In the Land of the Bear: Danger and Adventure Hunting Brown Bears in Russia's Forbidding Siberia

IN THE LAND OF THE BEAR is an inside look at the excitement, mystery, danger and adventure of hunting huge, aggressive brown bears in Siberia and traveling in Russia from 1991 through 2011, a time of political turmoil when the Soviet Union was evolving into Russia. It is an outdoor adventure book above all, but hunting aspects are in the tales told of camp life, in-the-field activity, and bear attacks. In addition to hair-raising stories of fatal brown bear attacks on people and livestock, bears digging up coffins in cemeteries, bears invading camps, and brown and grizzly bear hunting in general, the book contains historical perspective of what was happening politically at that time in Russia, detailing how the Siberian people lived, worked, survived ... and how they viewed ordinary Americans. (They viewed U.S. hunters favorably because they brought money. Siberia is a long way from Moscow and politics.) In the early 1990s, the USSR wanted to boost its tourism industry. Hunters and fishermen usually aren’t at the head of any list of tourist invitees, but in 1991 the Soviet Union, working with a U.S.-based travel agency, looked primarily at the spectacular hunting opportunities in Siberia and invited Denny Geurink, a Michigan-based outdoor writer, on a moose and brown bear hunt. He had excellent success but, even more, enjoyed learning about and adapting to an unfamiliar culture and existence that, he felt, more-closely resembled the U. S. Wild West of 150 to 175 years ago. Geurink liked the total experience so much he became a hunting outfitter for Siberian brown bear (the largest, most aggressive in the world), grizzly bear and moose hunts, plus incidental hunts for bighorn/snow sheep, wild Russian boar (the largest in the world), with now and then a grouse or wolf hunt added. He was the first American guide/outfitter to take clients to the brown bear capital of the world. Nearly 70 percent of the world’s brown bear population is in Russia. Russia is a game rich country, because few residents are allowed to own firearms, thus there is little hunting activity. For nearly 25 years Geurink lived adventure with a capital A, enjoying every minute of the hunts, the people, the culture, the political discussions, the travel throughout Russia ... and in the process developing strong attachments to the Siberian people and the land, sometimes staying for 90-day stretches to serve groups of hunting clients. He travelled there more than 50 times and continues to hunt Siberia annually.