Doug Peacock (born April 5, 1942) is an American author, filmmaker, wildlife activist, and Vietnam War veteran. He is best known for his work dedicated to grizzly bear recovery in the lower-48, his book Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness [1] and serving as the model for the well-known character George Washington Hayduke [2] in Edward Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang . Doug is the co-founder of several conservation organizations including Round River Conservation Studies [3] and Save The Yellowstone Grizzly. [4]
In 1988 the award winning documentary Peacock's War [5] was released about Doug's experiences in Vietnam and his efforts to study and protect grizzly bears. Peacock's War premiered on PBS Nature, Channel 4 London, and the Discovery Channel. In 2019, Doug starred in a film called Grizzly Country, [6] a follow-up documentary devoted to Doug's then-and-now war experiences and the evolution of his work with grizzly bears. Grizzly Country was published by The Atlantic Selects, [7] an online showcase of short documentaries curated by The Atlantic . Doug's 2021 film The Beast of Our Time: Grizzly Bears and Climate Change, [8] narrated by Jeff Bridges and scored by Bill Payne, has already won multiple awards [9] and is currently being screened at environmental film festivals nationwide. [10]
Peacock was named 2007 Guggenheim Fellow [11] and was awarded the Cultural Freedom Fellowship [12] by the Lannan Foundation in 2011 for his work on archaeology, climate change and the peopling of North America as published in his 2013 book In the Shadow of the Sabertooth: A Renegade Naturalist Considers Global Warming, the Arrival of the First Americans and the Terrible Beasts of the Pleistocene (Counterpunch/AK Press).
A friend and ally of many acclaimed environmentalists and authors—including Rick Bass, Terry Tempest Williams, Yvon Chouinard, Doug Tompkins, Rick Ridgeway [13] and Edward Abbey—Peacock has devoted a lifetime to advocating for this planet's wildlife and wild places. [14]
Doug Peacock, the son of seasoned naturalists and birders Marion E. and Kathryn L. Peacock, was born in Alma, Michigan where he grew up in the woods, swamps, and trout streams of northern Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan where he brought Martin Luther King Jr. to campus [15] and earned a degree in geology. Doug then served two tours in the Vietnam War as a Green Beret combat medic; he was awarded the Soldier's Medal, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Bronze Star.
Upon returning home from war, Doug felt disillusioned with human society and sought solace in the beauty of the wilderness. Although he had little scientific background, his passion for and firsthand experience with bears soon brought him recognition as an expert in grizzly behavior. Peacock wrote Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness [16] in the 70s and 80s. He was a close friend of author Edward Abbey, [17] and served as the model for the character George Hayduke in Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang .
Peacock's 2005 book, Walking it Off: A Veteran's Chronicle of War And Wilderness , continues his memoirs, in the wake of Ed Abbey's death. He ventured into the southwest deserts to walk off the scars left by his friend's death. In the process, he revisited Vietnam in flashbacks, remembering the cantankerous friendship with Abbey, and almost died in his journey to recover from "this terminal disease called life" in Nepal with his friends Alan Burgess and Dennis Sizemore.
Peacock is also friend of American author Rick Bass. In Bass's book The Lost Grizzlies: A Search for Survivors in the Wilderness of Colorado Peacock is a key element in the search for evidence that there are still grizzlies in the San Juan Mountains.
Peacock was a 2007 Guggenheim fellow, and currently lives in Montana with his wife Andrea, author of Libby, Montana: Asbestos and the Deadly Silence of an American Corporation. Peacock speaks in schools about wilderness, conservation, and the need to preserve our wilderness. Doug is the chairman of the board of trustees for Round River Conservation Studies.
Doug and Andrea Peacock's new book, The Essential Grizzly: The Mingled Fates of Men and Bears was released on May 1, 2006 (Lyons Press, ISBN 1-59228-848-0). It has been reissued in paperback under a new title, In the Presence of Grizzlies: The Ancient Bond Between Men and Bears in March 2009. (Lyons Press, ISBN 1-59921-490-3)
Peacock has more recently been serving as a writer for the Daily Beast , where he writes about the American wilderness as well as animal rights in their indigenous lands. He wrote for The Daily Beast from 2014 through 2019. [18]
Aldo Leopold was an American writer, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), which has been translated into fourteen languages and has sold more than two million copies.
Edward Paul Abbey was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. His best-known works include the novel The Monkey Wrench Gang, which has been cited as an inspiration by radical environmental groups, and the non-fiction work Desert Solitaire.
The California grizzly bear, also known as the California golden bear, is an extinct population of the brown bear, generally known as the grizzly bear. "Grizzly" could have meant "grizzled" – that is, with golden and grey tips of the hair – or "fear-inspiring". Nonetheless, after careful study, naturalist George Ord formally classified it in 1815 – not for its hair, but for its character – as Ursus horribilis. Genetically, North American brown bears are closely related; in size and coloring, the California grizzly bear was much like the Kodiak bear of the southern coast of Alaska. The grizzly became a symbol of the Bear Flag Republic, a moniker that was attached to the short-lived attempt by a group of U.S. settlers to break away from Mexico in 1846. Later, this rebel flag became the basis for the state flag of California, and then California was known as the "Bear State".
The Monkey Wrench Gang is a novel written by American author Edward Abbey (1927–1989), published in 1975.
Hugh Glass was an American frontiersman, fur trapper, trader, hunter and explorer. He is best known for his story of survival and forgiveness after being left for dead by companions when he was mauled by a grizzly bear.
Hayduke Lives!, written in 1989 by Edward Abbey, is the sequel to the popular book The Monkey Wrench Gang. It was published posthumously in 1990 in a mildly unfinished state, as Abbey did not complete revision prior to his death. Thus, the book retains much of its author's unrefined musings.
George Washington Hayduke is a fictional character in Edward Abbey's novels The Monkey Wrench Gang and Hayduke Lives! Hayduke is portrayed as a rugged individualist in the books by Abbey, and has a predilection for working independently when protecting the environment. He is at first skeptical of working with the rest of the monkey wrench gang early in the first book, but soon collaborates with them.
Grizzly is a 1976 American horror thriller film directed by William Girdler, about a park ranger's attempts to halt the wild rampage of an 18 ft (5.5 m) tall, 2,000 lb (910 kg) man-eating grizzly bear that terrorizes a National Forest, having developed a taste for human flesh. However, a drunken hunting party complicates matters. It stars Christopher George, Andrew Prine and Richard Jaeckel. Widely considered a Jaws rip-off, Grizzly used many of the same plot devices as its shark predecessor, which had been a huge box office success during the previous year. The giant grizzly bear in the film was portrayed by a Kodiak bear named Teddy, who was 11 ft (3.4 m) tall.
Bart the Bear was a male Kodiak bear best known for his numerous appearances in films, including The Bear, White Fang, Legends of the Fall, and The Edge. He was trained by animal trainers Doug and Lynne Seus of Wasatch Rocky Mountain Wildlife, Inc., in Heber City, Utah.
The Bear is a 1988 French adventure family film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and released by TriStar Pictures. Adapted from the novel The Grizzly King (1916) by American author James Oliver Curwood, the screenplay was written by Gérard Brach. Set in British Columbia, Canada, the film tells the story of an orphaned grizzly bear cub who befriends a large adult male Kodiak bear as two trophy hunters pursue them through the wild.
Aldo Starker Leopold was an American author, forester, zoologist and conservationist. Leopold served as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, for thirty years within the Zoology, Conservation, and Forestry departments. Throughout his life, Leopold was a public face for science. He was active in numerous wildlife and conservation groups and made significant research contributions in ornithology, mammalogy, and wildlife ecology. Leopold is notable for his ecosystem management paper, the Leopold Report, and his considerable presence in some of the most controversial wildlife issues, including national park wildlife policy, predator control, wildlife refuge, and fire policy.
Stephen Herrero is a Canadian professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Calgary. He is the author of Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance, which has been described as "authoritative" and "required reading" on the topic.
The grizzly bear, also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America.
Operating as a nonprofit environmental land trust, The Vital Ground Foundation protects and restores North America's grizzly bear populations by conserving wildlife habitat. Founded in 1990, Vital Ground operates in the belief that the grizzly bear, an umbrella species, is nature's barometer of a healthy and complete ecosystem, and that conserving grizzly bears and their habitat is key to ensuring diverse and healthy landscapes.
Douglas H. Chadwick is an American wildlife biologist, author, photographer and frequent National Geographic contributor. He is the author of fourteen books and more than 200 articles on wildlife and wild places.
Iron Ridge is a 2008 American independent wilderness survival drama film written and directed by Stu Brumbaugh. It marked the feature film debut of naturalist and television host Casey Anderson and his bear Brutus. The film was "100% Montana-made", having been shot entirely on location in Montana with a cast and crew entirely from Montana, entirely financed by Montanans.
Frank Cooper Craighead Jr. and John Johnson Craighead, twin brothers, were American conservationists, naturalists, and researchers who made important contributions to the studies of falconry and grizzly bear biology. The brothers were born in Washington, D.C., where both graduated from Western High School in 1935. The brothers began collecting and identifying animals and plants they found alongside the Potomac and soon expanded their interests to birds and hawks. They traveled west in 1934 to begin studying falconry. After World War II, during which they were employed as survival trainers, they each married and resumed their work in falconry. During the 1950s, the Craighead brothers expanded their work to other animals, including many species living in and around Yellowstone, and eventually separated.