{"product_id":"chasing-the-ghost-bear-on-the-trail-of-americas-lost-super-beast-9781496229021","title":"Chasing the Ghost Bear: On the Trail of America's Lost Super Beast","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2023 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReading the West Longlist for Nonfiction\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e No animal shakes the human consciousness quite like a bear, and few compare to the giant short-faced bears that stalked North America during the Pleistocene. Even among the mammoths and saber-toothed cats, they were a staggering sight: on all fours, the biggest would stare a six-foot person in the face and weigh close to a ton. On hind legs they towered more than ten feet, with jaws powerful enough to crush skulls and snap bones like twigs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The bears weren't invincible, however. Despite their size, they were swept off the planet in a mysterious wave of Ice Age extinctions more than ten thousand years ago, then mostly forgotten. \u003ci\u003eChasing the Ghost Bear\u003c\/i\u003e is Mike Stark's journey into the bear's enigmatic story--its life, disappearance, and rediscovery--and those trying to piece it together today. An engaging guide through his intrepid search, Stark's story leads us from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles to a cornfield in Indiana, the far ends of the Arctic, the plains of Texas, and the swamps of Florida. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Part natural history, part travelogue, and part meditation on extinction and loss, \u003ci\u003eChasing the Ghost Bear\u003c\/i\u003e returns these magnificent beasts to their rightful place in our understanding of the world just an epoch past.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMike Stark \u003c\/b\u003eis a former reporter for the Associated Press and the \u003ci\u003eBillings Gazette\u003c\/i\u003e and is the author of \u003ci\u003eWrecked in Yellowstone: Greed, Obsession, and the Untold Story of Yellowstone's Most Infamous Shipwreck\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in Tucson, Arizona, and is the creative director for the Center for Biological Diversity. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Bison Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50561665663250,"sku":"9781496229021","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c9fe5cae-41a1-42ed-8164-9c7f41f7d667.jpg?v=1731850487","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/chasing-the-ghost-bear-on-the-trail-of-americas-lost-super-beast-9781496229021","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}