Douglas Chadwick

With a master's degree in wildlife biology, Doug Chadwick has studied mountain goats, grizzly bears, and wolverines among the peaks of the Rockies. In his other role as a journalist, Doug has reported on wildlife around the world, from snow leopards in the Himalayas to tropical coral reefs, producing close to 50 magazine stories for National Geographic. Much of the research for his articles on grizzlies, humpback whales, orcas, and harlequin ducks took place along the coasts of British Columbia and Southeast Alaska. He has also produced articles on this region’s temperate rainforests and kelp forests – two of the most biologically productive ecosystems on Earth – and the rich First Nations cultures associated with them.

Doug spends a lot of time exploring the same settings on his own by foot, kayak, or with snorkeling and scuba diving gear. One summer, he roamed the coasts from Alaska to Vancouver Island to assist with a study of the vocalizations orcas use to communicate. His special interest is grizzlies, and he has closely observed their social interactions for hundreds of hours along salmon spawning streams. Of the black bears he has watched, perhaps the rarest of all was the silvery blue form called the glacier bear or blue bear, which he spied on the steep side of a fjord in Southeast Alaska. In addition to hundreds of magazine articles, Doug has written fifteen books about wildlife and conservation. The most recent, published in April of 2021, is Four-Fifths A Grizzly: A Fresh Understanding of Nature that Might Save Us All