【Reader rave reviews – still flooding in!】
"Dr. Koike’s single-minded love for bears is spell-binding—he feels like ‘the man chosen by bears’."
– Miho Doi, photographer

"Read it in one gulp! A quarter-century bear-chase told with non-stop laughs and heart-thumps. Watching him decode the bears’ seasonal menu and travel map from a turd had me on high the whole way. Obsession of a scientist + charisma of bears = double fandom."

Lifelong bear-book collector, but my shelf was all "Bear Attacks" or "Human-Bear Conflict"—heavy, dry stuff. Saw the word "poo" and flipped for fun; the illustrations and captions hooked me instantly, so I had to read every page. Turns out bears are "forest-building engineers"—who knew?

An honest record of a researcher who went from grad school to tenure with bear scat never far from his hand.

★ A frontline account of bear research–the Ursus thibetanus researcher's "scat-ological" field notes and an animal research chronicle so engaging it will ignite any scientist's passion!
★ This book compiles a quarter-century of hands-on fieldwork by Dr. Koike Shinsuke, who dedicated 25 years to collecting bear scat, gradually uncovering the mysterious ecology of the Asiatic black bear. It vividly recounts his fascinating research journey and reveals "the true nature of bears."
★ An essential read for anyone curious about bears and passionate about nature.

For a quarter-century he did exactly one thing: collect bear dung. With nothing but a reeking backpack, a GPS, and absurd determination, Dr. Kosuke mapped the private world of the moon bear—and his own career—one turd at a time.

From cliff-side near-death to GoPro-wearing bears, from Russian ice-bucket rituals to the chemistry of scat, this hilarious, big-hearted field diary shows how passion turns poop into scientific gold and reminds us that great discoveries often start with something that smells.

Shinsuke Koike

Ursus thibetanus researcher. Born in 1979 in Nagoya, Japan. He currently serves as a professor at the Institute of Global Innovation at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Science. Specialises in plant–animal interactions and Ursus thibetanus in forest ecosystems.

He currently conducts research on the ecology of Asiatic black bears and interspecies relationships in forests across the Okutama area of Tokyo, as well as the Ashio-Nikkō Mountains in Tochigi and Gunma Prefectures.

Books: When Bears Climb Trees, My Bear Research, Complete Guide to the Ursus thibetanus (co-author).