On Being a Bear

For readers of Jane Goodall and Lawrence Anthony, this up-close, captivating look at bears traces our complex relationship to the animal throughout history.

On Being a Bear draws on history, legends, scientific studies, and the author’s thirty years of observing bears around the world to offer a richly detailed biography of these iconic animals, including the many ways bears have figured in our lives and imaginations.

As author Rémy Marion tells us, some cultures view bears as our wild cousins—as humans cloaked in fur—while others cast bears as cuddly characters in cartoons or seek to eradicate their grizzled forms from civilization. Scientists have made new discoveries into bears’ varied diets, their powerful sense of smell, and a mother bear’s stubborn patience with her cubs. Bears play a vital role in our ecosystems, and new studies into bear hibernation could lead to medical breakthroughs for humans. Offering these and more astonishing insights, On Being a Bear brings readers face-to-face with these long admired, feared, and misunderstood animals, and sets the record straight through a combination of thrilling science and expert storytelling.

RÉMY MARION is an author, photographer, and documentary filmmaker who has devoted his life to observing bears in the wild since the 1980s. Marion is a member of France’s national societies of geographers and explorers, and he is considered to be one of the country’s leading authorities on brown bears and polar bears.

LAMBERT WILSON is an actor and an environmental and human rights activist best known internationally for his role in the Matrix film franchise.