Katherine J. Wu On Grizzlies

a black-and-white photo of several brown bears walking across a grassy plain, in front of mountains

Getty

We always appreciate Katherine J. Wu‘s writings on nature, especially her use of archival material to make a point:

Grizzly Bears Are Mostly Vegan

But humans made them more carnivorous.

On the subject of grizzly bears, the San Francisco Call—a short-lived newspaper that went out of print in 1913—wasn’t what you’d call kind. Continue reading

Bears In Our Midst

Bear populations are plummeting in most of the world. But in North America “human-bear conflicts” have been on the rise. Photograph by Alex Majoli / Parc de la Villette / Magnum

On the rare occasions when the historian and elegant writer Jill Lepore has essays whose topics overlap with our interests on this platform, we say hoorah:

The Bear in Your Back Yard

Throughout North America, they’re showing up in unexpected places. Can we coexist?

I keep a cannister of bear spray on a shelf by the mudroom door, next to a cakey-capped tube of sunscreen and two mostly empty and partly rusty green aerosol cans of OFF! Deep Woods insect repellent. Continue reading