Special Bird & Nature Club: Grizzly Bears of Teton

Join us as Sue Consolo-Murphy takes us inside the world of bears in Grand Teton National Park  through her recent book "The Bears of Grand Teton, A Natural and Cultural History".  This book is the first comprehensive history of bears, black and grizzly, and their interactions with people in Grand Teton National Park and the surrounding area of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It is also a personal account by Sue Consolo-Murphy, who spent thirty years as a wildlife manager for the National Park Service.  In it she focuses on the natural, cultural, and administrative histories of bears in and around Grand Teton National Park and the nearby John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, paying particular attention to bears’ interactions with livestock. Entertaining and educational, "The Bears of Grand Teton" also explores the phenomenon of social media celebrity bears such as Grizzly 399, the world’s most famous bear and the challenges of listing and removing grizzly bears from Endangered Species Act protection.

“A masterpiece of well-researched history, colorful lore, pioneering science, and the savvy of personal experience.  Sue Consolo-Murphy, uniquely qualified to write this book by virtue of her decades of productive work on behalf of the region’s bears, has given us the authoritative
and richly textured tale we’ve long needed. From here on out, anyone hoping to come to terms with Teton bears should start by reading this book.” - Paul Scullery, author of "The Bear Doesn’t Know"
 

Sue Consolo-Murphy is retired from Grand Teton National Park and John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, where she worked as chief of science and resource management from 2003 to 2019, after decades with the National Park Service at various locations. She was the 2013 recipient of the National Park Service Director’s Award for Excellence in Natural Resource Management and was a 2008 honoree of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee’s award for significant contributions to grizzly bear recovery.  She earned a B.S. in Recreation and Park Administration from the Univ. of Wyoming and an M.S. in Forest Resource Conservation from the Univ. of Montana. She lives in Wapiti, Wyoming with her biologist husband, Dr. Kerry Murphy, and has two grown daughters.  Sue is a member of the Executive Council of the Coalition To Protect America’s National Parks