A Beast the Color of Winter

[mdunc8]

Just finished this. It's a pretty good read. Anyone have any suggestions for a similarly written book on a different critter?

 

[----]

These aren't written by a biologist, so they're a lot less technical. "The Phantom Ghost of Harriett Lou", and "Learning to Talk Bear" , both written by Roland Cheek, are really cool story collections of elk in the former and grizzlies in the latter. I've mentioned Cheek on here a couple different times, but I've really liked his work.

 

[Gerald Martin]

I sure like A Beast Color of Winter also. I think anyone who draws a goat tag would benefit from reading that book. Randy11, our local library has both of those books by Roland Cheek and I enjoyed reading them. Howard Copenhaver wrote some pretty interesting tales remininscing about his years guiding in the "Bob". Those are a good read although not the kind of book you're talking about mdunc8.

 

[Drake4]

Randy, are those fictional books?

 

[Horn Seeker]

I really enjoyed both of those books also Randy... And also the goat book... good stuff.

If you want to read a fantastic book about Grizzlys and the wilderness, find a book by Russel, called, "Grizzly Country"... good, good chit!

 

[----]

Randy, are those fictional books?

They're short stories from an educated outfitter. They're mainly his personal experiences.

 

[WBouldin]

When in Yellowstone a few years back I picked up a book called "Mark of the Grizzly". It gave detailed re-tellings of all grizzly attacks within the park and broke down the cause of attack and how the various reactions of the victims impacted whether they survived or not. Also goes into their behavior patterns and interpretations of various human intrusion/encounters. Great read! Just odered "Grizzly Country" off Amazon and cant wait for it!

 

[npaden]

I was looking at buying this book on Amazon and read this review.

I found the book to be very informative about the ways that goats go about their daily lives and the hierarchied structure that prevails. The problem I have with this book is the author's admission that he is against the hunting of mountain goats. This is fine to have as an opinion, but when the author admits in writing that he has performed an illegal act, harrassing animals to prevent legal hunting as well as threatening to destroy a legal road to disallow legal vehicle access, my opinion of the book plummeted.

With so many of you recommending this book I was suprised to read that about it. I guess the overall content of the book is still worth it?

Thanks, Nathan

 

[hawkeye270]

The Wolverine Way is by Douglas Chadwick (the same author as ABTCOW) and it is an awesome read! Its about his time spent working on the Glacier Nat. Park wolverine study. Its my favorite book... hands down.

 

[Carl]

While not in the same vein, I've read a lot of hunting related books the last few years and my favorite has been "Alaskan - Yukon Trophies Won and Lost". Highly recommended.

 

[Lawnboy]

I'm going to recommend you read "Alaska's Wolf Man" I found this book at a friends house in Alaska and couldn't put it down once I started. It chronicles the life of Frank Glaser who was a trapper, proffesional hunter, and a self taught biologist basically.
His 40 years living in the wilderness and the things he saw and learned are simply amazing. It is not only about wolves but sheep, caribou, bears basically all the animals he was around during his time. It is an awesome book and one that I think every hunter should read. It gives some incredible insight on wolves and answers many of the questions that have recently been asked on here from a guy who killed over 500 in all his years.

He could blow the doors off any modern "beast mode" Cam Haines hunter. His loads of sheep meat hauled out on a pack board make me feel like a real sissy boy considering I'm using a deluxe MR pack
Do yourself a favor and read this book.

http://www.amazon.com/Alaskas-Wolf-Man-Wilderness-Adventures/dp/1575100479/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

[Gerald Martin]

I found the book to be very informative about the ways that goats go about their daily lives and the hierarchied structure that prevails. The problem I have with this book is the author's admission that he is against the hunting of mountain goats. This is fine to have as an opinion, but when the author admits in writing that he has performed an illegal act, harrassing animals to prevent legal hunting as well as threatening to destroy a legal road to disallow legal vehicle access, my opinion of the book plummeted.

With so many of you recommending this book I was suprised to read that about it. I guess the overall content of the book is still worth it?

N-Paden- I know this is an old post but I do remember the instance in the book that this review referred to. If I remember correctly the incident took place in the Swan Mountains back in the early 70's. The way the author presented it was that a new road had been punched into a formerly inaccessible drainage and on opening day road hunters were driving to the end of the road and shooting at the goats from a long distance cross canyon. ( this was when there was still a general season for goats) Chadwick and his wife had been working for a while studying the resident goats of the drainage and had managed to radio collar several. The "wildlife harrassment" took place when he observed a group of goats within range of the road and hiked below them to let them catch his wind so they would spook back over the top of the mountain.

I'm not defending nor condemning his actions just trying to present them in proper context.

Chadwick is a self-described non hunter and presents some reservations about the biological need for hunters to control numbers of mountain goats since he feels their lifestyle and environment is a limiting factor on population growth. Yet, in reading his books, I don't get the feeling that he is anti-hunting per se and even writes about an instance where a friend of his shot a goat that he had studied and recognized, in a non-critical factual manner.
I gathered part of his reservations about the need to hunt mountain goats came from the "kill more, to grow more" mentality that some biologists had in requards to deer and elk hunting. The theory was that habitat was the limiting factor and if hunters shot a lot of deer and elk, the deer and elk would reproduce at a higher rate to keep herd levels high. Chadwick observed this was not a valid theory for mountain goats and presents some very good arguments against this mentality for managing goats.
I for one did not understand the dynamic of how slow mountain goats are to reproduce and just how devestating it can be for populations to take too many females out of the herd, until I read this book. It gave me a lot of insight to see why another guy who has spent a lot of time studying goats, told my hunting partner and I to try and be sure we didn't shoot a nanny when my partner drew his goat tag.

I guess the overall content of the book is still worth it

I would say definitely yes the book is worth reading. Chadwick's focus is on the mountain goat and how it relates to its environment with a few observations about his feelings on hunting, not an emotional, anti-hunting, rant with a few observations about mountain goat behavior thrown in.

 

[smitho]

I felt like maybe the author of " A beast the color of winter" may have been a little on the anti hunting side and if that is the case I took some satisfaction in knowing that his book has become such a widely used tool for goat hunters. I loved the irony of this and it really is a good read.

 

[Khunter]

Simply.....a good read.

 

[MTGunner]

" A Beast the color of Winter"

I just ordered this book via Amazon. Perhaps I should have read this book prior to my hunt last fall .Perhaps not. Too late! I hunted, I climbed, I successfully took a good Billy. It should be interesting to glean what hardships a person should expect on a hunt such as a mountain goat hunt. I will ad that it is indeed a grand adventure. The hardships aside, it should be experienced by all that seek true hunting adventure. Thanks for the heads up regarding this book. I look forward to reading it. BTW, my full mount Billy goat will be ready from my taxidermist early August. MTG

 

[Horn Seeker]

Hey Bart, my dad gave me Alaska's Wolf Man... wow... that guy was something else... Great Read!!!