I recently watched a documentary on The Nature of Things about Charlie Russell who rehabilitates and lives with grizzly bears in a remote area of Russia. It was one of the best films I have ever watched. Information about his book is below:

Grizzly Heart

by Charlie Russell with Maureen Enns

Canadian naturalist Charlie Russell's has become a legend of sorts on Kamchatka (he is, for example, the only foreigner I know of who has ever been allowed to fly his own private plane in Kamchatka's wilderness).

In the mid 1990's he traveled to the Russian Far East in search of an opportunity to study brown bears in an environment where they had not yet been corrupted by negative interactions with man. He found such an environment on Kamchatka, "the most remote and wild part of Russia... the least despoiled grizzly bear habitat in the world."

Once on Kamchatka Charlie proceeded to alter pre-conceived notions about Russian bureaucracy and brown bear behavior alike. Together with his partner Maureen Enns, he received permission to build a small hut in the deep wilderness of southern Kamchatka where the bear population is densest and most isolated. What's more they convinced the local authorities to allow them to take 3 recently orphaned bear cubs into the wilderness with them in order to raise and reintroduce into the wild.

In the course of 7 years Charlie and Maureen spent half of each year on Kamchatka - living in close contact with the local bear population, raising their orphaned cubs to be independent, and exploring Charlie's belief in the capacity of bear and man to live in close proximity, devoid of fear, and with mutual respect.

Told with candor and ease, Grizzly Heart is a superbly written story recounting Charlie's experiences on Kamchatka. It is also the best look into the realities of life in the Kamchatkan wilderness currently available in English.

Publisher's Comments

To many people, grizzlies are symbols of power and ferocity - creatures to be feared and, too often, killed. But Charlie Russell, who has had a forty-year relationship with bears, holds the controversial belief that it is possible to live with and truly understand bears in the wild. For the past six years, Russell and his partner, artist and photographer Maureen Enns, have spent summers on the rugged and glorious Kamchatka Peninsula on the northeast coast of Russia, home to the densest population of brown bears in the world. Grizzly Heart is the remarkable account of how Russell and Enns have defied the preconceptions of wildlife officials and the general public by living unthreatened - and respected - among the grizzlies of Kamchatka.

Reviews

"An absolutely remarkable and well-documented account of close encounters with grizzlies. This book is a truly fascinating adventure in nature with an invaluable wealth of insider information on both bear and human nature." - Robert Bateman

"Charlie Russell sets aside the folklore and misconceptions surrounding grizzlies, as he and Maureen Enns strive to understand these exceptional creatures on their own terms. It's pioneering work, and Grizzly Heart is a unique window into a world few people get to see." - Dr. Lynn Rogers, Principal Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute