The grizzly bear...
is surely the most impressive large carnivore in all the world.
Weighing up to a thousand pounds, they can run as fast as a racehorse.
They are smart. They are resourceful. They are strong.
And some people think they are very dangerous.
But not this man, Jeff Turner...
a Canadian film maker who has spent the best part of the last 15 years...
with grizzly bears.
Hey, bear, where are you going?
Because he understands bears so well...
Jeff can get us closer to them than ever before.
That's what makes this film so special.
The coastal rain forests of western Canada.
It was here, in this magnificent wilderness close to his home...
that Jeff's relationship with grizzly bears began.
I came to this place not knowing the grizzly.
But there was something strangely compelling...
about getting close to such a powerful and dangerous predator.
I think it was this curious mix of fear and wonder...
that first drew me to the bear.
One bear, in particular, really caught my interest.
I met her when she was just a cub 13 years ago.
It's great to see her again after so long...
but does she remember me?
I certainly remember her.
I took this film of her at 6 months old...
with her mother and two brothers. They were a close family...
but a year later, she lost one brother.
Then, not long after...
her other brother and her mother died.
Orphaned at a year and a half old, I held out little hope for her.
But now, so many years on...
it's amazing to see she's survived, despite her rough start.
Just like her mother, she's grown in to a fine and trusting adult.
By allowing me close...
she's shown me a door into the world of the grizzly.
And there's much, much more to this animal...
than I ever imagined.
By her sharing these intimate family moments with me...
I've been inspired to take a journey...
to discover more of the true character of the grizzly.
The story begins where the bears themselves began...
The northern tundra.
It was into just this sort of place that grizzly's ancestors arrived.
They were smaller, brown bears...
which came to North America from the forests of Europe and Asia...
into an Ice Age world of mammoths, musk ox, bison...
and caribou.
Faced with new challenges on the open tundra...
they grew stronger, faster and bigger.
Today, vast herds of caribou still journey across this rugged terrain...
tracked by the great North American grizzly...
named for its coarse, grizzled fur.
This bear might appear casual and disinterested...
but he's got a close eye on the herd...
Iooking for the young, the injured, or unwary.
The caribou know to keep a safe distance from the grizzly.
Bears have got a mean turn of speed.
In short bursts they can hit 35 miles an hour.
Hunting on the open tundra is tricky...
the grizzly prefers an ambush.
River crossings are a good spot...
but others know this too.
When grizzlies arrived in North America...
wolves, lions and sabre-toothed tigers were already well-established here.
Facing such heavy competition, only the most aggressive bears survived...
and just as its ancestors did...
today's grizzly can still stand up for itself.
Encounters like this toughened the grizzly's character...
and gave it valuable skills it could use elsewhere.
As the glaciers retreated, this fearless predator expanded its range.
Settling as far south as Mexico...
the intrepid grizzly was eventually forced out...
by the arrival of European pioneers.
Only in a few protected areas, like Yellowstone National Park...
were bears left in peace.
Because they've been sheltered here...
Yellowstone's grizzlies can be very relaxed...
making this an excellent place for Jeff to watch mothers with cubs.
In situations like this...
I have to be very careful.
The first few weeks out of the den...
are a difficult time for mothers with new-born cubs...
and they're easily disturbed.
I stayed a good distance downwind from this family...
so as not to upset them, and they never knew I was there.
A grizzly's character is moulded from the day it is born.
Mothers have the greatest influence of all...
and this female...
seemed to have all the right credentials, patience...
devotion and a healthy sense of fun.
Grizzly cubs need a full three years of care and education...
before they can safely leave their mother's side.
Right now, these youngsters must stick close by.
In Yellowstone, rivers swollen by snow melt...
are a very real hazard.
Such are the perils of growing up...
that only two of all the cubs this mother produces in her lifetime...
are likely to reach adulthood.
But, like all good parents, she can't be over-protective...
she must let them find their own feet.
Even at this tender age, different characters are becoming evident.
But the more adventurous cub...
may have bitten off slightly more than she can chew.
Yellowstone is very different from the tundra...
but it has one important thing in common, large prey like elk.
One of the most important lessons these cubs must learn...
is the fine art of hunting.
A grizzly's sense of smell is formidable...
one reason why elk mothers are quick to dispose of their calf's afterbirth.
New-born elk can be hard to find in the tangled brush...
so the bears carefully search the calving grounds.
Sitting tight is the calf's best defence.
But the grizzly mother has an answer to this...
by rushing the herd one of the calves may lose its nerve and bolt.
In all my years watching grizzlies...
I've never seen a bear move like that!
It was hard watching the calf killed...
but there are 10,000 elk in the park and this meal...
could spell the difference between life and death for the cubs.
The protein is important for the mother's milk supply...
and will give her extra strength to care for her growing family.
The grizzly bear...
on the one hand a fearsome predator...
on the other, a gentle giant.
Working in bear country certainly carries its risks...
so it's important to go carefully, keeping your wits about you.
In getting to know my rainforest bear back home...
I have learned some important lessons about getting close to grizzlies.
First of all, no surprises.
Let the bear know you are there, long before you get too close...
so it can leave if it wants.
Then, if they stick around and you want them closer...
don't be threatening. Be relaxed.
Talk quietly. Try to avoid eye contact.
Another thing...
let the bear set the distance.
Let them come as close as they feel comfortable.
But keep a careful eye on how they're reacting to you.
The most important thing...
is to remember that bears are individuals...
so you can never know for sure how they will react.
Fortunately, I've spent enough time around this bear...
to know she has a gentle nature.
And because she's been so relaxed in my presence...
she's taught me a lot about her world.
It's fascinating how she's managed to get by...
on this same stretch of coastline for so long...
with hardly any animals to hunt.
Like us, bears are very versatile animals.
It may seem surprising...
but most grizzles spend the best part of their waking hours...
munching plants.
Here at the coast, new sedge grass is a favourite...
it's tender and easy to digest.
Like meat many plants contain valuable proteins that bears can use.
But grass is still fairly low-grade food...
so grizzlies must eat a lot of it to get the calories they need.
Being a carnivore that could live on plants...
gave the grizzly the means to survive in the harshest corners of America.
In the northern interior, autumn brings a crop of sugar-rich berries...
which the grizzlies crave.
This is one sweet mothers certainly don't mind their youngsters eating.
The berries are so nutritious...
that at the height of the season a bear in one day...
will eat up to 100,000 of them.
For a meat-eater, grizzlies cope well with plants.
Long snouts and sharp teeth, good for tearing flesh...
also work for plucking berries.
Muscular legs, built for strength and stamina...
are powerful earth-movers.
Slicing molars have become useful tools...
for grinding tough roots and tubers.
The roots of this wild pea plant...
are one of dozens of different types of plant foods cubs are introduced to.
Right from an early age, they learn to become botanical experts.
But, given the choice...
grizzlies always prefer their meat to their greens...
and turfing up the soil sometimes throws up tasty treats...
like ground squirrels.
This grizzly has met his match...
but at the coast there are easier ways bears can get their protein...
as Jeff found out.
One summer morning I noticed the female and her cub...
rummaging along the shoreline at low tide.
At first, it was hard to make out what was going on.
But they allowed me close, and I was amazed to discover...
they were prizing tiny barnacles from off of rocks and logs.
The bears must have been getting important salt and minerals...
from this seemingly inedible food.
The cub spent so much time at it...
she obviously loved the taste of them.
Seeing this unusual behaviour...
made me appreciate just how smart and resourceful...
grizzlies really are.
And right up north, on the beaches of Alaska...
I found they go even one step further.
They dig for clams.
At low tide...
bears patrol the sand flats using their keen sense of smell...
to locate clams hidden more than a foot down.
The bears need to tread softly...
clams can quickly bury themselves out of reach.
Using its massive claws as levers...
the grizzly opens the fragile shells with the delicacy of a watchmaker.
Young bears dig a lot of unrewarding holes in the sand.
This cub hasn't yet got the hang of catching clams...
but his mother is still happy to share her few tiny morsels with him.
Three years must seem a long apprenticeship for a young grizzly...
but it's the very minimum a bear needs...
to acquire a basic set of survival skills.
The first few months away from home are always the toughest.
Jeff noticed this young female paddling around in the shallows...
Iooking for food.
She was with her brother and I guessed from all the gulls...
that the first salmon were moving inshore.
But this early in the season...
the fish were clearly few and far between...
and these youngsters were out of their league.
Only the most experienced bears knew what to do.
This old female was the only one catching fish...
and it soon became apparent that she was the mother of the cubs.
They wanted to share, like before, when they were younger...
but she wasn't having any of it.
These hungry teenagers...
would never have been so bold with a stranger.
Mom quickly went back to work.
One cub pushed his luck again, begging even harder.
The other saw the gulls had a morsel...
and he thought this was his big chance.
There comes a time...
when every mother must insist on her cubs' independence.
This female had other things on her mind.
Big males are on the prowl.
Females normally give males a wide berth...
especially if they've got cubs...
but they're more approachable when they're ready to mate.
But it's still hard for females to drop their guard.
Back-rubbing is one way this fellow breaks the ice.
But she's no pushover.
The bigger he is the higher up the tree he makes his mark...
impressing her and other males.
But size isn't everything, and anyway...
how could she possibly resist the John Wayne swagger...
the Elvis swivel?
And just for good measure, one last tumble.
Still no luck.
Jeff had never seen such a stalemate.
It was fascinating watching this pair.
Every time he'd approach, she'd move away.
Coyness was written all over her face.
Little by little she let him closer...
until finally they touched.
It had taken him three full days just to get to first base.
I'm not used to seeing courting bears this wary.
Normally, this is when they're most affectionate.
Watching grizzlies...
I'm convinced that every bear has its own special character...
which is shaped by instinct and upbringing.
Like us they remember important places and events in their life.
This really came home to me last salmon season...
when I couldn't find my favourite female on the coast.
Then I remembered a special fishing spot...
where she'd been with her mother thirteen years ago.
Sure enough, there she was...
sharing this secret with her own cub.
Her timing was good.
Large numbers of pink salmon were heading up the creek.
The bears knew this place well.
They went straight to a pool beneath a waterfall...
which the salmon were having trouble passing.
In a bottleneck like this...
grizzlies can quite simply make a killing.
When food is super-abundant...
bears have a useful adaptation, they can eat and eat and eat...
without ever feeling full, putting on almost 5 pounds of fat a day.
With so many salmon around bears can afford to be choosy.
Why waste time eating flesh...
when there are far more nutritious parts to a fish?
Skin, brains, and eggs.
The cub has learnt a trick or two.
For these coastal bears the salmon season...
is the most important time of the year for piling on calories.
For Jeff it's also an opportunity to get into the thick of things...
closing further in on the true nature of the grizzly.
All along the Alaskan peninsula bears fish the salt water...
converging in numbers on the tidal flats...
as the salmon leave the ocean for their journey up river.
Here the grizzly is at its most social...
and many barriers seem to come down.
I love places like this...
these protected areas where bears are gathered...
and so focused on fishing that if you're quiet...
and don't get in their way, you can slip right into their midst.
This close I can really see the different characters...
and the subtleties of their skill.
Watch how this experienced fellow smells the water...
to help him detect salmon in the murky shallows.
Most people think bears have poor eyesight...
but this guy could spot a fin at 100 feet.
It was thrilling to watch such an old pro at work...
but the younger bears here still had a lot to learn.
Every waterway breeds its own bear-culture.
And here upriver, where thousands of fish are waiting to spawn...
it should be paradise.
However hard the bears try, it's virtually impossible for them...
to pin down salmon in such deep water.
It's all so tempting, the bears will try anything.
Then further upriver, Jeff saw one family doing something different.
They were taking a much calmer, stealthier approach to fishing.
But Jeff couldn't see clearly what was going on.
He needed a different view.
When I got in the water with my wetsuit on...
the bears were nervous of me.
The only way I was going to see what they were doing...
without disturbing them was by putting a remote camera...
in their favourite fishing hole.
I discovered the bears were "snorkelling".
Peering underwater with their eyes open...
they were picking dead or injured fish off the bottom.
Grizzly bears are very adaptable.
Here they'd clearly found a solution to their problem.
But I also noticed that there were limits to their success.
Watching these bears I realised...
that they didn't like getting water in their ears.
This aversion meant they wouldn't reach for fish in deep water...
where most of the carcasses lay.
But I finally saw one individual that was overcoming her inhibitions.
In these rivers the fish are never too far out of reach...
but some salmon systems are completely different.
In the mountains of Kodiak Island there's a lake...
where millions of salmons spawn in deep water.
How does the grizzly cope with this challenge?
Bears frequently snorkel in the lake's shallower margins...
but the carcasses here are few and far between.
However, as Jeff found out...
some of the bears have found their way beyond this scant supply.
I watched this mother bear and her cub...
swimming out towards the middle of the lake.
This was really exciting...
I'd heard about bears who'd taken snorkelling to a new level.
They're divers.
I was amazed.
She'd gone down 20 feet to get this dead salmon...
then swum into the shallows, where she could touch bottom, to eat.
I really wanted to film her diving underwater...
so I hid my remote camera on the bottom of the lake...
where the carcasses were concentrated.
She was swimming straight towards the camera...
but she must have spotted it, as she suddenly veered way.
Luckily for me, the cub was much more inquisitive.
He could clearly see the dead fish down there...
but he bobbed around on the surface, like a cork.
Bears, like us, are natural born swimmers...
but it looks like he'll need more lessons before taking the plunge.
It's hard to pigeonhole grizzly bears...
they come from all walks of life.
The challenges of living in so many different places...
have created an animal that is adaptable, intelligent and complex.
And once in a while all sorts of different characters converge...
for one of the most spectacular gatherings in all bear country.
Brooks Falls in Alaska...
hosts an annual convention of the quickest, the cleverest...
the biggest and the boldest bears in the business.
Cuts and scars attest to the fighting for the best fishing spots...
A hierarchy is established, but arguments still arise.
Opening your mouth and flashing your teeth...
usually intimidates rivals and prevents any serious injury.
But not all bears are fighters.
Some, like this one, are thieves.
This old fellow sits back...
and waits for someone else to catch his dinner for him.
Challenging the bear with the fish...
the thief provokes him to open his mouth.
The fish drops out and the thief is quickly off.
Size matters here...
so most of the top spots are held by the big males.
This female, however, has slipped into an empty spot...
while the rightful owner is away.
Too soon, though, the big guy is back...
and she must pull out or fight.
It's really no contest.
Sufficiently cowed...
there's nothing for her to do now, but wait in line.
Soon enough the big guy has his fish.
Then number two gets one as well.
Her luck's in.
She's got the top of the falls all to herself.
It seems all obstacles between her and a feast of salmon are gone.
But there's one hurdle still to cross.
Thief bear!
Instincts win out again, but the salmon is lost to both of them.
But it's no big deal for the thief.
Below the falls another bear has a fish.
The thief moves in again.
But this bear is wise to the thief's tricks.
He knows that no matter how much he's threatened...
he must not open his mouth.
Finally, thief bear gives up.
The wise bear wins this contest of wills.
Watching bears over the years...
Jeff has seen an incredible range of characters.
But, of course, there's one particular bear...
that has a special place in his heart.
When I met this bear thirteen years ago...
I knew very little of grizzlies...
only that they could be dangerous.
But I've learned how incredibly gentle and relaxed grizzlies can be.
So when she started coming towards me, I was not afraid.
Of the hundreds of encounters I've had with bears over the years...
what's most impressed me is their tolerance.
I feel I've often been accepted in their world.
And by allowing me close I have been amazed to realise...
that grizzlies are so like us...
they are real individuals with varied characters...
good parents, intelligent, adaptable, gentle creatures.
It's easy to see in them reflections of our own lives.
But our fear gets in the way of appreciating these similarities.
It was once said that we will only protect something we care for...
and we can only care for something we understand.
I would not want to live in a world without the grizzly...
so I hope that we can all, as I have, begin to understand...
the many faces of this magnificent animal.