Welcome

A Book

by
Stephen F. Stringham, Ph.D.

Photo (c) 1989

With photographs by the author and by
Kent Fredriksson

Illustrations by
Gerald Trombley
To see more of Gerald’s evocative sketches, click here .

Under typical circumstances, it’s quite risky to meet a bear up close and personal. So most people prefer to avoid encounters, and resort to militant defense when encounters do occur. Any bear they can’t escape from, they try to scare away or kill. Several books, including my own Alaska Magnum Bear Safety Manual , have been written to help folks master those tactics -- Avoid, Deter or Kill -- which together constitute what I call the militant strategy.

Militancy is well tailored to the needs of most people, most of the time. But it is of limited use to viewers. Far from avoiding bears, viewers seek them out -- at the very least to watch bears and in many cases with hopes of photographing them. Rather than wanting to drive bears away or kill them, viewers want to watch bears go about their lives naturally, free from disruption or corruption by human impacts.

Given the rapid rise in viewer numbers -- an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 per year as of 2006 -- there is clearly an intensifying need for a major educational effort to inform people about where, when and how to view bears. Some bears are far too dangerous to encounter within photographic distances. Others are extraordinarily tolerant. The degree of tolerance depends on the species of bear (e.g., grizzly/brown, polar, or black bear), habitat type (coastal or inland), food supply (abundant or scarce), season (e.g., spring famine, early summer mating, mid-summer fattening, or fall gorging), prior experiences with people (e.g., hunters or viewers), and other factors.

The Bear Viewing Association is dedicated to providing this information. In addition to teaching about bears at K-12 schools and colleges, I have written a number of books about bear psychology and behavior, based on many years of research and viewer-guiding. My first book Beauty Within the Beast described my experiences raising orphans here in the Alaska wilds. Our new guide book Bear Viewing in Alaska gives the basics on where, when and how to watch bruins.

Bear Viewing in Alaska provides enough safety advice to meet the needs of the average viewer who is in a group of at least five people led by professional bear guide, and who encounters only bears that are hundred yards away or which are very tolerant of people. However, much more skill and insight are necessary to cope with higher risk encounters, especially those where you are responsible for the welfare of other people and have to rely on your own expertise. It was to meet this need that I wrote When Bears Whisper, Do You Listen?

Decades of adventures and tens of thousands of close encounters with megafauna (“big game”) convince me that safety often depends on winning trust, respect, and cooperation of the animals. This approach can be employed by anyone who meets bears up close and personal, even in an East Coast backyard. But it is especially valuable to viewers.

People who excel at winning the trust, respect and cooperation of other people are often called diplomats or communicators; we say they have charisma Those of us who achieve the same results with animals could likewise be called interspecies diplomats or communicators. However, for better or worse, we have been dubbed “whisperers” -- horse whisperers, dog whisperers, elephant whisperers, and bear whisperers (to say nothing of ghost whisperers).

Catchy labels aside, animal diplomacy or communication is mostly a matter of active “listening.” Even more critical than what you “say” with your voice, body and actions, is what you “hear” animals “say.” Diplomacy is about being so sensitive to animals that all they have to do is “whisper;” no need to “shout.” If you can understand what an animal wants and needs while it is still in the “whispering” stage -- before its fear, frustration or anger intensify -- a skilled person can usually appease or gently deter the animal. Once it is “shouting,” however, diplomacy may be useless, forcing even experts to fall back on much more dangerous and disruptive militant tactics.

Bear Viewing Association safety tips are provided to you in multi-media.
When Bears Whisper, Do You Listen? is available in hardcopy and contains over 200 B&W photos. A color version of most photos photos and illustrations will soon be available on this website. A companion DVD will allow you to watch most of the bear body language and encounters described in the book. Supplementing those materials, this website will present updated information on a monthly basis. It is also linked to blogs where you can comment on the book or on other topics related to bears, bear safety, and bear viewing.

To purchase When Bears Whisper, Do You Listen? or to examine other BVA books, videos and CDs, visit our store by clicking on the arrow:

All profits are devoted to
BVA’s educational, research and conservation projects.

Stephen F. Stringham, PhD
Director - Bear Viewing Association

Bear Whispering. (c) 2006 S. Stringham

Topics on this Website

Other Bear Viewing Association Websites

Hungry for radical adventure.

Eager to meet some of the world’s biggest carnivores

up close and personal

without excessive risk or impact on wildlife?

Then When Bears Whisper, Do You Listen? is the book for you.

Welcome to its website companion,

which contains previews of the book

as well as additional text, photos, and blogs.