CSS Cookbook, 3rd Edition

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The animal on the cover of CSS Cookbook is a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis). The grizzly’s distinctive features include humped shoulders, a long snout, and long curved claws. The coat color ranges from shades of blond, brown, black, or a combination of these; the long outer guard hairs are often tipped with white or silver, giving the bear a “grizzled” appearance. The grizzly can weigh anywhere from 350 to 800 pounds and reach a shoulder height of 4.5 feet when on all fours. Standing on its hind legs, a grizzly can reach up to eight feet. Despite its large size, the grizzly can reach speeds of 35 to 40 miles per hour.

Some of the grizzly’s favorite foods include nuts, berries, insects, salmon, carrion, and small mammals. The diet of a grizzly varies depending on the season and habitat. Grizzlies in parts of Alaska eat primarily salmon, while grizzlies in high mountain areas eat mostly berries and insects.

Grizzlies are solitary, and prefer rugged mountains and forests. They can be found in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, and in the U.S. states of Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, and Montana.

The grizzly is considered a threatened species: only about 850 bears exist in the lower 48 states. Before the West was settled, the grizzly bear population was estimated to be between 50,000 and 100,000. Threats to the survival of the grizzly bear include habitat destruction caused by logging, mining, and human development, ...