The bear population is believed to have undergone a significant decline at that time, due to Park Service control measures and to the disruption of behavior by the loss of centralized food resources and associated social interactions. Chapters on food habits, reproduction, and mortality compare these factors before and after dump closure. The final chapter discusses the prospects for long term grizzly recovery and offers suggestions for managing this population in and around Yellowstone. This book is a valuable compendium of scientific information about the grizzly. Tables and charts are easily readable due to the book's large format.
Illustrations are of exceptional quality.
The book can be read with profit by the scientist interested in bear biology, but it also has much to offer readers with an interest in the history of science and the effects of socio-political factors on the conduct of research. Although technical in content and presentation, I believe this work is accessible to the interested generalist. The authors promise in the historical prelude to confine their treatment to the biology and management of the grizzly and to refer to politics only to the extent necessary to place their research in political perspective. Readers will probably have differing views as to whether or not this promise was kept. Those of us who are familiar with the events of the early 1970's cannot escape the conclusion that the premature termination of the Craighead study and the failure to apply consistent research methodologies across the period of dump closures must surely have been a pivotal disappointment in the long and distinguished careers of these naturalist brothers and their colleagues.