Orphaned cubs get second chance

For many, the idea of being alone in the Alaska wilderness with three black bear cubs is a scary and nervous notion. For Stephen Stringham, it was all part of his role as parent.

Stringham, along with his new bride at the time, Alatanna, spent a summer 30 years ago raising three orphaned black bear cubs. He had to teach them every aspect of life, from hunting and fishing to socializing with other bears. The experience is detailed in Stringham's new book, Beauty Within the Beast: Kinship With Bears in the Alaska Wilderness.

The book invites readers to spend a summer with Stringham, Alatanna and the three cubs -- Ontak, Jonjoanak and Chrislee. The cubs were orphaned when their mother, Doddy, was shot and killed after rummaging through cabins. Stringham and his wife stepped in and raised the three cubs, essentially from the day they were born.

To first gain the trust of the three cubs, Stringham offered pots of oatmeal and honey for the cubs, as well as the pelt of Doddy. After attracting the bears and slowly gaining their trust, Stringham and Alatanna bottle fed the bears and basically acted as surrogate parents -- the art of bearanting, as Stringham writes in the book. Stringham, a biologist and professor at Mat-Su College, said he devoted his life to studying bears through an experience of his youth.

"When I was 20, I ran into a grizzly in the wilderness and spent a night with him following me," Stringham said. "I was terrified, and I did a lot of praying. I asked God to keep me safe, and I promised I would take care of bears in the future in return."

As the summer passed, Stringham spent countless hours teaching the bears every facet of life. On long hikes, Stringham would help the cubs select the right plants to eat, help them identify berries to eat, and even taught them how to fish. That proved to be a difficult task at first -- Stringham would scare salmon from deeper water into the shallows, so the small cubs could pluck them out of the water for a tasty meal.

"It was far more of a learning process for me than it was for the cubs," Stringham said. "The hardest part I think was trying to teach the cubs to live safely with people. Most bears are killed by people rather than dying of natural causes. I didn't want the cubs to become nuisances."

As the summer progressed, Stringham became more and more attached to the cubs.

"We were as attached to them as parents are with their children," Stringham said. "You can't partition human emotions in terms of what you love. The cubs were our children, and we loved them like our children."

Part of teaching the cubs the way of the wilderness meant Stringham had to introduce them to other bears. He tracked a sow and her cubs, and through observing them, thought the new bears to be related to the cubs' mother. Ultimately, Ontak, Chrislee and Jonjoanak left Stringham and his wife for the family, and successfully make the transition into the wild.

"I've said it before, that helping those cubs come home, we came home as well," Stringham said. "People always try to get back to nature through one way or another, but we were into it as much as you could be into it. It was a profound experience."

The book, which is available at Fireside Books in Palmer, is a story as much as it is a textbook. Through Stringham's first-person narrative of how he lived and taught the cubs, you learn more about the natural behavior of bears. The story was a hard sell to publishers at first, Stringham said.

"Initially, it was hard to sell the book because it wasn't about the vicious attacks people like to read about," Stringham said. "This is a truthful account of bears in the wilderness."

The book has been out for about two weeks, Stringham said, and he has already been to Hollywood, talking with other publishers who want to buy the movie rights to the book.

"After being out in the woods for 30 years, living with bears and not getting hurt, I guess I know what I'm talking about," Stringham said with a chuckle.

Bear safety comes with education, author says

The headlines scream "Woman mauled by bear" or "Man survives brush with grizzly," every time somebody gets the rough end of a bear encounter, but you never hear about how bears live in harmony with people in the wilderness.

That is part of what Stephen Stringham says is bearanoia, a general fear of bears by the general public. Lurid headlines are used to sensationalize the power of bears too often, he said.

"Most people don't understand that bears are not fundamentally vicious. They are extremely intelligent and are curious by nature," Stringham said. "There are certain rules you have to follow with bears, and you can get along well with them if you do those things."

Among the rules to follow are securing your garbage and trash, and never offering food -- either on purpose or by accident -- to bears.

"Some bears are impossible to get along with because of bad habits they have picked up from human interactions," Stringham said.

"Most people see a bear in the woods and think they are in imminent danger, but they really aren't," Stringham said. "Bears are actually less fierce than people. They are just stronger, have claws and large jaws, and appear to be more violent."

Stringham, author of Beauty Within the Beast, is a biologist and a professor at Mat-Su College, where he is offering two courses next fall -- Large Bears of Alaska, and Large Mammals of Alaska. He is also the director of the International Bear Viewing Association, an organization aimed at teaching bear viewing guides what they need to know.

"Most bear viewing guides started out as hunting guides, and they had to get their clients close enough to shoot the animals, and that was it," Stringham said. "But when you get up close with bears and spend day after day with the same bears, they teach you special nuances that you can't get anywhere else. We are trying to pass that knowledge on to the guides.

"A lot of the things we are trying to teach the guides goes against conventional wisdom, and who is going to actually do something they have been told for years can get them killed by bears in the wilderness?" Stringham asked. "We're hoping to have a video and booklet available by the spring for guides."

Stringham will be talking about bear safety and how to deal with bears in the wilderness from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Fireside Books in Palmer.