Episode 1 Great Bear Stakeout

This is one of the remotest places on the planet,

the huge Alaskan wilderness,

land of snowy mountains and rivers and forests.

And grizzly bears.

There are more grizzlies here than anywhere else on earth.

Into this isolated world of bears,

we sent a team of the best wildlife film-makers

and expert guides to live alongside the bears for the next five months.

They've brought their own specially designed camera gear

to film bears in a totally new way.

We're trying to get good up-close shots

of stuff that bears do when we're not around.

The only way to do that is to set up these remote camera systems.

By living in grizzly country, they'll get closer

to the bears' lives than anyone thought possible,

but they'll need to watch their backs.

We're going to have to be very careful around these two.

They are hyper, hyper-aggressive.

-Van, we're not challenging you.

-We're not challenging you, Van.

OK. You and I are down on our knees.

Over the next few months, their mission is to get closer

to the lives of grizzly bears than ever before.

During this one extraordinary season,

they'll discover that every grizzly has a story to tell.

You know, people say, "Oh, bears are just like humans."

Well, no, humans are just like bears.

HE CHUCKLES

You'll never think of bears in the same way again.

It's May, and the stakeout team are arriving in southern Alaska.

First bear - look at that, right on the beach.

What a welcome!

They'll be here for the whole season.

We're on our own now, boys.

There are bears everywhere.

They've not long woken up from hibernation,

and haven't eaten for seven months.

Now they're out and about, and they're very hungry.

Bear expert Chris Morgan will be leading the team.

His job is to keep everyone safe,

and help the crew follow these bears' lives closely.

We're going to be part of this community for the whole season

and it's going to give us an opportunity to see these bears

not as one group of bears, but as a series of individuals,

each with their own strategies for getting through life,

and that's really exciting to me.

The team will be camping right in the middle of bear country,

with only an electric fence for protection.

Bear guide Buck Wilde has been working here for 25 years,

and he's taking no chances.

5,000 volts.

I went for the first five years of camping in places like this

without an electric fence, and I've had bears rub their noses

up along my tent, up along my bivvy sack...

It scares you beyond imagination.

Brad Josephs is the third guide,

in charge of getting the remote cameras in the best places.

There's a male - I've never seen him before. Never, never, never.

God, imagine if we had some cameras set up in the middle.

-Yeah, that would be...

-We could really get a good look.

This wide bay on the edge of the Pacific Ocean is going to be home

for the next five months.

The bears have slept through the winter in their dens

up in the mountains, but they'll spend the spring

and summer in the meadows and the beaches.

It's day one, and the team head out to find them.

Make sure... Oh, there, right there.

So, it's a female with cubs

and, ordinarily, that's a really dangerous thing to get into.

So we'll watch her carefully, guys, and keep an eye on her.

Hi, Momma, it's all right.

Slowly, grab my backpack and pull it in.

I don't want it to be that far away from us.

The only protection the team have is a can of bear pepper spray.

Get ready with the defences.

That's all right, OK. It's OK, don't come any closer.

-That's OK, bear. That's enough.

-Yeah, that's enough.

Making eye contact is a sign of aggression for a bear...

It's all right, bear, it's OK.

..so the crew need to be really careful.

OK, guys, so just super, super slow movements.

You know, when they're this close, just a few yards away,

really just look nonchalant,

and don't be looking her in the eye, just kind of look around.

Stay really calm, move slowly,

don't be grabbing for batteries or anything like that, of course.

Being this close to a grizzly takes real understanding.

It's OK, that's close enough.

That's close enough now.

OK, good girl. Yeah, it's OK. It's OK.

No movements, guys.

Quite an intense introduction to them!

The whole time, she's teaching her cub that we are harmless,

and teaching us a lesson - she's in control.

She feels like, "I can come this close, you're on my meadow,

"I'm grazing right up to you."

No ill intentions at all.

Never should we ever approach a bear, especially a female with cubs,

but when it's their choice, you just have to sit tight and let them

do what they need to do. But every single body movement, did you see?

Every so often she'd look up and the cub would stop and look.

You've got to be so slow and so diplomatic.

But...pretty incredible experience, isn't it?

Pretty intense, Chris, I must say!

That was a little bit close. It was very, very close.

CHRIS CHUCKLES

As close as I'd like to be, thank you very much.

And I'm just dying to hit my head with these mosquitoes,

and I can't because it would set her off!

The bears here have never been hunted,

so they don't see people as a threat.

Nowhere else can you get this close to grizzlies

and live to tell the tale.

It means the team will be able to follow these bears

more closely than ever before.

And there is one bear here whose story will turn out

to be truly unique.

-WALKIE-TALKIE:

-'It's Barry, can you hear me, over?'

Go ahead, Barry.

'Oh, hi, guys. We've just seen a mother and two small cubs

'coming down the beach from the north.

'We think they're going round the point in your direction.

'I don't know if you can see them yet,

'or whether you can come down and cover them when they go round?'

OK, great, copy that.

Wow, they are tiny!

This is Parsnip, a first-time mum, and her cubs, Pushki and Ren.

Really amazing to see, cute little cubs.

Her cubs are five months old,

and haven't left her side since they were born.

What a nice surprise this early. They're all legs, aren't they?

It's not unusual to see twins, and these two are lively,

but they look thin.

Parsnip must be desperate to have brought them down to the bay

this early in the season.

She's looking for clams.

She won't have eaten anything for seven months, and she needs

to feed up if she's going to provide milk for Pushki and Ren.

She looks like she's struggling.

I mean, it's a bit of a sign of desperation for her, actually,

you know, to be here this early. It's a risky place to be.

Even experienced mothers struggle

to raise two cubs through their first year.

Life is not going to be easy for her.

Just up the beach, other bears are starting to gather.

Hungry adult bears will kill young cubs.

This is Van.

Even the crew kneel when he approaches.

Van is a massive bear.

He stands three metres tall, and weighs nearly half a tonne.

No-one dares to challenge him.

In 12 years of hanging round brown bears on the Alaskan peninsula,

I have never seen a bear that even comes close to as big as he is.

He's in a league of his own.

This is Van's world.

And, right now, his sole purpose in life should be to mate

with as many females as possible.

But he seems obsessed with one in particular. Alice.

Alice is young, fit and in her prime.

And Van seems infatuated.

He never lets her out of his sight.

But she's not going to mate with anyone till she's ready,

and right now she hasn't quite decided

whether Van is the one for her.

But, just in case, she's going to make sure that no other

females get their hooks into him.

Even expert Chris is surprised by her bullying behaviour.

Well, I've never seen a female as aggressive as Alice.

Chasing off other females -

it's really quite bizarre.

Alice certainly has a temper.

But while she makes up her mind whether she wants him or not,

Van is just going to have to wait...

and wait...

..and wait.

Out in the bay, young mum Parsnip is still looking for something to eat.

She's starving hungry, but it's late in the day

to be out on the beach with the cubs,

especially with the other big bears around.

And now the tide is coming in.

There'll be no more clams today.

But instead of leaving the beach, Parsnip takes a massive risk.

She's so desperate for a meal,

she wades out to look for fish.

At just five months old,

Pushki and Ren will follow their mother wherever she goes.

At this time of the year, the sea is bitterly cold,

and the cubs are just too young to cope.

Both cubs are out of their depth,

and Ren is getting swept away by the currents.

With two cubs in trouble, Parsnip can't save them both.

There's nothing more she can do.

Parsnip is forced to abandon Ren...

..and takes Pushki back to the shore.

Parsnip's season has begun in the worst way possible.

When the team finds her the next day, she looks totally worn out,

but she still has Pushki to look after.

He's got a lot of growing up to do this summer.

Only half of all cubs make it through their first year.

If he survives, he'll be by his mother's side

day and night for another two years.

Maybe three.

But first, she's got to get him through the next few months,

the most challenging of his life.

She'll have to keep him out of the way of predatory males...

..and she needs to find enough food to feed them both.

She can't afford to make any more mistakes.

The season is already rushing on.

By June, daylight lasts more than 20 hours, but summer will only

last a few weeks, and then winter will be on its way back.

Bears have to live their lives in less than half the year,

so there's a lot to pack in.

More and more bears are emerging

from seven months' slumber in the mountains.

They've lost half their body weight,

and they come to the meadows to feed up on the vegetation.

As they meet on the meadows,

the younger males size each other up, play-fighting.

But within a couple of weeks, the breeding season will kick in,

and that's when the serious fights will start.

And all round the area, there are signs that the biggest bears

are busy re-establishing themselves.

The big males scratch and rub the trees, spreading their scent

and making their presence felt.

Bear guide Buck is looking for signs that big bears

are in the neighbourhood.

This is a large male that would have been biting the tree

as he stood up, and clawing on the tree

as high as eight or nine, ten feet in the air.

-It's a big male.

-Could be Van.

Could be Van. And this is what they do.

They stand as high as they can and visibly mark the tree

so the other bears can see how tall they are.

It's like saying, "I'm this big, if you want to take me on,

"this is what you're dealing with!"

As the season moves on, the team are starting to get to know

the individual bears, and understand their personalities.

But following them every day in this big bay is not easy.

And you can never relax your guard, not for a moment -

especially when the biggest, baddest bears are out and about.

Down on the beach, the team find Van,

still faithfully pursuing Alice.

He doesn't seem to be getting very far.

She's still ignoring him.

This is not the time you want to get in his way.

Stay tight, guys, really tight.

But there's another big male in town.

And he has his eye on Alice, too.

He's walking into a very dangerous situation.

It's another big male,

so it will be interesting to see what unfolds between them.

Van spots the new male.

He's not going to take kindly to another bear eyeing up Alice.

He's moving with purpose,

and I don't think Van is going to like it.

This bear must be either tough or stupid to think he can muscle in.

But he's big. This is going to be interesting.

OK, so Van and the new guy are at equal distance from Alice right now.

Let's see who wins this standoff.

My money's on Van, although this is a big guy coming in.

OK, now he's kind of paused.

-Look at this! Look at this!

-Oh, OK!

In high gear, right across the beach!

Amazing how tuned in they are.

Van knows that this is a male that's coming in

that he has to be concerned about.

So in no uncertain terms, he just chases him off.

This is Van's bay, and he's still got Alice to himself.

But with all these other males around,

he's going to have to keep his beady eye on her.

With all this show of aggression,

you don't want to get caught in the crossfire.

Parsnip and Pushki are looking anxious,

and the crew spot them high-tailing it up the beach.

Faced with this new threat,

she decides to take her cub out of this bay.

But where can they go?

The crew must keep a constant watch over the cameras,

repositioning them with each tide change.

But one bear is getting so familiar that the remote gear

is hardly needed.

It's Lucy, the bear the crew had a close encounter with

on the very first day, with her boisterous cub, Solo.

In the next few weeks, everything will change for Solo.

He's two and a half - old enough to be independent,

but young enough to still need his mum.

It's OK, don't come any closer, though, Mum!

Hey there, bear. Hey there, bear. It's OK.

Lucy needs Solo to pay attention

and learn the life skills he'll soon need to survive on his own.

While the tide is out,

she has time to show him the art of catching clams.

So these clams are moving down through the sand.

They're digging deep as they sense something's coming after them.

So they're going down at this sort of rate of knots,

so the bear has to dig to keep up with that.

You know, it's not easy. The second it hears a bear

or feels something on the surface, it starts to go down.

But she's been able to smell the clam

through that tiny little siphon hole before it's too late,

and hopefully can do that 100 or 200 times in a low tide.

At that point, it's big time worthwhile, especially for a mum.

For Lucy, the clams are valuable food.

She's pretty good at finding them,

and surprisingly dextrous at getting them open with her claw.

It's something only these bears of southern Alaska do.

They're also good protein for Solo.

He's going to have to learn how to get his own dinner.

And he's not having much success digging them up.

Shellfish move a lot faster than you think.

It's mid-June.

Summer is slipping by. The meadows are rich and green.

It's the flow of tidal water that keeps the meadows green,

and this part of Alaska

has some of the biggest changes of tide in the world.

When the tide comes driving in, the bears are forced to

move from the beach, and make their way back into the meadows beyond.

As the water rises, the bears, of course, can swim.

But Chris and Matt have been caught out,

and they're in danger of being cut off by the rising tide.

(Yeah, she's on a full swim, there.)

It's come up very slowly and gradually like tides do,

and now actually I don't think we can get out.

And we feel quite stupid, don't we, Matt?

-You do!

-Oh, yeah. Cos I'm the guide?

-Yeah.

The water has hidden the deep channels that cross the bay.

Navigating them is harder than it looks.

Is the pack wet?

Even the best team get it wrong sometimes.

Several days have passed,

and there's been no sign of Parsnip and Pushki.

Buck's team head up the coast,

and finally spot the pair perched right up on the edge of a cliff.

Parsnip thinks she has found a safe place, away from Van.

But she's made another serious error of judgment.

She and Pushki are sitting right in the middle of Van's stamping ground.

And there he is.

Van is coming this way like he's on a mission. I don't like it.

Now what's she going to do?

All she can hope is that he doesn't decide to come up this way.

Bears have a superb sense of smell,

and it will only be a matter of time before he tracks her down.

Van is headed on this trail we are so familiar with from putting

the unattended cameras up there.

Right towards our mother.

This is his turf, and he's scratching the trees

and making sure everybody knows he's in charge around here.

Parsnip and Pushki are in big trouble.

They have nowhere to run.

All she could do would be to fight him off with all her strength.

He knows they're there, he's seen her, and he's moving in.

There he is, there's Van, and he spots her.

He's looking right at her, she's looking at him.

He's coming right at her.

He's coming in.

She can't outrun him.

Oh, my God.

But Van pauses.

He knows that any mother with a young cub will fight like fury.

On level ground, he could easily take her out.

But on the side of a cliff? Is it worth the risk?

At that moment, he spots Alice.

Alice requires his full attention.

Parsnip is off the hook.

She was... In the game of chess, she was in check.

It wasn't quite checkmate.

And it looks like she gets a bye this time.

And she's very lucky.

She's escaped Van. But now she's disturbed a bald eagle's nest.

Parsnip is going to be dive-bombed until she leaves the cliff.

-Once again, she's forced to move on.

-It's frightened her off.

As the light fades,

she and Pushki come back down the beach to look for something to eat.

It's a constant struggle.

Pushki must increase his weight a hundredfold

during the first year of his life,

and they will have a long winter ahead.

Nice bear.

Good girl. Yeah.

Ah, she's just... She's searching for a meal.

She's got to re-supply her energy to make more milk,

and keep both she and this delicate little cub alive.

While the tide is out, she criss-crosses the beach,

sniffing for clams.

They're full of nutrients for a nursing mother,

but it's a lot of effort for her.

And she has a dilemma.

She needs to eat,

but she also needs to keep Pushki safe from the big bears.

And further along the beach is Alice,

which means that Van will also be on the prowl.

What's Parsnip going to do now?

Once again, she leads Pushki out into the chilly sea,

right at the spot where her other cub drowned.

Surely she's not going to make the same mistake again.

Buck and Barrie cannot believe what she's doing.

-Wow!

-HE LAUGHS

She's attempting to swim the stretch of water to an island in the bay.

But there's a mile of cold sea to cross.

Oh! That poor little cub is just going to be freezing.

Hang in there, Pushki.

Hang in there, kid!

-Looks like the cub's hanging on.

-It does, it does.

That's great. That's the survival thing to do.

After just a few minutes, Pushki seems to be struggling.

He's losing his grip on his mum's fur.

He's got separated.

He's not hanging on. He's got to hang on.

I think they're going to make it.

They've got a chance. They've made it this far.

But there's an awful lot of exposure there.

It's cold, cold water, and it's not an issue for Parsnip,

but Pushki is so tiny and so weak...

This is just...intense, intense survival.

Imagine what it would be like to be that skinny little cub Pushki

out there in that cold water. I just can't imagine it making it.

The bears are now nearly a mile away.

I can't really see what's happening now. It's too far away.

We might not know the answer to this drama for several days,

but it looks like we are going to the island tomorrow.

As Buck and the team set off the next day for the island,

their hopes aren't high.

The island is only a mile long,

so it shouldn't be too hard to find the two bears.

But when you're carrying 40 kilos of kit on your back,

it's tough going.

-Nothing.

-Nothing?

-Nothing there.

After hours of searching, hopes are starting to fade.

Parsnip and Pushki are nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, back on the mainland, things are starting to hot up.

It's now the height of the short Alaskan summer.

The remote cameras begin to pick up the action.

The males are making their mark on everything they find.

Bear guide Brad, who's in charge of the remote camera set-ups,

is getting a bit worried.

Oh, man. I think she just grabbed the camera.

She's chewing on it.

How tough are those things?

We don't have them in a housing.

I mean, hey. At least we've hopefully got a good shot before.

You got bear insurance on those things?

-HE CHUCKLES

-Couldn't afford it.

The big males are all getting frisky,

and there are other male bears coming into the meadow from miles around.

The atmosphere is changing.

It's amazing. Suddenly, the big males have just really

come out of the woodwork.

It's changed the whole dynamic around here. This...

There's another one there.

The meadows are where the best-looking females hang out.

Beautiful blonde bears, all in their prime and looking for romance.

The mating season has started.

The bears have just a few weeks to see off rivals and find a partner.

This is fast becoming a bear pick-up joint.

This is like the singles bar of bear country, and so

they just... They pop in from all over the place,

from hundreds of miles away.

This is where the most beautiful females are,

and they're worth walking 100 miles across the mountains

and glaciers to get to, and they're all hanging out here.

These are the Doris Days and the Marilyn Monroes of the bear world.

If that was all the way down the coast, 100 miles,

I'd be here in June.

The meadow is filling up with bears with one thing on their minds.

In the middle of it all, the team spots Lucy.

What's she doing bringing Solo here?

Maybe she's thinking of mating again.

At two years old, Solo is almost grown up,

but he's still at risk from bigger bears.

There's a couple of them behind now, and almost subconsciously,

you see this cub is aware of that.

He knows that these other bears are out on the meadow,

so he's got to be very careful, and the mum's really vigilant.

They're grazing quite a lot, stopping to look up.

New males coming in, and he's got to be very careful.

So, suddenly, bump!

Like a magnet, straight towards his mum.

Oh, now. Now look how close the cub is.

Solo is right at his mum's side.

He knows what's good for him.

Cub's standing up to get a better look.

And Solo's retreating, right by his mum.

Look at him! He's right behind her.

While Solo is hanging around, he's cramping her style.

For now, she takes him out of harm's way.

But she's not likely to let him stick around much longer.

The mating season will last only a few weeks.

There's no time to waste here.

The big males carry on showing off and sizing each other up.

If you're going to get the girl, you have to walk the walk.

OK, so see the new guy here?

He's got these really stiff, straight back legs now,

and he's walking very awkwardly, and what he's doing is,

he's peeing all over his feet and he's shuffling his paws

deep into the ground, and as he does so, he does it with very stiff legs,

and he gets into this real machoistic male swagger,

cos the idea is that the more they spread their scent,

the more the other bears will be aware of them

and it really makes their mark known.

It's kind of like being down the pub on a Saturday night, you know?

They're all putting on a big macho front, you know,

trying to impress the ladies and their mates, kind of thing.

You know? It's exactly the same.

But then, in comes Van.

I mean...he is...

He's a third bigger than the largest bear I've ever seen.

I've never seen a bear so much as cowboy walk in his direction.

They don't even attempt to act like

they're trying to intimidate or challenge him. They just leave.

They don't even... Most of them don't even cowboy walk away.

They just turn tail and start running.

As Van moves through, it's clear he rules the meadows.

There is a strict pecking order round here,

and the youngest males need to keep their heads down

if they want to avoid being beaten up.

You see him here?

Look. Look how vulnerable he looks.

Suddenly, the crew spot a young bear belting across the meadow.

It's young Solo.

His mum Lucy has abandoned him.

Lucy has kicked Solo out so she can come into oestrus,

so she's come into oestrus and she's kicked him out now.

Almost in the blink of an eye, Lucy has pushed him out of her life

and she's already busy mating up in the meadow.

Now he's all on his own.

That's the end of their relationship. Solo's on his own now.

That's it. All done. Just as quick as that.

They've been together every moment since the day he was born,

and tonight, it's all changed for him.

He's going to have to be careful around here.

There's so many bears right now, and he's very vulnerable.

He's a two-year-old cub, and without his mum,

he's just going to be a lost soul,

and he's facing a really, really hard year ahead.

Many two-year-old cubs would stay with their mothers

for at least another year. Solo is fairly young to be on his own,

and he seems a bit bewildered.

Wow, that was interesting.

He just approached that blonde bear thinking it was his mum,

then the second he realised it wasn't, he just bolted.

And I'm sure he remembers our smell

from when he was very close by with his mum,

when they grazed right up to us.

He's probably just a little bit reassured that we're here,

I would think.

He looks so tiny, doesn't he?

He just looks so vulnerable out here.

This world must look so incredibly bewildering to him.

And threatening in every way.

He's looking very lost right now.

Totally dejected.

Totally on his own for the first time in life. Can you imagine?

Since he was big enough to fit in the palm of my hand,

he's been by his mum's side.

For two and a half full years, and now he's on his own.

And that is the last the crew are likely to see of young Solo.

Like every young male,

he'll have to move away and find his own neighbourhood.

Back on the island,

Buck and the team continue to search for Parsnip and Pushki.

Hallelujah!!

Yeah, those are fresh, that's her.

Yeah, she's still there, so that's good.

Hey, Pushki. That's OK. That's OK, boy.

Yeah. It's just us.

You remember us, don't you?

Hi! Yeah, you're coming over to say hello, aren't you?

Everyone pull in nice and tight.

Yeah. Hello! Yes. Isn't it great to see us?

That's OK! Yeah.

They look really good. They seem to be chilled out.

Pushki's kind of curious. I'm not sure that Pushki has us figured out,

but Mom does, and that's the important thing.

She knows what we smell like, and that we're OK guys.

With all these clams, this is still a good place for her to be,

because it's a sanctuary away from the other bears.

So my estimation is she would prefer to stick it out here on the island.

It looks as if they have found somewhere safe to settle.

There's plenty to eat, and there are no other bears at all.

Pushki can thrive unthreatened.

And Parsnip can take the time to teach him a few life lessons.

The cub is on a long leash exploring the island here,

going out 30 and 50 feet.

Doesn't have to be very far away from Parsnip to get lost

in this grass. It's way over his head.

She gives a little vocalisation, like she just did right here,

and Pushki's doing the right thing and coming right back to Mom.

That's very important.

It's one of the most important aspects of cub survival,

is listening to the mother's vocalisations to come,

or to sit and stay, just like we train a dog to sit.

She's trying to teach it. That's really cool!

The downside of island life is that Pushki has no other bears

of his own age to play with.

So it's all down to Parsnip to teach him how to be a bear.

The relationship between a grizzly mother and her cub

is long and close. Bear society is complicated,

and it takes a long time to learn how to fit in.

In a couple of years, just like Solo,

Pushki will be pushed out to fend for himself.

But for now, he has her undivided attention.

It's all a world away from life back on the mainland.

There's no tranquillity here.

This is hormone central, and the big males are starting to square up.

The competition is all about the fittest females,

and who gets to mate with them.

Most of these bears know each other,

and these are energetic wrestling matches.

It's a way of sizing each other up without actually hurting each other.

But when the match is even, the fights can be deadly.

There are some big males here, some contenders.

Van is going to have to watch his back.

-Behind us, guys.

-OK. Here's the big fellow.

Let's just crouch down here and let him go by.

Van strides back into the meadow.

As far as he's concerned, he's still the main man.

Every bear's nightmare.

He's coming right over to where this male was before.

Look at him salivating.

Van's behaviour is surprising.

Most big males would be playing the field,

mating with all the females available.

His attachment to Alice is unusual.

Is he finally winning her over?

Is she finally ready for him?

To make himself even more interesting to Alice,

Van tries sprucing himself up with some manly scent -

an intense roll in a patch of seaweed.

Surely no female could resist!

But Alice isn't interested in waiting for him.

She's ready to mate now.

While Van's busy rolling in seaweed,

a young buck sneaks in,

and he takes his chance.

He has to be quick - he doesn't want to start a fight with Van.

I mean, who would?

Wow! Look at that!

That's the first bear that's approached Alice other than Van,

and within two seconds he is mating her.

Unbelievable.

And they call it the sneaky male syndrome,

cos he kind of looks around and waits for an opportunity,

and when Van's gone, he's off after Alice, and it worked for him,

you know? Perfect!

Van finally realises a little late that something's going on.

Van is up here, and I cannot wait to see how he reacts.

If this young male has any sense, he needs to make a sharp exit.

And Alice needs to do some quick thinking.

And he's starting to move quick, that's quick for Van.

HE CHUCKLES

Look at the speed of him, he's going into a really quick shuffle now!

That has to be intimidating, seeing Van in hot pursuit mode, there.

It's all pretty amusing to watch,

you know? It's like one big, funny soap opera.

Like Van's just come home from work, he's gone into the bedroom

and there's Alice, like, "Oh, hi, honey, you're home early."

And there's a fella in the cupboard! And that's him on the edge.

I bet Van gives chase.

Oh, look at Alice! She is a nightmare!

Now she's pretending to chase the male away!

That is unbelievable!

So Van comes in, says, "Alice, what you doing?"

and she's like, "Oh, this guy? Yeah, get off me!"

and starts running and chasing him away, as if to say,

"I didn't want him to be doing that at all, I'm glad you got here, Van!

"Just in the nick of time."

Unbelievable. She is so deceitful and nasty.

Alice would be such a great character in a soap, wouldn't she?

She's the perfect candidate. She's just two-faced, isn't she?

I don't want to call her Alice! It's way too sweet a name for her.

It's every male's mission in life to father as many cubs as he can.

And it's every female's mission to mate with the strongest

and fittest of the males.

For these few hectic weeks, as the bears work each other out,

life is intense enough.

But Van and Alice seem to be playing by their own rules.

This does not bode well.

Out on the island, Parsnip seems to have upped her game.

She's doing her best to raise her cub to stand up for himself...

..and there are daily bouts of tussling and chase.

These days of boot camp training

are vital to get him ready for the challenges ahead.

There is no time to waste.

In just a few weeks, food supplies will run out on the island,

and she and Pushki will have to return to the mainland.

Pushki has been very much protected over the last few weeks.

Has Parsnip done enough to get him ready?

Over in the bay, Van is keeping a very watchful eye over Alice

as the pair of them prowl in the meadow.

It's creating a tense atmosphere.

Yeah, these two have got a reputation among the other bears.

Perhaps as individuals, but certainly when they're together.

They've wandered up and down the meadows enough

for just about every bear in this area that's here so far

to know them, and know they are a force to be reckoned with.

So all the other bears are being very, very cautious.

Across the meadow, one of the pretty, blonde females

catches Van's eye.

She doesn't seem to be aware of Alice's reputation.

Alice doesn't like the idea of her being around.

I am actually surprised she's sticking around like this -

you would think she would clear right out of this meadow.

We're going to have to be very careful around these two.

They are hyper, hyper-aggressive.

Oh, look! Chase, chase, chase!

The meadow is becoming a very dangerous place.

This is not going to end well.

In fact, what happens next is shocking in the extreme.

As tempers flare, Van and Alice seem to be in a particularly

heightened state of aggression.

This is an extraordinary situation.

The crew decide it's time to move.

Let's at least get up to the wood.

This is mad!

Alice has got the young female on the ground.

Van catches up with Alice and pushes her off.

Look, Van's got her now!

Holy smokes, I think he's going to kill that bear.

And, within seconds,

Van shows exactly why other bears stay out of his way.

Oh, I cannot believe it!

I've never in my life seen anything like that.

I can't see it breathing, but it is a couple of hundred yards away.

That is just mind-blowing, you guys.

It's so fascinating. It's so sad to see.

Just a few minutes ago we were watching that female here,

really cautiously just doing her thing,

grazing quietly on what she thought was this really peaceful

meadow back here with no other bears around,

and suddenly before you know it, ten minutes later she's dead,

lying in the middle of the sedge meadow, there.

God! That's what this place is about.

Suddenly it's not just bears grazing on these sedges -

suddenly it's the death zone for some of these animals,

and anything can happen in the blink of an eye.

Life changes for them so quickly here.

Quite suddenly, Van and Alice leave the scene of the crime.

As soon as they do, other bears start moving in,

attracted by the smell.

It's a frightening scenario.

The kill seems to have triggered a primal response

in the neighbourhood,

and everyone, bears and crew alike, are on high alert.

This can become a dangerous situation.

If he's now got a carcass

that he's going to get defensive over, he's going to get wound up.

But the event has stirred something different in the killers.

After all Van's weeks of waiting,

it seems as if Alice has finally decided to accept his advances.

The strange thing is, though,

that we're seeing them copulate now for the first time,

and it's right after all this crazy action just happened on the meadow,

right after that, they are straight into the mating now.

And it just seems like too much of a coincidence,

and I really don't know if one is associated with the other.

But what a strange thing to happen.

The first time we actually saw her not walking away from him,

but actually reversing right into him, between his forepaws,

being very open about it, and inviting him to mount her.

God, you just... I don't like to call them psychotic,

but these guys are a little twisted.

We should be calling them Bonnie and Clyde, not Van and Alice.

Suddenly, the bay has changed into a very different place.

Having mated with Alice at long last,

his attention will now turn to maintaining his dominance -

and, after today, who would challenge him?

Over on the island, time has run out for Parsnip and Pushki.

It was the right decision to come here,

but now there is no more to eat they must leave or starve.

In just a couple of weeks, the bay will fill with food.

Every autumn, salmon run in their millions, heading upriver to spawn.

It's the greatest feast of the year.

Trouble is, every bear in the area

will be fighting for a piece of the action.

The competition will be fierce.

If the last few weeks have been intense,

it's about to get a whole lot worse.

And Van and Alice are still stalking the bay.

Are Parsnip and Pushki ready for autumn back on the mainland?

There's no turning back now.

It's do or die.