The 9 Best Books About Bears – Safety Tips and Species Insights Reviewed and Ranked

Bears are one of the most beloved and feared animals on the planet. They’re massive, powerful, dangerous, and simultaneously adorable and lovable.

What apex predator has a more complicated role? How can you be Yogi Bear and one of the scariest forest-dwellers all at once?

In any case, these things make bears very, very interesting to humans for two reasons. First, we want to know how to handle a situation with a bear should it ever occur.

Experts say that bears don’t want to harm us but will do so in order to protect themselves or their young. So, knowing what to do if you encounter a bear might just save your life.

Second, we’re intrigued by these massive mammals, how they think, where they came from, and their role in the ecosystem. Both things are interesting in their own right!

We’ve compiled some of the best books about bears for you to read, regarding both safety and the cool things we all love about bears.

Let’s take a look.

9. Backcountry Bear Basics: The Definitive Guide to Avoiding Unpleasant Encounters

This is a guide that gives you some in-depth information on handling yourself in Bear Country. From finding the right campsite to understanding how to act when a bear charges, you’ll find all you need to know in this guide written by bear expert Dave Smith.

One great aspect of Backcountry Bear Basics is the fact that it breaks down commonly held beliefs about bears and bear attacks. You can shake out some of the inaccurate knowledge you have and replace it with tried-and-true methods of avoiding negative bear encounters.

How to Avoid Unpleasant Bear Encounters

Backcountry Bear Basics: The Definitive Guide to Avoiding Unpleasant Encounters

• Provides real-life strategies for avoiding bear encounters
• Debunks myths about the relationship between bears and humans
• Teaches you to avoid conflict with bears
• Written by bear expert Dave Smith

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8. What Bears Teach Us

Laden with beautiful images, What Bears Teach Us details the bear’s relationship with humans and unpacks the way these animals behave as individuals.

This is an enjoyable read, certain to pique your interest and give you a new depth of knowledge when it comes to black and brown bears. You might find that you think of the bear with a little more respect and admiration after reading What Bears Teach Us.

Most Beautiful Images

What Bears Teach Us

• Concentrates on the relationship between bears and humans
• Focuses on black and brown bears
• Explores the behavior of individual bears
• Packed with stunning images

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7. Touching Spirit Bear

Touching Spirit Bear isn’t a factual account of bears, but rather a novel that uses the North American Kermode bear as a central motif.

Kermode bears are often called “Spirit bears,” due to their rarity and the small presence of white bears in the population. Most Kermode bears are black, but a gene variation causes a small percentage of the population to be white.

This award-winning novel by Ben Mikaelsen gives us insights into the bear’s significance as it relates to a young boy’s journey to grapple with trauma, punishment, and redemption.

Best Coming of Age Book

Touching Spirit Bear (Spirit Bear, 1)

• Fun fact: The author raised a bear for 27 years!
• Nautilus Award-winning classic
• Deals with the effects of violence on a young boy's life
• Focuses on redemption -- from a bear that attacked him, his abusive parents, and his own actions

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6. In the Company of Bears: What Black Bears Have Taught Me About Intelligence and Intuition

Ben Kilham has interacted with black bears for decades. His research and close interactions with bears have granted him access to knowledge that very few have ever had.

One bear that Kilham has worked with even lets him witness pieces of her everyday life, which is extremely rare. These insights have paved the way for a deeper understanding of the ways that bears interact with one another in the wild.

If you’re looking to understand bears on a unique level, this is the book for you.

Best Interactions with Bears

In the Company of Bears

• The author has studied and lived with black bears in the wilds of Northern New Hampshire
• Examines the complex relationships that bears have with each other
• Contains real-life stories of the author raising orphaned bears
• The author's dyslexia kept him from obtaining an advanced degree, but now his techniques are used by scientists who study bears throughout the world

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5. How to Fight a Bear…and Win: And 72 Other Real Survival Tips

‘How to Fight a Bear…’ clearly has a silly title, but it’s packed with useful information for anyone looking to spend time in the wilderness.

Naturally, you don’t ever want to fight a bear. The best way to win that fight is to prepare and avoid it at all costs. That said, bear-fighting and extreme survival situations can come up when you’re in the wilderness, so it’s useful to have some tips on what to do when you’re in trouble.

This book is both useful and amusing. It’s a great travel companion for your downtime. Give it a try and prepare yourself for the wilderness.

Best Survival Guide

How to Fight a Bear...and Win

• Contains 73 survival tips, including how to fight a bear and win
• Other tips focus on emergency situations that you hope you'll never have to deal with such as:
• Landing an airplane
• Identifying what types of insects you can eat
• How to perform emergency surgery

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4. The Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone: Their Ecology in The Yellowstone Ecosystem

The Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone is an excellent study into the lives of Grizzly bears.

Grizzlies are keystone species in Yellowstone, and the ecosystem of Yellowstone has a large impact on the ecosystems surrounding it, particularly in the western and southwestern United States. That makes these bears extremely important for life in the west.

For those of you looking for a deep dive into the science, nature, and research of Grizzlies, this is your book.

Most Scholarly

The Grizzly Bears of Yellowstone: Their Ecology In The Yellowstone Ecosystem

• Reviews the history of the grizzly in Yellowstone
• Drawn from the academic work of John and Frank Craighead, a team of students, and their colleagues
• Focuses on the battle to protect grizzlies and preserve their place in Yellowstone
• Provides in-depth analysis of the bears' behaviors, population, habitat, and more

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3. Bear Safety Primer

This is the everyman’s guide to handling yourself in bear country. If you’re not looking to read a lengthy book, or you just want to get straight to the point, take a look at Bear Safety Primer.

The information in this book is essential if you’re a person who hunts, fishes, hikes, or camps in bear country. Bear safety can be straightforward if you know what you’re doing, but lack of bear safety can get you into extremely dangerous situations, even if you’re just out for an afternoon hike.

Get your pocket guide to bear safety here.

Best Primer for Co-Existing with Bears

Bear Safety Primer (Bears Book 2)

• This primer was written to keep you safe when you're in bear country
• Geared to hikers, anglers, and campers
• Provides details on how to share space with bears and how to deter them from harming you or your provisions and gear
• Written by a woman who spent over 28 years in remote areas of Alaska studying and living among bears

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2. Bears: The Mighty Grizzlies of the West

Bears: The Mighty Grizzlies of the West is a detailed study on bears told through narratives highlighting particular bear individuals. You’ll get to know some North American Grizzlies on an individual level, growing to appreciate their personalities through their interactions with their environments.

In the process, you’ll also start to understand how human activity is affecting bears and putting them at risk. Grizzlies are already endangered, and this critical population needs to be fostered if we want to enjoy the presence of these great creatures for much longer.

This book is both scientific and casual, making it relatively easy to work through. Take a look, and get to know the Grizzlies of the west.

Best Study on Grizzlies

Bears: The Mighty Grizzlies of the West

• Provides detailed narratives of individual grizzlies
• Written to help the reader understand that grizzlies are individuals just like we are
• Learn how human activity is impacting bears and putting them at risk
• Written in a style that is both scientific and casual so it's enjoyable and informative

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1. Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance, 3rd Edition

A solo backpacker, Alan Precup hiked deep into the Alaskan wilderness. He was missing for his pre-established pickup at the end of his trip.

Only traces of his skeleton were found at his campsite, accompanied by a camera. Once developed, the last photos on Alan’s camera were of a large grizzly bear approaching his camp.

Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance details this story and continues to give one of the most effective and comprehensive preparatory guides for preventing bear attacks. A healthy study of this book will certainly give you more confidence the next time you enter bear habitat. Get this essential guide here.

Best Info for Preventing Bear Attacks

Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance, 3rd Edition

• This book centers around a solo backpacker who hiked into the Alaskan wilderness...and didn't make it home
• It's a cautionary tale, using his partial skeletal remains and the last photos on his camera as guides to what not to do when in bear country
• What can we learn from the hiker's mistakes?
• How can we safely enter -- and explore -- their domain?

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Which is the Right Book for You?

Those of you going out into the wilderness should certainly explore one of the bear attack books listed above. Getting detailed information from an expert is much more effective than piecing together various answers from random websites on Google.

Alternatively, anyone just looking to appreciate bears should explore one of the options on bear intelligence, habitats, and ecosystems.

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