Grizzlies Of Alaska

ever since I can remember I've been drawn to wild places I guess it's really how my interest in bears started to me there's more than any other creature represent wilderness and more than the wildness itself brown bears once roamed across Europe in North America but today they're found in just a few small pockets of really wild land Alaska is one of the Bears last strongholds my name is Chris Morgan I've dedicated half my life to the study and conservation of bears this remote stretch of coastal Alaska is like nowhere else on earth in most places bears keep a healthy distance from each other but these bears have somehow learn to live with one another left alone it has become a city of bears I'll follow these bears throw an entire season from spring to autumn feast together their complex social lives and find out how these colossal Giants manage to live together the first thing this young male does when the big fella leaves does put on the show for the ladies again and you've got to be tough to survive here it's a lamp like no other it's grisly country you know I grew up in st. Anne's in Lancashire and to me Alaska was this far off wild place somewhere at the ends of the earth but the first time I took flight over this country I was blown away by the size of the place to me it really takes an animal as wild as a bear to call Alaska home it just looks and feels like their country out there fast a while no way oh wow look at that Wow jeepers play-fighting it's early June and bears are just beginning to gather in the lush meadows you can imagine the sense of joy they must feel after being cooped up in their dark den for the past six months I can't believe we're here it's I love it I love this place it just feels so right to be here and I'm so dying to see what the Bears are up to especially this early in the season I've never been here this early before so it's completely new to me for the next several months filmmaker Joe Pontecorvo and I will be living among bears think we got enough stuff this looks like we're gonna be here for a year we are deep inside grizzly country in a place known to have the largest concentrations of brown bears in the world I've always wanted to spend a season living among brown bears watching their daily lives on Falls but it's also a somewhat unsettling feeling to be surrounded by so many bears we the visitors here like we're rigging a demolition see some kind of explosives hey that's not a bad idea I got a much smaller camp than Joe he's got all the gear in within his electric fence so it's pretty sizable as mine I just need the tent and a few of my personal belongings and of course all the food cutting Joe's campers well there is this complete sense of isolation in coastal Alaska well you feel genuinely like you're the first person to set foot right here first person to sit on this log and you know there are tracks going off down this Ridge of rocks here and it looks like a human set of footprints but it's not it's bear tracks and every inch of this has been influenced by the Bears and the wolves that call it home you know the Sun is is up most of the time I mean even now it's not that late yet it's ten o'clock at night and we've still got several hours of light to work in if we want to and it's tough to go to bed because there's something happening all the time don't drop that camera jack many thousands of years ago the whole of North America was wild enough for large carnivores so this is the front right track a large male but now we only find these huge carnivores and small pockets of really wild land in places like Alaska stop stop it's a sleeping bag yeah what a surprise back up you know these bears are very very tolerant but still if you've got a sleeping better lock that you certainly don't want to surprise him and if you wish to wake up and a deep sleep surprise like that they could quickly turn you like sleeping in your motel room and suddenly on someone breakthough down and enter your room what would you do I'm going to that fight response we'll cross the river and avoid him hey there the Bears I normally see fattening up for winter or at the beginning of their season and the salmon run is still months away Bears have lost nearly 50% of their body weight over the winter and they are eager to get it back what they are looking for smelling for actually are tiny razor clams once they find one they start digging with those massive claws it's not much of a meal but this time of year they'll take whatever they can get this is unbelievable there's a female here with two tiny cuts the poori weigh less than ten pounds I've never seen any this small before these Cubs were only born in January in the den and they probably have only been out of the den for about three weeks since mid-may can you imagine the sensory overload that these Cubs are going through right now I mean a playing with things and discovering the world around and want them to playing with some a piece of grass there a year from now they'll start to wander a little bit further from her and right now they're sticking to her like glue they don't want to let her out of sight and she certainly doesn't want to let them out of sight there's a lot of big feisty testosterone driven males right now and one of these Cubs would make a very easy tasty snack for them and I just really hope that she keeps them safe mating season lasts just two months for during that time bears from all around gather in the lush meadow below it's a dangerous time for a mum with young cubs but experience has taught her well the bluff provides both sanctuary and a view of her surroundings with this many big males around she's just got to have her wits about her the whole time so this swagger we call it a cowboy walk and he's really doing two things here trying to impress the female but it's also trying to make themselves feel as big as possible and look as big as possible to the other bears they're competitors now he's a real cowboy a big brutish looking guy everyone is keeping a close eye on Brutus look at him salivating when these big males get worked up they'll start salivating like this god this is unbelievable this big brutish male he's been super aggressive it's a pretty gutsy move to walk up on a mating pair like this Brutus pushed the older male right off the young female I don't think grandpa is willing to risk his life over this one female look at the face on grandpa you just look so forlorn now Brutus is stomping his scent into the ground erasing all traces of grandpa from the meadow stomping him out of existence the males here will try and mate with as many females as possible while the females are looking for the biggest the most dominant male around that'll give her Cubs the best chance of survival there's another guy coming in from behind her he doesn't have big enough to take on the big guy looks like he's gonna give it a shot though you wow this female is getting a lot of attention for males around her right now it's almost like she's insignificant you know the males are fighting among themselves and the winner gets to take her home they are two feet away from these massive giants when they're clashing in a big aggressive fight and these females are assessing the males and he's definitely the peak of his game right now and all the other males can do is sit around watching and then the female goes home with the winner and that's why all of the males around here are at least twice as big as the females and that's because the big guys win the fights and they get to breed a quiet calm returns to the meadow and life resumes as if nothing had happened at all but these Cubs are very lucky she knows how to rear them in a place where there are all these threats for them to be aware of she's a good mum I've decided to call her daddy which means wise these Cubs learn so much every day what's good to eat what bears to avoid how to be safe and by following mum they'll learn what it takes to survive in this busy city of bears just came over the rice to go back to the tent after being out on a walk and there's a bear right here when he's about 30 feet from my tent right now a moment ago is oh hello hey bear it's okay you are a big fella I know you think you can go anywhere you like don't and you probably can he's right between Joe's chant which is here and my tent are tents for about 30 yards apart and he's in between them Joe was on the other side of the town here time and I was afraid that he might touch his nose to that electric fence and bolt in the opposite direction and run Joe over in the process but so far so good he's a big bear he's a big male but he walked past my tent a minute ago and it's fur I swear brushed on my electric fence it didn't work this is unbelievable loser is eating Angelica plant right now it's okay well yeah it's okay you keep going I think yeah see he's a pretty big male it's okay even a simple breakfast is an adventure in bear country with this many visitors around you can never be too careful but it's tough though you know could be bear see the whole world through their nose so you've really got to start looking at the world through their perspective through their nose and they can smell this from two miles down the valley here there's a certain tension in the air you're always looking over your shoulder any one of these creatures could wipe you out in an instant but they choose not to they choose to allow you to be a part of their landscape and their habitat in their home for as long as you want to be there Wow beautiful thing it almost looks like the National Park Service maintains these doesn't it these are all bear trails generation after generation after generation of brown bears have created these trails is the most efficient route from A to B it's a perfect system and we've been following we're doing the same things that we're not eating this edges there's a lot of traffic in these meadows during mating season and in a population this large with this much competition it's all about sent in an email coming up to this could smell a tan previous males that had come up to this and done the same thing checking out who's on the meadow here who they're competing with tonight they know who's on this meadow long before they even see them their noses are planted firmly in the sedge meadow all the time and they're reading this landscape like a barcode scent is powerful advertising in the bear world and works for both sexes you know the females will kind of sit down they'll plant themselves in the meadow and coyly look around you know to see which males might be eyeing them up and then the male will approach and she'll move away and he plants his nose right in the grass to smell whether she's going to be receptive it's almost like her placing a singles out single Harry Brown female seeks massive promiscuous male in a population this size bear has learned to watch their back that their eyes are looking left right and center trying to figure out who's there who they can breed with and who they need to avoid so the surges are just the kind of a distraction competition is not limited to males females will compete with other females for access to the best males it's really unusual and something I haven't seen before many of these bears have grown up together or are related in some way spending season after season in these same meadows brothers that come together and play as adults or two teenagers that have grown up as neighbors these social complexities mean Cubs here have a whole lot more to learn than almost anywhere else normally brown bear cubs stay with their mom for about three years but here Cubs might stay with mum for even longer these guys have a good head start nnedi is definitely a dominating presence on the meadow she's my coworker she's charging she's charging at him while mum grazes the Cubs are on high alert smelling the air for danger alarmed by anything unfamiliar which for them is quite a lot they've only been in this grand outside world for maybe six weeks now these Cubs are facing so many different choices and learning experiences every day and it's nice to feel that we're an easy one not quite sure how close to come I it's important they stay cautious like their mom but their Cubs and the temptation to play is too great they are gladiators as tall as grass-blades you well the scent of a large male is carried on the wind mum can identify an individual from nearly 200 meters away just by their scent she's obviously very cautious of this male probably knows him and is keeping her distance it's really interesting gives us this tolerance thing going on this time of year the rest of the year these females avoid the male's like the plague they don't want anything to do with them they can be quite aggressive so they just keep apart and these females know that the big males are more cautious than they are when there's people around so she might use us as a barrier for his advances he's getting hyper focused on her right now this is gonna be close I think you know this big male is all worked up so it is difficult to know what he might do we should be careful as well here Joe it's it's best for us to just stay put stay low and don't move this is gonna be close Joe ok the male is coming up right behind you here Joe okay okay it's okay it's okay it's okay we're not touching it it's okay it's alright but it's okay it's okay he's pretty wound up she clearly needs the protein that these edges are providing but at the same time she's got to keep the Cubs safe from these big males that are coming over try to pick up the weather forecast I just want to know what we'll let ourselves in for here you know because the weather really seemed to be coming in seized a tree we should probably make sure your gears are Keijo actually you know just get it all inside the tent and figure things out look at that that's not my pillow I don't use pillows when I'm camping I usually I sleep on a stake you know Kalama real tough guy if I'm feeling like treating myself maybe a boot but definitely not one of these pillows and where that came from did you put that in here Joe it's been a really stormy couple of days it's pouring with rain outside you can perhaps here on the tent here and it's difficult just being holed up in the tent all this time but I rigged a tarp and I've got a bit of a porch here and it's keeping a lot of the rain out so fingers crossed but it's tiring it's tiring just dealing with it you know so I'm I'm going to try and get some sleep and hope that my tent and tarp is all intact in the morning the seas are calm again but something is upsetting the flock this guy's headed straight for a puffin colony brown bears don't normally hunt puffins four bears are opportunistic and experimental animals especially when driven by hunger even the puffins are surprised in this case the bear is rewarded with the good weather comes carefree days oh they're the entire family's having a good time tonight she's even growing more relaxed look at that you can tell that they've put a considerable amount of weight on and they're probably three times further away from the safety of the bluff that we've ever seen them before where does she go off she's in the middle of the meadow huh oh yeah she's moving away this bad just came out of the trees here and the older two you're right Joe the D has settled down quite a bit over the last couple of weeks but still keeps a healthy distance and for good reason mating season is winding down a quiet desperation hangs in the air as the Bears anticipate the arrival of the first salmon lately nnedi hardly gives me a glance I realize it's incumbent on me to respect her boundaries I have to constantly remind myself what they're capable of I wish I could join them but it's still tussle but wouldn't that be fun just jump in and roll around there with them it's impossible not to get caught up in how adorable all this players but all this play has a purpose the sticks and driftwood they pretend are the salmon they've never tasted all the affection they show mom the sparring it all has a purpose the environment these Cubs grow up in is dangerous highly competitive and often unpredictable they're all cool it's okay you know we're okay it's all right it's okay adhi is so comfortable with us that she's grazed very close to us now in this situation is best just to remain as still as possible and just let her pass it's our everybody just chill it's alright don't you come any closer though you guys you'll get us into trouble here it's okay yeah it's okay no don't come any closer hey it's alright yeah I know that was intense she was closer than any bear has been to me before and I just sat here in the meadow to start with I was probably 80 yards away from her and she grazed to within five six feet away from me and there's no way not in a million years what I have approached this situation but it was her choice to come to me and it's intense though I'm exhausted from just having her that close and staring at me in the eyes it's a prehistoric feeling it's really raw that's for sure she's 30 feet away right now and she might as well be the other end of a football field she seemed like a long way up life for these little guys like us all is never going to be more carefree than this in these still moments it's easy to forget the season is racing by two months have gone by since I first arrived it's this in-between time that's toughest of all the walls with a new letter a desperate for a hunt the fields are drying up and pushing the Bears towards the water but their feast is yet to arrive females gather at the river mouse with the anticipation of an early run this early there are more bears than fish it's done clear whether there's anything worth eating in the shallow tide up as a flounder no salmon yeah the competition is becoming fierce the early female are suddenly being boxed out of their spot all this splashing around it's hard to tell whether they're on to something or simply chasing ghosts oh wow she's got it she's got it - salmon feast has begun the salmon are coming home it feels as if the river itself has been anticipating this moment and for a short time salmon will be the lifeblood of this place but now the clock has started on this narrow window for the Bears this is a pretty mature female and she really knows what she's doing and she's got this really healthy fat cuddly looking cub he's never more than ten feet behind his mom she shares nearly every fish she catches with a young cub he'll grow fast and her determination will pay off in how quickly he learns how to live here with all his needs met he's relaxed to hold his skills oh lucky snorkeling he's got his head right underwater so that he can see the fish it's incredible time after time she's catching female fish and it's important that she catches the female fish because they're full of fact in the form of their eggs that the cub can really benefit from that's why he's so chunky looking I think I'll call him fat so this young male has been closely watching her and now that she's resting he's decided to test out her fishing spot probably in his first year of life without mum and he is suitably overwhelmed by the environment of the number of bears here but he doesn't have much time to fumble the salmon run is brief and unpredictable it's vital to him for surviving the winter but so far he's unable to pull the trigger the river is so densely packed right now the Bears need to employ a number of strategies to catch salmon and keep a safe distance from each other the Bears that are forced into the deeper water have to snorkel to track their prey the salmon hide in these deep pockets out of reach even as some of the Bears are struggling to catch anything others are becoming much more selective and giving some lucky salmon a second chance the salmon pack the dense channels trying to reach the spawning ground their completion of their journey but first they have to get through this gauntlet of bears still many will make it far far upriver where they will spawn and end their journey life is good they've even got time to play and she's only got one cub so she'll tend to play more with that one cub I don't think there's any bond stronger and nature in a female bear and her cub I just imagine his surprise four years from now when she turns around and doesn't want to know him anymore she'll want to move on and he'll be on his own life is not so easy for the Wolves the salmon told them but the chase is more an act of desperation than anything the salmon are still too deep for the Wolves to catch I haven't seen the D or her Cubs for weeks now I hope they're okay the fatso and his mom have become regular visitors along this busy stretch of river fatso is quickly becoming a serious hunter as he tags along with the expert he takes every opportunity to flaunt his kung-fu moves this mom was just arrived with three cubs the first triplets we've seen this year it's unusual for her to still have all three Cubs this far into the season it's probably her first trip down to the river and they will take whatever they can get it's certainly a different situation than fatso is used to the river definitely shows off the diversity of bears here but even poaching scraps around this many bears is more than she's comfortable with so they'll eat this meal on the road she's found a quieter stretch of the river it seems that for a couple of them at least these are their first letters so first time have experienced having to look after their young cubs and there is this incredible almost panic more than urgency it's almost just a panic to feed right now the anticipation of Denning for the whole winter without enough fat just is this an eighth fear that they have the density of bears here makes things tense for these larger families wow she is just frantic she senses that if she doesn't catch something fresh they won't last very long the Cubs aren't comfortable yet with mum thrashing off into the deep without them she tries to reassure them and guides them to a safe beach to wait for her but they aren't so easily convinced you can definitely tell that she senses the pressure to catch fish right now she's just arrived later than the other bears and it's just a matter of time before these fish dry up here and so she's got a lot of work on her hands all this company has no chance to catch anything a quiet window of opportunity is gone and it's back to leftovers for the family even during salmon season there are waves the fish come in with the tides but that doesn't mean every tide has fish I thought I'd Scout down to the mouth of this river and see what was happening downstream if there's any action to be had that's where it would be well that's a familiar face I almost didn't recognize it but that's definitely nerdy and her two cubs hardly recognizable from the tiny little Cubs that we saw a few weeks ago they're not only larger and healthier and fatter than they were a few weeks ago when I last saw them but they've grown up as well you know they've got this different attitude now this is such an important time of year for her and her cub son I'm so relieved to see that she's got both of them neither one have been killed and I've really common with young cubs but not only that they're looking great shape as well see she's your warning like that that's a sign of anxiety when they you're like she's doing now look how well-trained the Cubs are they're butter balls right now and I think the other bears have noticed that she's a little feisty and potentially aggressive so they don't mess with her at all using mom as a barricade there that's priceless she's gone off to fish and she's left them behind them they know not to disturb mum when she's fishing they've got a few weeks until they den but the urgency is on now her senses are definitely tuned in that's all she's thinking about right now is fish every movement in the water every scent on the air and she's focused on it and the senses attuned to any intruder especially any male that might threaten her coat she has two precious things to look after here and she'll fight to the death to protect those cubs for the moment it looks like she's got the river to herself but this mail won't give up trying to carve out a small fishing hole for himself it only takes a moment to run down this Sun but does he have time this may be the last I see of them this year Jones gone ahead to check out the salmon as they make their final push up the Falls it looks like fatso and mama they're waiting for them there is an electricity to this place an energy that comes from the urgency of life here it's late September for these bears this is the last chance to pack on the pounds for winter fatso was landed his first fish oh my gosh that is so great huh he look so proud look ma I did it it's a good start for this little cub you we normally think of bears as solitary animals but in this dense population in this city of bears they've learned how to be social how to get along with each other our never before if I lived among these bears for such a long period of time basically being their neighbor and really watching their lives unfold on a daily basis and I've seen another side of these bears a tenderness and a complexity that's really been eye-opening it's the first bear I've seen in a few hours those that I have seen are along the riverbank and kind of looking out hopefully into the water to see if there's any more fish salmon runs coming to an end here and I'm sure the Bears are anticipating that long winter ahead you know I've really come to know these bears muddy and her cubs fatso and his mum I'm a little bit lost for words to be honest I just feel like I've had this intern up into my relationship with it for very long makes this place really wild is knowing the tracks I leave today will be bear tracks or wolf tracks tomorrow wilderness isn't the wide-open spaces but the wild things that fill it Alaska is the last stronghold for some of the Earth's wildest creatures this may be the end of my journey but Alaska's wilderness and its wildest creatures will always call me back ah spring seems to have sprung for some already and to celebrate with brand new gardeners world here on BBC HD at half past 8:00 tomorrow evening don't miss the first in a new series you

Channel: SaveONWildlife

Views: 1,252,079

Rating: 4.7216053 out of 5

Keywords: Alaska, Grizzly, Bear

Id: EgcVTNgOkV4

Length: 58min 41sec (3521 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 09 2012