Doug Peacock (born April 5, 1942) is an American author, filmmaker, wildlife activist, and Vietnam War veteran. He is best known for his work dedicated to grizzly bear recovery in the lower-48, his book Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness[1] and serving as the model for the well-known character George Washington Hayduke[2] in Edward Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang. Doug is the co-founder of several conservation organizations including Round River Conservation Studies[3] and Save The Yellowstone Grizzly.[4]
In 1988 the award winning documentary Peacock's War was released about Doug's experiences in Vietnam and his efforts to study and protect grizzly bears. Peacock's War premiered on PBS Nature, Channel 4 London, and the Discovery Channel. In 2019, Doug starred in a film called Grizzly Country,[5] a follow-up documentary devoted to Doug's then-and-now war experiences and the evolution of his work with grizzly bears. Grizzly Country was published by The Atlantic Selects,[6] an online showcase of short documentaries curated by The Atlantic. Doug's 2021 film The Beast of Our Time: Grizzly Bears and Climate Change, narrated by Jeff Bridges and scored by Bill Payne, has already won multiple awards and is currently being screened at environmental film festivals nationwide.[7]
Peacock was named 2007 Guggenheim Fellow[8] and was awarded the Cultural Freedom Fellowship[9] by the Lannan Foundation in 2011 for his work on archaeology, climate change and the peopling of North America as published in his 2013 book In the Shadow of the Sabertooth: A Renegade Naturalist Considers Global Warming, the Arrival of the First Americans and the Terrible Beasts of the Pleistocene (Counterpunch/AK Press).
A friend and ally of many acclaimed environmentalists and authors—including Rick Bass, Terry Tempest Williams, Yvon Chouinard, Doug Tompkins, Rick Ridgeway[10] and Edward Abbey—Peacock has devoted a lifetime to advocating for this planet's wildlife and wild places.[11]
Doug Peacock, the son of seasoned naturalists and birders Marion E. and Kathryn L. Peacock, was born in Alma, Michigan where he grew up in the woods, swamps, and trout streams of northern Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan where he brought Martin Luther King Jr. to campus[12] and earned a degree in geology. Doug then served two tours in the Vietnam War as a Green Beret combat medic; he was awarded the Soldier's Medal, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Bronze Star.
Upon returning home from war, Doug felt disillusioned with human society and sought solace in the beauty of the wilderness. Although he had little scientific background, his passion for and firsthand experience with bears soon brought him recognition as an expert in grizzly behavior. Peacock wrote Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness[13] in the 70s and 80s. He was a close friend of author Edward Abbey,[14] and served as the model for the character George Hayduke in Abbey's novel The Monkey Wrench Gang.
Peacock's 2005 book, , continues his memoirs, in the wake of Ed Abbey's death. He ventured into the southwest deserts to walk off the scars left by his friend's death. In the process, he revisited Vietnam in flashbacks, remembering the cantankerous friendship with Abbey, and almost died in his journey to recover from "this terminal disease called life" in Nepal with his friends Alan Burgess and Dennis Sizemore.
Peacock is also friend of American author Rick Bass. In Bass's book The Lost Grizzlies: A Search for Survivors in the Wilderness of Colorado Peacock is a key element in the search for evidence that there are still grizzlies in the San Juan Mountains.
Peacock was a 2007 Guggenheim fellow, and currently lives in Montana with his wife Andrea, author of Libby, Montana: Asbestos and the Deadly Silence of an American Corporation. Peacock speaks in schools about wilderness, conservation, and the need to preserve our wilderness. Doug is the chairman of the board of trustees for Round River Conservation Studies.
Doug and Andrea Peacock's new book, The Essential Grizzly: The Mingled Fates of Men and Bears was released on May 1, 2006 (Lyons Press,). It has been reissued in paperback under a new title, In the Presence of Grizzlies: The Ancient Bond Between Men and Bears in March 2009. (Lyons Press,)
Peacock has more recently been serving as a writer for the Daily Beast, where he writes about the American wilderness as well as animal rights in their indigenous lands. He wrote for The Daily Beast from 2014 through 2019.[15]