These grizzly bear cubs were orphaned. We followed them for a year to see if they could survive in the wild | CBC Documentaries

By Brad Quenville, director, Grizzly Rewild

In the autumn of 2020, 5 grizzly bear cubs  — Arthur, Raven, Isa, Cedar and Muwin — arrived on the Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter in Smithers, B.C., the one facility in North America that rewilds orphaned grizzly bear cubs. The bears have been rapidly dubbed “the Fab Five” by scientist Lana Ciarniello.

The cubs spent the following a number of months on the shelter, with restricted human contact, earlier than they have been to be launched again into the B.C. wilderness. Then the bears have been tracked by way of GPS collars as a part of the primary long-term research on rewilded grizzly bears in North America (funded by the Northern Lights Wildlife Society and the Grizzly Bear Foundation). Usually, younger grizzly cubs which are orphaned die within the wild, or are euthanized or put into zoos as a result of it is assumed they can not survive within the wild. 

My son, Nick, and I have been granted permission to movie these distinctive bears on the shelter and observe them post-release, after we might witness their second likelihood at a life within the wild. 

Our documentary, Grizzly Rewild, was an bold endeavor, as rewilded grizzly yearlings had by no means been filmed earlier than in North America. We hoped to be the primary to see them foraging, fishing for salmon, and rising from their winter dens.

5 sensible bears with distinctive traits

Angelika and Peter Langen, the house owners of Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter, have raised grizzlies and black bears earlier than, however they have been notably impressed by these grizzlies’ intelligence and their distinct personalities. Once we began filming the Fab Five, we quickly found what the Langens have been speaking about. 

Raven caught our consideration first. She was probably the most energetic and consistently provoked play-fights with the others. Caretaker Kim Gruijs referred to as her the “yoga bear” as a result of she might usually be seen sitting again, grabbing her hind paws along with her forepaws and excitedly rocking forwards and backwards. 

Wild grizzlies normally stick with their moms for at the very least two years, however these cubs have been lower than a yr outdated when their moms died. Instead of hibernating the cubs, the Langens fed them all through the winter so they might proceed rising and getting stronger. The purpose was for them to have the ability to defend themselves as soon as launched. By spring, the grizzly yearlings every weighed over 130 kilograms and have been concerning the measurement of two-year-old wild grizzlies. 

The yearlings might be extremely tough, battling and pulling on one another’s ears, however the subsequent minute they’d be tenderly rubbing noses. They have been interested in something that was introduced into their enclosure. When Gruijs gave them branches, a coconut to play with or logs to tear aside for bugs, we started to see their distinctive personalities emerge. 

Sitting on her haunches, Raven spun a forked department between her paws, as if she was twirling a baton. Cedar would spend hours within the pond, pawing round within the murky water searching for stones, solely to toss them up within the air and watch them splash as they got here again down. Her shy sibling, Muwin, might be very dexterous along with her paws, and as soon as held a skinny sliver of wooden between her lengthy claws and ran it between her tooth like dental floss. Arthur, although the most important and most dominant bear, was probably the most delicate eater. While the others wolfed down their meals, he’d gently spear an apple with a single claw and lift it up into his mouth.

Once, we observed Cedar rolling a coconut between her paws, when all of the sudden, she stood up on her hind legs and threw it with one paw as if she was tossing a baseball. This caught the eye of the opposite bears and led to a dash across the enclosure as all of them chased the coconut in a recreation of fetch. The cubs had actually discovered ingenious methods to entertain themselves, however would their playful behaviours in captivity assist put together them for survival within the wild? 

Rewilded grizzly bears should be launched inside 50 kilometres of the place they have been orphaned, in order that they have been tranquilized and pushed greater than 1,000 kilometres to Bella Coola, B.C. From there, they have been sedated once more and loaded onto slings, after which taken by helicopter to a distant estuary. Transporting grizzly bears, nonetheless, is a sophisticated and dangerous course of, and sadly, Muwin did not survive the journey. She had been in a sling along with her sister Cedar; in the course of the flight, Cedar rolled on high of Muwin and it asphyxiated her.

Following the bears’ 1st actions

Each of the 4 remaining bears had a GPS collar so Lana Ciarniello, the unbiased scientist main the research, might observe their actions. Other bear specialists had informed her that grizzly siblings would instantly run off in several instructions as soon as they have been again within the wild, however that is not what occurred. The triplets Isa, Raven and Arthur caught collectively. 

What shocked me most was how usually the bears frequently swam forwards and backwards throughout a kilometre-wide fjord, as if it was a every day commute. I by no means knew grizzlies have been such avid swimmers!

The bears labored collectively

Four months after the bears’ launch, we returned with our cameras, hoping to search out them. 

Although the bears wore GPS monitoring collars, our location information was all the time a day outdated, so there was no assure we would be able to spot the trio; they’ll journey kilometres day-after-day by the thick coastal rainforest. Our greatest likelihood was to stake out the estuaries and riverbanks close to their final GPS recording and simply hope they might wander into view. 

Eventually, our endurance paid off: siblings Raven and Arthur emerged from the woods on the far facet of the river from us. It was fascinating to watch how they appeared to depend on each other. While Raven prowled for salmon within the river, Arthur saved a lookout, scanning round for any signal of hazard. We by no means anticipated to see such teamwork between bears.

Documenting the lives of those bears turned an emotional roller-coaster. We rooted for his or her survival and have been thrilled by every likelihood to watch them. 

After monitoring down their den and organising motion-detecting cameras, we have been rewarded with the primary video pictures of rewilded grizzly bears rising from hibernation. However, we later found the bounds of GPS know-how when Arthur misplaced his collar and we needed to depend on old-school monitoring and binoculars to search out the bears. 

We completed our filming with a greater understanding of the numerous challenges concerned in rewilding grizzly cubs, and the actual dangers these bears face and not using a mom to show or shield them. Although there’s not but sufficient information to conclude whether or not rewilding works, from what we noticed, there are good causes to be hopeful that it might quickly be extra broadly used to assist rebuild threatened grizzly populations. 

Our documentary could also be completed, however the rewilding research — and the bears’ journeys — proceed. 

Watch Grizzly Rewild on The Nature of Things.