KILLER BEARS

by Mike Cramond ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1981

True tales of bear attacks, reported by a Canadian outdoors writer who has had a few close calls of his own. Cramond has interviewed other victims--or, in fatal cases, their families and witnesses--and his stories combine, sometimes repetitively, their first-hand accounts with local newspaper write-ups and his human-interest versions of the interviews. Survivors report having large chunks of their flesh torn away, losing limbs and/or eyes, and hearing the crunch as bears bit into their skulls. Many of the victims were observing reasonable safety precautions, and many learned that no one response--yelling, advancing, playing dead--will pacify an alerted bear. Cramond says he undertook this project to convince careless park tourists and others that bears are dangerous and unpredictable, and if gory stories are a deterrent this will do it. (His concluding cautions, riddled with incoherent scattershot charges, are less persuasive.) But for vigorous telling and myth-making material, Beyers and Young's Man Meets Grizzly (1980) makes more rousing reading.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1981

ISBN: 1585742511

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1981

Categories: NONFICTION