RIPTON — Ben Kilham, a wildlife biologist based in Lyme N.H., will be giving a slide presentation on black bears  Sunday, July 30, at 7 p.m. at the Ripton United Methodist Church. The presentation will be followed by a questions and answer period.
Kiham’s love of and devotion to black bears has enabled him to study their habits and interact with them for more than two decades. He, his wife Debra and sister Phoebe have accepted orphaned bear cubs into their home and enabled them to successfully return to the wild.
Kilham has learned through his observations and interactions that black bears, thought to be solitary, have a different type of social behavior that possibly parallels early human behavior. They show evidence of reciprocal altruism, matrilinear hierarchy, and a mix of intentional and emotional communication. Bears can live for as many as 40 years, which allows them long-term benefits from forming relationships with fellow cooperators.
Ben has been the focus of several news articles and documentaries, including National Geographic’s “A Man Among Bears” and Animal Planet’s “Papa Bear.” He is also author of the books “Among the Bears: Raising Orphaned Cubs in the Wild” and “Out.”