Bears have always held a central place in our collective memory, from Indigenous folklore and Greek mythology to nineteenth-century fairytales and the modern toy shop. But as humans and bears come into ever-closer contact, our relationship nears a tipping point. Today, most of the eight remaining bear species are threatened with extinction. Some, such as the panda bear and the polar bear, are icons of the natural world; others, such as the spectacled bear and the sloth bear, are far less known.

In Eight Bears, journalist Gloria Dickie embarks on a globe-trotting journey to explore each bear’s story, whisking readers from the cloud forests of the Andes to the ice floes of the Arctic; from the jungles of India to the backwoods of the Rocky Mountain West. She meets with key figures on the frontlines of modern conservation efforts—the head of a rescue center for sun and moon bears freed from bile farms, a biologist known as Papa Panda, who has led China’s panda-breeding efforts for almost four decades, a conservationist retraining a military radar system to detect and track polar bears near towns—to reveal the unparalleled challenges bears face as they contend with a rapidly changing climate and encroaching human populations.

Weaving together ecology, history, mythology, and a captivating account of her travels and observations, Dickie offers a closer look at our volatile relationship with these magnificent mammals. Engrossing and deeply reported, Eight Bears delivers a clear warning for what we risk losing if we don’t learn to live alongside the animals that have shaped our cultures, geographies, and stories.

Gloria Dickie's profile page

Gloria Dickie is a global climate and environment correspondent at Reuters News Agency. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, the Guardian, National Geographic, Scientific American, and the Atlantic, among other publications. Originally from Ontario, Canada, she lives in London, England.

Vivid and engrossing…[Eight Bears] is not only a celebration of beardom, it is also, alas, a warning. —Richard Adams Carey, Wall Street Journal

A captivating and carefully considered mosaic of stories that will engross any reader interested in wildlife and wilderness.—Jake Buehler, Science News

A family album of the remaining varieties of bear…As Dickie shows, bears are in deep trouble, and her book is a compelling attempt to see through their eyes.—Edward Posnett, Guardian

Eight Bears explores the wonder and friction that characterise the relationship between bruins and people…Gloria Dickie travels around the world, bringing readers on a riveting and unique sort of bear hunt. —The Economist

This book is not just a bear encyclopedia. Dickie wants to ask what it means to conserve a species, and in some cases how much conservation is ‘enough.'—Katrina Gulliver, The Spectator (UK)

Wonderful…[O]ffers travel to Asia and South America, exchanges with purveyors of bear bile, quotes from ursine luminaries, and an engaging mix of science and experience.—Bill Streever, EcoLit Books

Superb…[T]he crisp prose will transport readers…[Eight Bears] is a winning combination of travel and environmental reporting. —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A cleareyed view of the world’s bears and the many threats they face.—Kirkus Reviews

Eight Bears roars about the majesty and charisma of these remarkable creatures while illuminating their escalating vulnerability in a changing environment. —Library Journal

Laced with climate change warnings as [Gloria Dickie] explores all the ways humans both love and endanger these creatures.—Book Page

A definitive and magisterial account.… This book is essential reading about the ongoing Anthropocene collision between humanity and the rest of the natural world.—James Balog, director of Earth Vision Institute and A.D. White Professor-at-Large, Cornell University

Eight Bears is science journalism at its best: thoroughly researched, carefully conceived, and vividly written. Highly recommended! —Nate Blakeslee, author of American Wolf

Written with deep compassion and striking humor, Eight Bears provides a deep and clarifying understanding of our history of ursine kinship. —Lyndsie Bourgon, author of Tree Thieves

At once heartbreaking and hopeful, steeped in science and rich in poetry, Eight Bears is an intrepid investigation into the harms we’ve inflicted upon bears—and proof that we still have the power to save our ursine brethren. —Ben Goldfarb, award-winning author of Eager

With deep, on-the-ground reporting and vivid writing, Gloria Dickie takes readers from the historic mythologies that have made bears the most charismatic of megafauna to the lairs and laboratories where the future for each of the world’s eight ursine species is being written. Her book is as magnificent as the animals we meet in it.—Michael Kodas, author of Megafire

In this insightful, absorbing book, Gloria Dickie not only introduces us to the eight remaining species of bears themselves but deftly connects the plight of each species to a much larger story: the story of our ancient, fraught, irreplaceable relationship with these astonishing animals.—Michelle Nijhuis, author of Beloved Beasts

Gloria Dickie takes us on an intimate global journey into our tangled and absorbing relationship with bears, where fur brushes close to skin, where the stakes are high, and in which the future of bears is our future as well.—Harley Rustad, author of Lost in the Valley of Death