Over the past years, I have published many bear stories in the Coast Mountain News; in our heavily populated bear area these stories draw a lot of reader interest. Most of the stories indicate the complete helplessness of the individual involved - all of a sudden it isn't the scenario so often portrayed by the common belief "leave them alone, and they won't bother you" or "make lots of noise and they'll go away." Instead, the encounter often becomes a real life-and-death situation where your next decision could be your last. Unfortunately, until now, there hasn't been much available information about actual bear behavior. Mr. Shelton's book is timely. He not only addresses the problem, but takes the mystery out of bear aggressive behaviour and gives sound advice on what to do in different situations. The author's no-nonsense style of writing is not only refreshing, it is based on a lifetime of experience with bears. In this book he includes many bear encounter and attack stories to demonstrate the difficulty of surviving a bear encounter that goes wrong. During the last 20 years, Mr. Shelton has worked on many bear conservation projects, both through our local Rod and Gun Club, and as chairman of the Central Coast Grizzly Management Committee. Currently he has a seat on the steering committee of the South Tweedsmuir Park Atnarko Grizzly Study, and he is also a member of the Bella Coola Valley Local Resource Planning Committee (L.R.U.P.).
