Remembering Bears. Image of Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus) Photo by David Sandford
The hardback coffee table book is a collection of 88 stunning images taken by the world’s top wildlife photographers – including Marsel van Oosten, 
Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting, Greg du Toit, and Daisy Gilardini – who have generously donated images in order to help protect bears in the wild.
This year’s cover image was taken by Morten Jørgensen.
The aim of the book is to raise awareness of the plight facing bears and to raise money to protect them.
Each turn of the page reveals another striking image of one of the eight bear species –American black bear, Andean bear, Asiatic black bear, brown bear, giant panda, polar bear, sloth bear and sun bear – revealing tender moments with family members, fierce territorial battles and the harsh reality of life as a bear, for example, when searching for food.
Kyriakos Kaziras. Polar Bear, Svalbard, Norway.
Asiatic Black Bear. Photo Shivang Mehta
Andean Bear. Maquipucuna Reserve, Ecuador. Photo Pete Oxford
Six out of the eight bear species are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as Vulnerable or Endangered due to pressures ranging from climate change to human-wildlife conflict. Even those bears of least concern, such as brown bears, are at risk of being lost for good in certain countries.
Brown Bear, Kurlie Lake, Kamchatka, Russia. Photo Andy Parkinson.
Founder of Remembering Wildlife Margot Raggett said: “Humans have long had a special relationship with bears – we hug them at night as children and love seeing them in story books and on screen. Yet, in the real world, they’re not always viewed with the same affection and can been seen as a nuisance or a threat.
Brown Bear. British Columbia, Canada. Photo Marion Volborn
Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA. Photo Taylor Thomas Albright
“Some face lives of misery – as dancing bears, illegally trafficked as pets or used for medicine – or face serious threats and extinction through climate change, hunting or human-wildlife conflict.
“Through images and words, this book shines a spotlight on their diversity, beauty and resilience as well as raising awareness of their plight and raising funds for organisations passionately fighting for the future of bears.”
The foreword for the book is by award-winning wildlife filmmaker, presenter and public speaker Gordon Buchanan MBE, who describes his “enviable and unforgettable experiences” with bears.
Other contributors include Jill Robinson MBE, Founder and CEO of Animals Asia, which campaigns to raise awareness of the bear bile trade. She says the book “honours the world’s remarkable bear species”.
Actor, comedian, writer and animal rights champion Ricky Gervais wrote the back cover endorsement, where he warns we have to stand up for bears or lose them forever.
Gordon Buchanan will also be speaking alongside Margot Raggett at the official launch event for Remembering Bears, which takes place at the Royal Geographical Society on the evening of 13 October.
Also on stage at the RGS will be Thomas D Mangelsen, the critically acclaimed photographer whose many honours include BBC’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year, who made news in 2018 when he successfully bid for a bear permit to ‘shoot’ grizzlies and instead pledged to use it to take photographs instead.
The launch event is a hybrid event (live and online). For more details and to book tickets, click here.
Polar Bear. Kaktovik, Alaska, USA. Photo Jules Oldroyd
More than 200 wildlife photographers have donated images to the Remembering Wildlife series since it started in 2016. It has now raised over £952,500 for 58 conservation projects in 24 countries.
Further information about Remembering Wildlife can be found here .
Margot Raggett
Margot Raggett is the founder and producer of the Remembering Wildlife series. After a successful career in PR in London, Margot moved into wildlife photography around 2010. Everything changed again when she saw a poached elephant in late 2014 and she determined to use her skill set to raise awareness of the poaching crisis and also to raise funds to fight it.
The series of books was created by British wildlife photographer Margot Raggett, who was moved to act after seeing a poached elephant in Kenya. With the six published books — Remembering Elephants, Remembering Rhinos, Remembering Great Apes, Remembering Lions, Remembering Cheetahs and Remembering African Wild Dogs – Margot set out each time to make the most beautiful book on a species ever seen, using images donated by many of the world’s top wildlife photographers. Over 33,000 copies have been sold worldwide so far.
Remembering Bears
Cover Photograph, Remembering Bears, image by Morten Jørgensen
To order your copy of Remembering Bears click here
With your support, Remembering Bears will be a beautiful coffee table book, full of images donated by many of the world’s top wildlife photographers and will be published on Monday 10th October 2022. This will hopefully be the seventh book in the Remembering Wildlife series which was created by British wildlife photographer Margot Raggett after she was moved to take action upon seeing a poached elephant in Kenya. We are seeking funding via Kickstarter to make the production of the book possible. For the first time, this year the book will be 160 pages long, an increase of 16 pages on previous books but the price will remain the same.
To find out more about the projects that Remembering Wildlife has already funded, click here
Each book costs £45 GBP (approximately $50 USD) and copies can be ordered at Remembering Wildlife.
All images are © Copyright of the respective photographer and or Remembering Wildlife