KILHAM, Benjamin 1953-

PERSONAL: Born 1953, in Lyme, NH; son of Lawrence (a professor) and Jane (a general practitioner) Kilham; married, 1986; wife's name, Debbie. Education: University of New Hampshire.

ADDRESSES: Home—Lyme, NH. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Henry Holt and Company, 115 West 18th Street, New York, NY 10011.

CAREER: Colt Firearms, Hartford, CT, former product engineer; gunsmith, woodsman, naturalist, and wildlife rehabilitator.

WRITINGS:

(With Ed Gray) Among the Bears: Raising Orphan Cubs in the Wild, Henry Holt (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS: Benjamin Kilham is a naturalist, woodsman, and licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Kilham began raising orphaned black bear cubs on his farm in New Hampshire in 1993. Since then he has successfully raised twenty-six black bear cubs. He does not chain them or keep them locked away in cages, however. Instead, he acts like a mother bear, not a man. He takes them out into the woods on walks, lets them explore the wild, and teaches them what to eat, how to act, and how to survive. Kilham even learned how to make the sounds of a mother bear in order to instruct the cubs. Once the cubs are grown he releases them in the woods, some with tracking collars on. He continues to visit some of the bears he raised in their natural habitats.

Kilham coauthored Among the Bears: Raising Orphan Cubs in the Wild with Ed Gray, an outdoors writer and editor. In Among the Bears he tells about his experiences raising the orphaned black bear cubs. He also discusses the behaviors of black bears. "This important book is sure to be a milestone in the study of animal behavior," noted a Publishers Weekly contributor.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 1, 2002, Nancy Bent, review of Among the Bears: Raising Orphan Cubs in the Wild, p. 1073.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2001, review of Among the Bears, p. 1739.

New York Times, May 19, 2002, James Gorman, "Pursued by a Man."

People, July 22, 2002, Galina Espinoza, "Bear Necessities: Benjamin Kilham Teaches Orphaned Cubs How to Walk on the Wild Side," p. 89.

Publishers Weekly, January 21, 2002, review of Among the Bears, p. 74.

ONLINE

FSB Associates,http://www.fsbassociates.com/ (September 5, 2002), review of Among the Bears.

Pop Matters,http://www.popmatters.com/ (September 5, 2002), Wesley Burnett, review of Among the Bears.

Written Voices,http://www.writtenvoices.com/ (September 5, 2002), review of Among the Bears.*