A revelation on every other page. It’s impeccably researched, and Herrero himself is one of the foremost experts in the field. I particularly enjoyed his thoughts on the diverging evolutionary paths of grizzlies vs black bears, as well as his thoughts on how humans are — whether we admit it or not — indeed artificially selecting for certain character traits among grizzly populations whenever we destroy a grizzly that displays aggression. If you don’t have a policy in place, you will naturally default toward a “no policy” policy that results in ‘selecting’ for bears that display unnatural docility to humans. I’d never thought about it that way before, and I’ve been through a fair amount of thought leadership on the subject. It’s rare to get a book that combines (1) the personal stories from a ‘boots on the ground’ type of guy with (2) the best scholarly research on the subject (some of it from himself) with (3) visionary and thoughtful perspective. One of a kind.