Original subtitles

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[RAIN DROPS] [MOTORCYCLE ENGINE]

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINE]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [BIRDS]

[FIRE CRACKLES]

- I have been preparing for my bike trip for the last five years.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

But in many ways,

my journey started long ago. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And really,

it started in the most unexpected way. [WHISTLE]

[LAUGH]

I was 18-years-old,

working at a summer camp in New Hampshire.

And when it wants to turn its tail,

when it thrusts its tail after you, it's back tail, forward and across.

Listen, you have to behave yourself you're on camera at the moment and

this is going home to my Mum in England.

I talked a local biologists into

taking me into the field with him.

In the middle of the night he picked me up, but instead of the forest,

brought me to a garbage dump. [CAMERA SOUNDS] And

there we found 14 black bears sitting on top of it.

Don't ask me why, but from that moment, I was hooked.

We didn't have bears where I was from.

In England, we haven't had bears for about 1,000 years.

So I set out, as a young ecologist,

to places all around the world, [CAMERA SOUND] where people were studying bears,

tracking them in the mountains of Northern Spain, and the Canadian Arctic.

This is where we fit radio collars, so

that we can follow the movements of these bears and take various samples.

Even the Himalayas of Pakistan, I never really thought about bears.

[CAMERA SOUND] And

it amazed me that they were found in places I never imagined.

But finding them was never an easy thing.

We've seen no bears today, but

we have seen about 10 or 11 scouts, mostly in the same place.

We start to come across another river here, we just crossed two today.

I'm absolutely whacked.

Then, 13 years after that first encounter,

I got the opportunity to step into a whole

different world.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

For a lad from a small town in England, this is big country.

It always will be.

The sheer scale of Alaska redefined wilderness for me.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[AIRPLANE MOTOR]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[AIRPLANE LANDING ON WATER]

[BIRDS]

[WALKING IN WATER] As a scientist studying bears,

most of the time it's been trying to find bears or trying to capture them and

collar them.

They're a needle in a haystack.

But here, the tables are turned.

Here, bears outnumber people.

[BIRDS]

And it really changes your

perspective when a 900 pound brown bear walks past you as if you're just a stone

on the trail.

It makes you respect the situation,

makes you think about your every move.

[TENT RUSTLING] [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I knew if I wanted to follow them and learn more about them, I had to understand that I

was a visitor here.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And I was entering their world.

[SOFT VOCALS]

[BIRDS]

[BEAR SPLASHING AND GROWLING]

[BIRDS]

[BEARS GROWLING]

The Alaskan peninsula is stuck in time.

And it's become my bear classroom where I'm spoiled by the sheer numbers and

accessibility.

A bear ecologist's dream, really.

If I dropped down from the sky 10,000 years ago, absolutely nothing would be

different to the way it is now. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

The fish are the life blood of this place.

And the bears play a role too.

They scatter salmon remains, fertilizing the forest and spreading nitrogen.

So the trees grow and provide shelter for the bears

and even shade for the salmon. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[BEAR SPLASHING] It's a partnership,

an ancient one, that just flows and keeps the place alive.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And it's our relationship with this wild animal that fuels my work.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

It wasn't until I came here that

I started to see bears as individuals, as different as any people.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And over the years,

I've come to know them, their playful tussles testing their boundaries.

The cautious cub that's learned to look both ways.

And the wise elder who's seen it all before.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Every day brings something new.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

It's the world as it once was.

[BIRDS AND WATER SPLASHES] Chris: But this is now rare.

This stretch of coastline is one of the few places left on earth,

where bears can really live out their lives as they always have.

What I yearned to know was how bears lived elsewhere.

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINE]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I make my way down the western coast, heading south.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] It's a path that was once home

to many thousands of grizzlies.

Stretching all the way into Mexico, now just a handful left.

And beyond them, further south,

another bear species' fate is quite literally on the edge.

A species that's so

rarely seen, it's secrets has mostly eluded me for many years.

It was time to finish an expedition I began

nearly two decades ago.

- Scientists have waited

three months for this day, to see if a high-tech tracking collar can survive its

toughest test, a black bear. - There you go, baby.

How is that?

It's gonna make following them and learning about their habitat and

lifestyles more possible.

- Researchers will take

what they've learned here to South America,

where they hope to use the new tracking collar on a rare species of tropical bear.

Knowing that the first step in trying to save an animal is learning what it needs

to survive. [CAMERA SHUTTER]

- Back then, I came to South America

to find an unusual bear.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Their home,

a narrow spine of the Andes, pushed there by humans who needed the lowlands.

Bear habitat became villages with pastures and fields of crops.

Sometimes killed by farmers protecting their livelihood,

the bears became like ghosts. [RUSTLING]

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINE] Almost never seen,

and for the most part, forgotten.

I've made more than a dozen

trips into spectacled bear country without a single glimpse of a bear in the wild.

Out of the blue, ten years later, I get a phone call.

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINE] [PHONE RINGING]

- Hey, Chris,

this is Robyn Appleton, calling.

I'm a biologist down here in Peru.

We've been looking for spectacled bears for the last couple of months, and

we have located a population of bear here.

So, I'm really excited to share some of our stories with you.

So, if you could give me a callback,

that would be great.

It was hard to believe what Robyn was telling me.

I honestly didn't know what to make of it. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Robyn has set up her study in

the arid foothills of the Andes, near a small village in rural Peru.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

It's beautiful,

but it's incredibly harsh, both for humans and bears.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINE]

Robyn leads the way to the study site, but this is not what I imagined.

And frankly, it's not really where Robyn thought she'd end up either.

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINES]

She began of course, in the forest

- Bears, I think they define the forest.

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINES]

We'd heard that this was

a biological quarter, and that there had been spectacled bears in this valley.

So we started at what I would have considered to be the most logical place,

which was up high where it's green, and there's rain, and there's fruit.

[BIRDS]

We spent months and months looking.

Their habitat was fragmented.

[BIRDS AND TRICKLE OF A STREAM]

There wasn't a lot of full forest.

After seven months, we realized that the chances of finding a bear here were

probably pretty low. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

So the last place to go was the desert.

At least if we go to this area, we can rule it out and

say there are no bears in this valley. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- This is the dry season in Peru.

[RUSTLING]

By the time we get to

the base of the trail, it's already 100 degrees and it's only 8 in the morning.

From here, it's another 16 hours straight up to our base camp.

- Often people think because

it is a dry forest and it's open, that you can just walk in there and find a bear.

And it really isn't that easy.

[FOOTSTEPS ON ROCKS] [ROCKS FALLING]

You've gotta be able to get up into their habitat, which is up,

huge cliffs. - We're now at about 2600 feet.

It is hot though, it is very, very hot.

It is the peak that is one of our destinations up above.

Over that peak is our base camp.

These guys have stashed a water supply there, and we're gonna camp out for

the next ten days looking for bears.

- One of the very first questions

we were asking ourselves, how are these bears surviving in this type of ecosystem?

What do all animals need?

In a place so dry, where are they finding the water?

[BIRDS]

- They found a half dozen of

these, tiny waterholes that seem to attract most of the wildlife in the area.

[INAUDIBLE]

So they placed remote cameras

at each of them, hoping for evidence of spectacled bears.

These waterholes are a lifeline for the animals here,

and perhaps our best chance to find them. [INAUDIBLE].

I cannot believe that,

that's what all the fuss is about. - Yep.

- Totally, no water.

- Yep. No water, so it's pretty damp still.

The bears will still be coming here to check it, but if there's no water,

they'll have to go somewhere else.

- But where?

Our search just became that much more difficult.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Bear tracks?

- Yeah. - No way.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC].

Entering the cave, I suddenly feel a rush of anticipation.

It's cooler in here, the refuge for

animals moving between the high mountains and the lowlands.

Prehistoric humans did the same for thousands of years,

long before villages on the valley floor.

[SOFT VOCALS MUSIC]

[FOOTSTEPS ON ROCKS]. I didn't like to admit it,

but keeping up with this team was a struggle.

It was like following a herd of mountain goats.

[CRICKETS]

We arrive at camp by moon light.

[CRICKETS]

Am I glad to see this place.

- I hear ya.

- Ahh.

Home sweet home.

But there's still some work to be done.

Robyn's cameras have collected a few hundred

photos since she last checked these traps.

It's clear how much of the valley's

wildlife relies on these waterholes, birds, mammals, even a puma.

Come on, come on, come on, bear.

- It's there. - Awesome.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Our first visual of a spectacled

bear in this valley.

There are really long legs on them.

This picture is several days old, and the water hole is now dry.

So this bear may have already moved on.

But it really gives me hope.

Look at that, that is such an interesting shadow.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I struggle to sleep.

The valley comes alive with the sound of animals like like they've waited for

the heat to ease before showing themselves.

[VARIOUS ANIMAL SOUNDS]

[BIRDS] [SHOES TYING]

[FOOTSTEPS AND RUSTLING]

Hours seem to blend into days.

And I begin to remember that every experience I have ever had looking for

this species has been like this, fruitless and exhausting.

A bear scat full of wood chips.

Maybe this is the closest I'll ever get. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Here it's not a case of just

looking for a bear, you have to really think like one to find them.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And it's something I've

almost forgot how to do with this species.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Darkness finally calls off the search.

In Alaska, the bears are where

the food is, but here, I find it a challenge to know where to look.

[BIRDS]

- When we first searched the valley, met some cattle ranchers,

they had just said, you're not gonna find anything.

There are no bears.

I was ready to pack it in.

- Psst

[WHISPERING]

- Down there down there.

There There There There There [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC].

- Yeah, above the black one.

- Yep, I see it.

It's a bear.

My first spectacled bear.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC SWELLS]

My goodness.

Wow, look at it just crossing that clifftop so confidently.

For a moment, I question what I'm seeing.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

That's a vertical wall meeting a 500 foot drop.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

What is she risking it all for?

[TENSE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[ROCKS FALLING]

I can hear my heart racing.

[TENSE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Then I see little snails hunkered in the shadows.

[TENSE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Yeah, so they get some nutrition from those snails, obviously.

- Yeah a little piece of wet protein.

Yeah, well, they're just so

tough too to get off, you can see how she's prying it there.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

It's not until she makes her way safely down that I feel I can exhale and

take in that I'm seeing this bear for the first time.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I can imagine Robyn's

reaction after she finally spotted one. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- We really didn't expect to find bears.

Saw the black dot.

[CAMERA SHUTTER]

Took the photo.

It was hot, mid-day, so

we thought, okay, let's just sit it out a little bit.

So I was just sitting there, enjoying the scenery, and

all of a sudden I heard the rustling of the bushes [RUSTLING]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] And to have this spectacled bear face looking at you.

She just looked up, and you could see she just, was beautiful.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And she came within five meters.

My heart my was racing, my hands were shaking.

I was so nervous.

I was trying to grab the camera, I was trying to take photos.

I have to take a photo.

No one's gonna believe me. [CAMERA SHUTTER]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Those were some of the best photos I've ever taken of Laura.

- They named her Laura.

She's a very special bear for Robyn's team.

Not just because she was their first bear, but she also shows a level of trust for

them that is wonderfully unique.

Her behavior is different than any other bear.

We just get so much joy out of watching her.

She became our favorite bear and it's just a very special part of our lives.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- A dot on the cliff was surreal.

But now she's close enough that I can actually hear her breathing.

And she's the strangest looking bear, I think, I've ever seen.

Covered in burrs and long and lean and

in the most unexpected place in the world. - She'll probably start heading

back up that way in a couple of minutes. - It's a mountain desert and

home to its very own bears.

[SOFT VOCAL MUSIC] Robyn: What makes this bear population

unique is that it could have genetic material that doesn't exist in

any other bear.

So if we lose this bear, we could be losing something very valuable.

We use GPS collars to learn about these bears.

- And this tracks their movements

so that we understand the size, the habitat, and what they need and

how they use it. - As the temperature rises,

everything in the forest dries up, leaving the bears with nothing to eat.

But it brings another surprise.

They resort to eating trees.

The hard woody core of the persio tree.

And they'll camp out at a single spot, sometimes for weeks,

shredding it down to nothing. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[FOOTSTEPS] Wow look at that.

- That's a good one.

- Yeah.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Robyn and her team became obsessed.

And the more they followed them, the more comfortable the bears became.

And the more they revealed.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Even witnessing extraordinary moments, like this courting pair,

perhaps never seen before.

[HAPPY INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And perhaps a sign for the future for these mountain bears.

[HAPPY INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- We saw our first cub about two or three months into finding, the first time we found Laura.

Just seeing a cub in this environment is unimaginable.

I don't know how they make it. [HAPPY INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

We all get very emotional.

When you spend 300 days of the year

watching these bears.

[HAPPY INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] You become part of that family.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

We don't know, yet, if this is a healthy ecosystem.

We don't know if bears being in this area represents that.

And that's something that we need to piece together and we need to understand more.

Right around the edge there. - [LAUGH] My goodness.

Look at that little guy.

But you look at that cub, and you can understand from the moment

they're born, they're rock climbing

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

They were seeing more of these bears than anyone before them,

but still something wasn't adding up.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

It emerged that they only had half the story.

Summer is lean and hard and

the bears lose a third of their body weight or more.

So how do they make it through to another year?

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

For years Robyn wondered.

And it turns out they were looking in all the wrong places.

Some of the bears were leaving the safety of the cliffs.

Undetected, they sneak down through the brush into the valley.

The females, especially those with cubs, risk everything by being here.

Most cubs don't survive their first year of life.

- There's a fruit down at the flat

that's called the sapote fruit. Looks like an avocado.

It's high in protein, it's high in carbohydrates.

It's what allows them to gain weight for

the winter months. So what's happened is

the people are cutting it down, and they're not leaving a lot left for bears.

We've watched almost all of those females decline with their cubs.

But they can't go down to feed on sapote, it's too risky.

They don't wanna take their cub down there.

So they stay up in the cliffs.

There's not a lot for them to feed on, so over time they just get thinner, and

thinner, and thinner, until they can't support their cub any longer.

And so, that means the mortality rate is really high for this species,

which is a huge concern for conservation.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

You feel for the bears. You just feel responsible and they're vulnerable.

And they found a way to survive.

And we're taking that away from them.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- Even though they escape to the safety of the cliffs, it's not enough for them.

They still need the valleys.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- It's how they're surviving in this unique place.

They're eating wood, they're feeding on cactus, and they don't drink water,

and they're living up in massive cliffs.

That's what makes this place incredible.

[LAUGH]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I feel like I see something that nobody else sees.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

If you walk into the forest it

looks dry and dead.

And if you stop and you listen and you wait long enough,

you start to hear the birds. [BIRDS]

And then you start to hear other animals.

[VARIOUS ANIMAL SOUNDS]

It just comes alive.

And then you see a bear, and it's, it's magical.

[RUSTLING]

[UPBEAT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [MOTORCYCLE ENGINE]

When we found the bears,

the first thing we did was show the local community footage of that and say,

see that cliff up there?

That's this, this is right in your backyard.

And the people, you could see it in their eyes, the excitement.

They didn't look scared, they didn't say, is the bear gonna eat me?

They looked at it and said, that's right here?

That's in our backyard?

And they got really excited about it.

We've worked with the Ministry of Education and

put an entire chapter in the curriculum.

We want people to understand and appreciate the importance of this

type of ecosystem.

Reaching the people and

connecting the people with nature, and with bears.

[APPLAUSE]

Then having the children go home

and tell their parents about it.

That's what this is all about.

[UPBEAT VOCAL MUSIC]

Peruvians don't have a lot, and especially these villagers.

So I think they felt some type of ownership for that, and

it's built upon that.

This is our land, our land has bears.

We have spectacled bears.

[LAUGH] [VARIOUS CHILDREN'S VOICES]

It's about community. It's about finding a future.

- She came to understand bears and now she's changing hearts.

[UPBEAT VOCAL MUSIC]

Opening people's eyes to their bear neighbors. [UPBEAT VOCAL MUSIC]

And it's just the beginning.

The beginning of a long conversation.

A conversation that's also happening elsewhere.

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINE] [ WATER SPLASH]

[UPBEAT VOCAL MUSIC]

At the other end of the Americas, another story of bears and people has taken shape.

and learned some lessons along the way.

[MUSIC FADES OUT]

It's late fall, and winter is just beginning to take hold.

[WIND] [DOG FOOTSTEPS]

[SCHOOL BELL] [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

At a glance, Churchill seems familiar.

Just another wintery Northern town.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Except for one thing.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

This town sits to the edge

of two worlds, which means rush hour with a difference.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC].

It's home to the world's most

southerly polar bears and it's a place I know well.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- He's gonna go up.

- He's gonna jump.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- I started guiding people to Churchill in the 90s and

I fell for these bears at first glance.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And I am not alone.

Thousands of people come here to see them every year.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [BEAR GROWL]

- Hi beautiful. Oh you're gorgeous.

- I really felt like their popularity

would save these bears.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I kept coming back. I loved bringing people here.

And I learned a lot along the way.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

This year the winter seems reluctant to arrive.

[WAVES]

It's almost hypnotic.

The ice is beginning to tempt the bears out there,

but it can't hold them yet.

This Mother and her two year old cubs huddled together,

waiting to leave town.

Like all the bears here, she hasn't eaten since June,

five months ago.

But somehow she's still nursing.

I think about her spectacled cousin far to the south.

It's hard to imagine that heat now.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

It's still hours before sunrise, and while most of the people and

bears are still asleep, Bob Windsor's shift has already begun.

He and his deputies have become the peacemakers between people and bears.

And while the bears wait for the ice, he's on the front line.

- A little later on, the kids will be going to school.

So we try to ensure that there's no bears within the community itself

prior to the majority of that activity.

So what we're basically doing is driving every street, every alley in town.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[PHONE RINGS]

- Hello Bob, this is Jack, we have a report of a couple of bears enter into your directions,

they're near the port zone one. - Okay, I got that too there, Jack.

- You need to get over there fairly quickly.

- Okay, we'll see you there.

It's a report of two bears, that are over here by the port,

walking towards town.

- It's a bit after 4 in the morning, they've received the report about a bear

in the center of town. - We don't tolerate any bears at all

in zone one, so our response is to immediately,

try to remove them from the zone.

When we're chasing a bear through the community, you're just hoping and

praying there's nobody in the path of the bear that you're pushing.

Be aware of your surroundings at all times, that's just the way it is here.

I wish I knew where exactly it was.

These tracks go over here.

He's right there.

Looking pretty casual, B190. [ON RADIO] - You can see him?

- Yeah, Roger.

[RADIO CLICKS] [CAR DOOR OPENS]

Right in front of me. [RUSTLING]

[FLARE GUN] He didn't like that.

No, that worked.

[ON RADIO] - I'll get this one in the river.

- Okay, you see the other one?

[ON RADIO] - He's on the side of the railroad tracks there.

-Okay I'll get them going towards you.

Okay, hold on tight here.

You have to give them a lot of respect, give them their distance.

Did you see him?

I just saw him go out towards the end here.

[ON RADIO] - Near, the rock.

Yeah, that's not really where we

- Looks quite calm, doesn't he?

- Good thing it wasn't a quick draw contest today.

[GUN LOADS] [WIND BLOWING]

- Fortunately, the bear moves on, he's just biding his time.

It's ice that he really craves or really the seals that it brings.

[CAR DOOR OPENS] [LAUGH]

[INAUDIBLE] [LAUGHS]

- Should have sent you up there,

snow was right up to the waist.

[LAUGH] Yeah, a little deep there, in spots.

Yeah, it's good, it wasn't a little bear, that one.

No it wasn't.

It's pretty good size.

The last thing I want to do in my job is have to destroy a bear.

It's something for the protection of people, I will do if needed.

But you go to great lengths to avoid being into that situation.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC].

- It's kind of an interesting

thing, this little town, 900 people living here,

slap bang in the middle of polar bear habitat.

But it seems to work, doesn't it? - Things people do here, and the way

you think has definitely been modified, because of polar bears around the area.

When you walk out of a building here,

you look both ways before you go walking out, in case there is a polar bear

nearby, and sometimes there is.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

You feel like you're lucky to do what you do?

- Oh definitely, when I had the opportunity to come to Churchill to work.

I have to say it's one that I just had to do, and

there were sacrifices I made to do it.

But like I say, I didn't wanna be sitting in a rocking chair some day, hopefully,

many years down the road, looking back on my life saying, I wish I would have.

This was one experience that the opportunity was there, I took it.

And to be honest, it's been better than what my expectations even were.

[WIND BLOWING]

-Despite Bob's enthusiasm, Churchill is a tough place to makea living, even for a polar bear.

[WIND BLOWING]

Once again, Churchill belongs to the bears.

[WIND BLOWING]

It's mid November and

a frigid arctic storm hits town.

Exactly what the bears have been waiting for.

[WIND BLOWING] [TRUCK]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I've watched lots of polar bears waiting for the freeze,

they pointing their noses to sky.

And it looks like they can smell the sea ice forming.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Their time on land is really

just a yearly inconvenience for them.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Soon other families start their trek out on to the ice.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

It's hard for us to imagine, but

the bears find the ice irresistable.

It beckons them out there. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

But cautiously to begin with.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

The cubs watch their mom's every move.

They have to learn fast.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And then unbelievable as it sounds, when winter arrives,

the bears will disappear into the darkness to hunt.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I find the story of polar bear

evolution almost unbelievable.

Just a few million years ago, they were brown bears, grizzlies on the northern

edge of the continent. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

But they slowly changed,

over time their brown fur turned white.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC].

And they became highly skilled specialists.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Hunters of an icy world.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Polar bears hunt seals almost exclusively.

And they do it with stealthful precision.

[WIND BLOWING]

Mostly from the top of the ice.

[UNDER WATER]

But occasionally under it. [WIND]

[UNDER WATER] Whichever way they hunt,

their true skill is the element of surprise.

[BEAR GROWL] [SPLASHING]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] Hunting is a full time job.

He'll need to kill a seal every few days to sustain him through the long winter.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

When winter ends, and the days grow longer,

the ice shelf grows more and more unstable.

This is the most critical time for them.

They know the end of the feast is near.

And they'll spend every moment on this rapidly dissolving platform before it

becomes too dangerous and

there's no turning back. [WIND]

[BIRDS] Their world begins to literally

shrink around them. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

In a matter of a few weeks,

every piece of the arctic has vanished.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

All but one, really.

This bear has emerged from winter

and survived some of the harshest conditions on Earth.

And now, in late spring,

enters a sort of walking hibernation to conserve hard-won energy.

He'll be landlocked until the sea ice returns again.

The questions is now, how long will he have to wait?

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [HELICOPTER]

- The work that we're doing here in Hudson Bay

are providing perhaps a glimpse into the future of what may occur in other

populations more northerly than this one.

[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [HELICOPTER]

- Biologist Nick Lund has made it his life's work

to understand these bears and whether they can make it.

[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [HELICOPTER]

It's an Arctic riddle that he's unraveling.

[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [HELICOPTER]

- Once we know all the bear is safe, we need to determine,

have we handled this bear before? - Nick and hi team

have repeated this with over 1,500 bears in Hudson Bay.

And they have compiled the most comprehensive database of any population

polar bears on earth. - X12694, so the tags and tattoos match.

Okay, so we know something about this bear.

He was caught in a culvert trap somewhere around the town of Churchill and released.

- Each bear is charted from head to toe.

And they're tracked year after year.

We collect hair samples to monitor pollution in the air and water.

Fat samples to reveal toxins. - Canines on the upper right

and lower right, they're worn. - And even which seal species

the bears are eating. - Two, three, three.

[HELICOPTOR]

- And by analyzing all this data,

they can map a picture of Arctic health

through these bears. - We can start seeing trends in our

data and declines in condition.

Declines in sort of survival. [HELICOPTOR]

And polar bears have become sort

of the canary in the coal mine.

[BEAR BREATHING].

- For a species that depends entirely upon ice to survive,

a warming planet is an unwelcomed future. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Spring is coming sooner and the fall freeze later.

So over time,

with each passing winter on Hudson Bay, their time stranded on land gets longer.

It's like watching the pulse of a heart

weaken over time. - We're finding that the bears more

recently are coming ashore with less bodyfat.

We're seeing fewer cubs being born.

We're finding the bears aren't surviving, aren't reaching adulthood.

We're finding declines in the actual size of this population.

The ice free period is gonna be getting longer and longer.

And that's not gonna be good for polar bears here.

They can't fast forever.

There's a finite period of time.

And that has implications for not only ourselves, but for

all biodiversity on this planet. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC].

- I got a call,

it was 6:30 in the morning.

A bear on the beach in front of the complex.

We get that call all the time, nothing new.

We drove up to within about 75 yards of the bear.

Got out, fired some cracker shells with the shotguns.

And the bear, instead of leaving, it circled a couple times,

looked a little confused, and it came towards us.

I didn't like what I was seeing.

I could see something real bad coming of this.

Full-grown bear, but skin and bones.

There was no fat on this bear.

Eventually, we ended up down at the bottom of the complex,

where it was a safe place to take a shot.

We were able to capture this bear.

And then we moved it over to the holding facility.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC].

- Climate change is a very real thing for these bears.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Nick's work has made that clear.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

It threatens their very existence.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- I would find it a very tragic

outcome if we lost polar bears.

Or the most tragic outcome of all this, is knowing that we could've done something.

We had an opportunity and we missed it.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- For this bear, there may be a second chance.

Bob decides to step in to relocate her to the ice that's

starting to form north of town.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[HELICOPTER]

But as the winters become shorter, it's an uncertain future for this bear.

Even when a town has the best intentions.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Climate change can seem like an invisible threat,

but seeing it through a polar bear's struggle it becomes something very real.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I head across the globe and deep

into the tropics to the Island of Borneo.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

To some of the most ancient forests we know.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

The wilderness here is spectacular, like nothing else I've ever seen.

But finding it is becoming harder. [BIRDS]

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINE]

I've come to find a bear in a place that seems un-bear-like to me in every way.

[TRAFFIC SOUNDS]

So that's this area, okay.

Yeah, this must be a small difficult road huh?

- You want that, that road. - I see, yeah.

- [INAUDIBLE].

- I'm on my way to the Denham Valley Conservation area

to meet with biologist Siew Te Wong.

He's dedicated his life to the study of sun bears and

probably knows more about them than anyone on earth.

He's one of very few people who really know these animals.

Most of the people here work in the surrounding plantations.

The local economy is driven by palm oil.

[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [MOTORCYCLE]

Millions of acres across Malaysia and Indonesia are now covered with oil palms.

[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I stopped counting the number of miles

since I entered the plantations. [INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I am literally surrounded by an ocean of oil palms.

And all of this land as far as the eye can see, was once rainforest

Home to the very animal I seek.

And as demand for palm oil grows, the world's most ancient rainforests are at risk.

[MOTORCYCLE] [INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

From my conversations with Wong I expected some logging activity

just outside of Danum Valley in the buffer zone surrounding the reserve.

[SOMBER INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [TRUCK HORN]

But I wasn't ready for this.

[SOMBER INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I'm shocked by the sheer volume

of logs coming out of the forest.

[SOMBER INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Wave after wave of trucks,

stacked full of ancient hardwood.

[SOMBER INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Finally I enter the reserve.

The air is suddenly heavy with moisture.

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINE]

Hey.

- Hey.

- Wong?

- Chris. - How are you doing?

- Good, good to see you.

- Good to meet you.

- Hey, well found.

- Finally - Yeah.

[LAUGH]

Finally to see you, yeah.

- You live in the middle of nowhere. - Yeah.

- Oh my God, thank goodness for GPS.

After I settle in Wong shows me around his camp and

introduces me to the camps newest member. - Yep here's the cub.

Hey Cerah. - Hey Cerah, Cerah,

What's Cerah mean? - Cerah means bright in the Malay language.

- She's a bit shy at first,

she's about ten months old and has spent nine of those behind bars.

My goodness, she's perfect, what a healthy looking cub. Hello.

- And she was confiscated by the wildlife departments.

From where, where was she being held?

- First poacher, shot the mothers while they're in the forest, then sell the bear parts,

and then capture the cubs.

The cubs are extremely helpless, friendly, cute, so it is not a problem for

the poachers to capture the cubs. - Wong tells me that

the pet trade here is a byproduct of rapid deforestation. [SOMBER INSTRUMENTAL]

The climbing trees, look at those tree climbing tools.

It's impossible to miss how this little bear has won over Wong's heart.

The long tongue?

Yes, he likes the salt. Look at that [LAUGH].

Wong hopes to give her a second

chance, an opportunity to be a wild sun bear once again.

- Coffee for you Chris?

- Yes please.

- Wong is a fascinating and really passionate guy.

Cheers.

- Cheers.

[LAUGH]

- Here's to the sun bear. - Yes.

- And by our fourth cup of instant

coffee, we were on a roll.

We don't know much about sun bears, but much of what we do know is largely thanks

to Wong's passion and dedication.

- Yeah, they are elusive, they are rare.

They live in a very difficult environment to study and also

they compete for conservation attention. - Because they're up against these

other species. - Absolutely,

like orangutans, Sumatra rhinoceros, elephants.

- But although they compete for attention,

it's clear that all of these animals need efforts to save their homeland.

[SOMBER INSTRUMENTAL]

[VARIOUS NIGHT SOUNDS]

What time are we starting in the morning? - Well we start early up.

Start at dawn. - Okay, sounds good.

- Good night, Chris.

[BLOWING OUT LANTERN]

[VARIOUS ANIMAL SOUNDS]

[WATER POURING]

- This morning, Wong and I hope to get a locationon one of his radio collared bears.

And if we're very lucky, catch a glimpse of one.

[RUSTLING]

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINES.

[SOFT VOCAL MUSIC]

This forest has one of the highest biodiversity on Earth.

And probably takes ages to grow. - How old do you think it is?

- I think it maybe like six, 700 years.

- Really?

Wow, the things that this tree must have witnessed?

- Yeah.

[SOFT VOCAL MUSIC]

The forest of Borneo is not just a horizontal landscape, it is a vertical landscape.

Make canopy all the way to the canopy that may reach up to 80 meters.

[SOFT VOCAL MUSIC]

All filled with life.

[SOFT VOCAL MUSIC]

- Two hundred feet about the ground, it's another world.

An entire ecosystem unto itself.

[SOFT VOCAL MUSIC]

But for Wong, traveling through the canopy is not an option.

To track the sun bears, he has to tackle the forest floor.

[RUSTLING][SPLASHING]

It seems like everything in this forest is out to get you.

Stick you, snag you, bite you, or suck your blood.

[RUSTLING] [TENSE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

No signal?

- No, No signal.

[TENSE INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[FOOTSTEPS]

- Throughout the forest Wong has laid culvert traps

to try and find these elusive bears.

[FOOTSTEPS]

[METAL DOOR SLIDING OPEN]

What is that? - It's a Malay civet.

- A Malay civet?

- Yeah.

- So they're pretty common around here.

- Yeah they are very common,

they're very common. - Pretty special to see one of

these things, but you probably, they're a bit of a headache for you,

no doubt, aren't they? - Yeah, absolutely.

[METAL DOOR SLIDING OPEN]

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]. - We´re no luckier,

for sun bears must be elsewhere, silently foraging in an oasis of food.

[RUSTLING] [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

It's like a Garden of Eden that,

for now, knows nothing different.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Life here just pulses along regardless of what's happening outside the reserve.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [BEAR LICKING AND CHEWING]

[BIRDS]

[FOOTSTEPS]

- Yeah, I often describe sun bears

as a cross between a chimpanzee and a bear, because they are so primate like.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

The only thing that can actually

fill up their stomach is fruit.

Wild fruits in the forest are in trees,

they have to climb all the way up to harvest those fruits.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And also, they take rests and sleep in the tree.

[BIRDS]

[FOOTSTEPS]

[TRUCK ENGINE]

And all of the timber extractions in this part of the world

all originate from the sun bear's habitat.

The forest has been cleared, and converted into agriculture use.

And it is impossible for

people to recreate the tropical rainforests of Borneo.

Once they are gone, they are gone.

Sun bears are forest dependent species.

If we don't help them there might not be a chance for

us to help in the future.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- The sun bears are just a piece of this fragile ecosystem, and

all of it hangs in the balance.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- This place has all of the megafauna that used to be here 100,000 years ago.

Bornean pygmy elephants,

Bornean orangutans, sun bears.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And we just cannot lose this forest. Chris: It's an incredibly fragile and

infinitely complex system.

- I feel as if I've only scratched the surface.

John Muir said it perfectly, When one tugs at a single thing in nature,

he finds it's attached to the rest of the world.

By understanding and

protecting these bears, I'm beginning to sense how much there is to gain.

You only have to be here for a moment to feel it.

Their home is home to thousands of other species.

Many of them found nowhere else on earth.

It's like they're base jumping

from one part of the tree to another.

- Some days are [INAUDIBLE] but not as [INAUDIBLE] [LAUGH]

Whoa, orangutan, mother and

baby over there. - Where?

- Take a look, There, the female.

- And a baby, oh my goodness. - They're very comfortable.

- What a tiny, young one,

looks like this big. - Yeah.

Orangutan is listed as critically endangered.

Sun bear's numbers are much much much more lower than the orangutan.

If orangutan is classified as critically endangered,

I don't know how should I classify sun bears because they are so rare.

- If there was any hope of saving

these amazing creatures, even the smallest of steps can have a profound effect.

For Wong, today is a chance to reintroduce Cerah to her rightful home.

- Good girl, good girl.

- Hey Cerah, hey Cerah,

Cerah, Cerah yeah. - It's okay.

- Yeah, it's okay, it's okay,

Come on out. - Yeah, come.

- Come see.

- Come on, come on girl, come.

- Come on.

Follow us. - Actually, the first 20 minutes or

30 minutes after she is released from a cage and

she's not wrestling through anybody at all, she's just doing her own stuff.

[PLAYFUL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC] [LAUGH] - She's a crazy little thing.

- She's so excited.

She's so happy. - She's running into things.

Yeah Cerah!

[PLAYFUL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

- She can play with anything.

She can play with leaves.

She can play with sapling.

Bite, grab, you know, she's like, wow, I'm back to my home again.

[PLAYFUL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC].

- Sheesh, [LAUGH]

Hey.

It's amazing to watch her behavior change.

And little by little, she's becoming a wild sun bear cub again.

[UPBEAT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

To think just a few days ago,

Cerah had never touched the soil since she was an infant.

Never smelled the forest, dug in the dirt, or

even walked more than a few feet [LYRICS:Have no fear ]

[LYRICS:For when I'm alone] And to watch her transformation is amazing.

[LYRICS:I'll be better off- than I was before]

[LYRICS: I've got this light- I'll be around to grow]

[LYRICS: who I was before ]

Wong has given something back to this little bear.

[LYRICS:I cannot recall] Something thought lost forever.

[LYRICS: Long ]. Freedom.

[LYRICS: Nights allow me to feel- I'm falling- I am falling]

[LYRICS: The lights go out - I study wild sun bears,I know that

[LYRICS: let me feel] this environment is very, very,

harsh and difficult environment to make a living in, so.

[LYRICS: I'm falling- I am falling ]

[LYRICS: Safely to ] [LAUGH] - That's a first

[WHISTLING] [LYRICS: the ground ] - The whole process,

it's gonna take time.

We are talking about maybe months or year in order for

her regain confidence to the wild [LYRICS: I'll take this soul that's inside me now].

I really hope that Cerah will have a Cerah future,

will have a bright future [LYRICS: Like a brand new friend- I'll forever know].

[LYRICS:I've got this light] - I see Wong as a crusader for the sun bear.

[LYRICS: And the will to show- I will always be] He's dedicated so much

to see that these species doesn't go unnoticed

in a place where orangutans and elephants steal the limelight .

He's a really thoughtful man and

I sense he has deep beliefs about our role on this planet.

I know these are just baby steps.

Wong and Cerah have a long and difficult path ahead,

but what an adventure for both of them. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[MOTORCYCLE ENGINE] For me too,

bears have shaped my life.

But in those early days, I wasn't looking for answers.

I was in it for the adventure. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

But somewhere along the road the journey changed for me.

From adventure to discovery. [SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

[HELICOPTER]

And it brought me to some extraordinary people.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

The quiet heroes.

There are so many of them.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]. So, my adventure continues

to find them and tell their stories, and in many ways, it's just begun.

This film has takes seven years to complete, a journey in itself, that has

triggered so much good along the way.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

I heard from Robyn. [INAUDIBLE CHATTER].

She told me she had some sad news.

Laura had died, they were devastated.

Like they'd lost a family member.

But then, through the tears, she told me that perhaps Laura's

real role was her legacy.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Robyn now works with dozens of women in spectacle bear

country, employing them full time.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And using radio collared data in this film,

she approached the government and did the impossible.

She convinced them to create a brand new national park.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

A place of bear country in Peru, preserved forever.

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

In Churchill, people and bears

are finding a way forward together, through changing times.

Nick's work continues to glimpse at the future.

It may only be decades before the bears here are gone.

But what they're teaching us will live on for other Polar bears.

[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And Wong, for so

long here, he's been the solo champion for the little sun bear.

Not anymore, he's opened a sun bear conservation center for research and

education, for other bears like Cerah.

And his mission to tell the world, is working.

This smallest of bears that has inspired so much.

[INSPIRING VOCAL MUSIC]

These bears have four other bear cousins. [INSPIRING INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

Eight species in total.

And, as we look out for their needs, perhaps we can preserve what we all need.

[INSPIRING INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

And just by being here,

you are already making a difference.

[INSPIRING VOCAL MUSIC]

Any good journey reveals new things.

For me, it's been hope.

[INSPIRING VOCAL MUSIC] [MOTORCYCLE ENGINE].

[SOFT INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC].