal biologist for the National Park Service, studying the mountain goats along the continental divide in Glacier Park. In my spare time, I hiked to my favorite settings for watching grizzlies, because... I'm not sure why. I feared these great, humbling, electrifying master mammals; I admired them for their blend of power and playfulness directed by an obvious intelligence. I think I sought out their presense in part because it made me so fully alive, from the oldest compartments of my glands and senses and brain to the newest. Grizzlies can absolutely rip and tear stuff apart, but for me they made the world feel more whole.
Bears of the Himalayan Mountains
