BBC Natural World - The Bear Man of Kamchatka HD (2006)
Information A scenically stunning and dramatically engaging story of one man's campaign to prove grizzly bears can live harmoniously with people if they are conditioned from an early age to loving trust. To many people, grizzlies are symbols of power and ferocity – creatures to be feared and, too often, killed. Are grizzly bears really that dangerous? Canadian naturalist Charlie Russell doesn't think so, and he believes our disproportionate fear of the animals is driving them to extinction. Russell, who has had a forty-year relationship with bears, holds the controversial belief that it is possible to live with and truly understand bears in the wild. For the past ten years, Russell has raised orphaned grizzly cubs in the wilds of Kamchatka peninsula in the Russian Far East, home of the densest population of brown bears in the world. After an earlier project ended with the death of his bears at the hands of the Russian mafia, Charlie returns with four new cubs and he's trying to prove that Russia can live with its grizzlies. He strives to teach his cubs the skills they'll need to survive in the wild, facing the dangers of not only rival bears but the many poachers who descend on the region. Now his greatest challenge is to prove to the world that man and bear can live side by side. This film follows Charlie as he restarts the project, spending nine months living with the orphaned cubs as they become increasingly independent and make the crucial transition to the wild. But will he be able to keep them safe from other grizzlies and the ever-present threat of poachers?
Filmed and Narrated by Jeff Turner; River Road Films Production for BBC in Association with Animal Planet and CBC
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