Smiling Bears

An award-winning zookeeper, author, and bear expert shares the insights she has gleaned from a career spent working with the majestic animals.
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.
Praise for Smiling Bears
“An inspiring trip into the mind and reality of bears.” —Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep
“If you doubt bears are able to smile, buy this book—it’ll open your eyes and change the view.” —Terry D. Debruyn, author of Walking with Bears
“A rare window of opportunity to begin to understand not only the incredible challenges that face these species but also the meaning of their existence in nature.” —Robert Buchanan, president of Polar Bears International