Down from the Mountain: The Life and Death of a Grizzly Bear

Written by Bryce Andrews

Narrated by Jonathan Todd Ross

The grizzly is one of North America's few remaining large predators. Their range is diminished, but they're spreading across the West again. Descending into valleys where once they were king, bears find the landscape they'd known for eons utterly changed by the new most dominant animal: humans. As the grizzlies approach, the people of the region are wary, at best, of their return.



In searing detail, award-winning writer, Montana rancher, and conservationist Bryce Andrews tells us about one such grizzly. Millie is a typical mother: strong, cunning, fiercely protective of her cubs. But raising those cubs—a challenging task in the best of times—becomes ever harder as the mountains change, the climate warms and people crowd the valleys. There are obvious dangers, like poachers, and subtle ones as well, like the corn field that draws her out of the foothills and sets her on a path toward trouble and ruin.



That trouble is where Bryce's story intersects with Millie's. It is the heart of Down from the Mountain, a singular drama evoking a much larger one: an entangled, bloody collision between two species in the modern-day West, where the shrinking wilds force man and bear into ever closer proximity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Highbridge Company
• Release date: Apr 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781684418688

Bryce Andrews

Bryce Andrews is the author of Down from the Mountain, which won the Banff Mountain Book Competition and was a Montana Book Award Honor Title and an Amazon Best Science Title of 2019. His first book was Badluck Way, which won the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, the Reading the West Book Award for nonfiction, and the High Plains Book Award for both nonfiction and debut book. Andrews grew up in Seattle, Washington, and spent a decade working on ranches in the high valleys of Montana. He lives near Missoula with his family.

Reviews for Down from the Mountain

[Daniel W · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed learning about grizzlies. I had no idea that when they eat corn it affects their movements.

Sometimes the story felt disjointed.

[catherine.cox · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I learned about bears. I learned how much I didn't know about bears. I cried.

[streamsong_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Author Bryce Andrews had been a ranch hand until he decided he would rather work with wildlife than the commercial meat chain.

He switched careers and became a biologist.

His work took him to the Mission Valley of western Montana on the Flathead/Salish reservation. The surrounding Mission Mountains are rugged and beautiful; they also have a high population of wildlife, including grizzly bears. When the bears leave the mountain slopes and come into the valley, they are inevitably the losers in human/grizzly encounters, even though the Confederated Tribes that own a great part of the land in the valley, revere the great bears.

Andrews began by addressing the problem of bears destroying a local dairyman’s corn crop, a necessity for the energy needs of the dairy cows. He researched and then devised a new way of configuring the standard electric fencing to better discourage the bears.

During this time, he became very familiar with one female grizzly who had been shot in the face with a shotgun as she came too close to humans. Over the course of several months he had to watch this poor bear become a walking skeleton that was unable to care for her cubs.

It is a truly sad story; although Andrews’ new method of bear-discouraging fencing showed a lot of promise, saving the dairyman’s corn crop was not enough to save the dairyman’s future on his land. Ultimately the land would be subdivided, perpetuating a guarantee of more grizzly/human conflict.

I’ve lived in the Mission Valley (my son was born there) and thought the author’s descriptions of the beautiful places, the people and the conflicts were very well done.

My only gripe was that the audiobook reader consistently mispronounced several of the place names. Nothing says "I don't really care" like mispronouncing place names.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

nonfiction ecology/biology
a little long-winded but still engrossing story for people who admire bears.

[msf59 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bryce Andrews is a Montana rancher and conservationist. He loves grizzlies and has been monitoring them for years. Here, he follows Millie and her two cubs as they face the many challenges of survival, on his land and off. He is a very good writer and really keeps the narrative flowing, as we cheer these bears on.

[dele2451 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A balanced and respectful look at the life of endangered grizzly bears and the many challenges of modern humans and large wild mammals peacefully coexisting--even in a place as large as Montana. Bryce's extensive background as both a rancher and a nonprofit conservationist brings a much-needed voice to the land management discussion. Top shelf nature writing and some nice B&W pics--definitely pack a copy before you head to Yellowstone or the Tetons or before you plant any corn in Montana.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mission Hills, Montana, a place that has long harbored and protected grizzlies. Millie's Woods, named after a grizzly who has roamed the woods theere, giving birth to several cubs. As more and more people move into the area, farmers, survivalists, people who just want to be alone, and of course this with no good intention, the grizzlies territory is shrinking. Now they are running into man and what man thinks is his. When the grizzlies discover corn fields, they decide to stay with the protected stalks, eating away, causing huge monetary losses for the farmer. This is a story of Millie, her fate and the fate of her two youngest cubs. A story of those who want to protect these animals, and how they try to do so.

When an author is do passionate about his subject it is impossible not to be drawn into the story and into his heart. As mankind goes about killing anything that gets in their way, men and women like those in this book, may well be the last defense. If you're an animal lover, an environmentalist, this story will be heartbreaking.

The author says it best in these words,

"Knowing how we have misused land and wildlife, I have precious little faith in humankind. I think it likely that we will go on wrecking the beautiful world. But, I put my hope in bears of Baptiste's sort ---hardy, seeking adaptable creatures. They will find away around or through our constructions to places that once belonged to them. Given the merest chance, they will live."

One can only hope.

ARC from Netgalley.