Else Poulsen - Böcker

This book is a behaviour-based approach to captive bear management. It provides a comprehensive guide to the evolutionary, physical and psychological needs of the eight bear species, combining data from wildlife ecologists, captive institutions and research facilities to promote the best-practice management of bears in captivity. The initial chapters offer a rationale for a behaviour-based approach, examining the habitat, behaviour and ecology of bear species in the wild, and their traditional management in captive environments. The authors discuss the benefits and drawbacks of various captive management systems, dispel common myths troubleshoot specific problems, and promote an evidence-based, best-practice approach to successfully managing these challenging species in captive environments.

Few people have known bears as intimately as Else Poulsen has. This remarkable book reveals the many insights about bears and their emotional lives that she has gained through her years of work with them. Always approaching each bear with the same two questions in mind -- "Who are you?" and "What can I do for you?" -- Poulsen has shared in the joy of a polar bear discovering soil under her paws for the first time in 20 years and felt the pride of a cub learning to crack nuts with her molars. She has also felt the hateful stare of one bear that she could not befriend, and she has grieved in the abject horror of captivity for a sun bear in Indonesia. Featuring photographs from Poulsen's personal collection, Smiling Bears provides an enlightening and moving portrait of bears in all their richness and complexity.

A zookeeper's story of her extraordinary relationship with the bears she has rescued and her insights into their emotional lives. "An inspiring trip into the mind and reality of bears." --Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep Few people know bears as intimately as Else Poulsen. She has raised bears, comforted bears, taught bears, learned from bears, had bears communicate their needs to her, and nursed bears back to health. This remarkable book reveals the many insights about bears and their lives that she has gained through her work with them. In the eighties, Poulsen became a zookeeper in Calgary, where she rehabilitated bears in crisis. She has shared in the joy of a polar bear discovering soil under her paws for the first time in twenty years, felt the pride of a cub learning to crack nuts with her molars, and grieved at the horror of captivity for Asian black bears in China. Smiling Bears provides an enlightening and moving portrait of bears in all their richness and complexity and of Poulsen's exhilarating work with them.