A Bear with a Bounty Natural World

Lily is a seven-year-old black bear.

Every moment of her life has been played out online.

And with almost 150,000 Facebook followers,

she has become an international celebrity.

You know, she just might be the most popular bear in the world

and she lives right here in Minnesota.

But Lily's fame has come at a price.

As black bear and human populations have grown,

she has become the focus of a passionate debate

about how people and bears can live together.

Arguments have raged across the internet,

and now, Lily has a price on her head.

GUNSHOT

So why do some people want her dead?

It's the end of August,

and the day before bear hunting season starts.

Dr Lynn Rogers is a pioneering scientist

who has studied black bears for 45 years.

We're on the trail. We got a signal now.

For the next six weeks, black bears are fair game -

and, for some hunters, top of their list of targets is Lily.

This year, we're under special pressure,

because there are people out there that are actually gunning for her.

And I can't understand it.

But, uh...she's achieved some fame

and there's people who just want to shoot her as a special trophy.

He is on his way to find her in the woods.

The radio signal will give him a rough idea of her position.

I can't see her yet, but...the signal says she's close.

It's me!

It's me, bear.

Come, Lily.

Oh...OK.

Looking for adult black bears in the woods might seem foolhardy.

Lily weighs over 100kgs and is incredibly strong.

Come on. Right here.

She's known Lynn all her life

and responds to the sound of his voice.

OK, bear, come on.

You're OK.

You finally decided it was me, huh?

OK.

OK, here...

Lily is not a pet, but rather a wild black bear

who has spent her entire life in the woods.

To understand how Lynn has built

such a unique relationship with this bear

and to find out why some people want her dead,

we have to start at the beginning.

Lily's home is the Northwoods of Minnesota.

It's much like any other woods in this part of North America,

where we find black bears living alongside people.

This is Eagles Nest.

It's one of the communities

where the debate about how people and bears should live together

is being played out.

Some have concerns about their wild neighbours.

They are very powerful.

They can rip your arm off.

They can kill you.

They do major damage to you.

They can disfigure you for life.

They can get to 500-600lbs,

and I've seen the damage that they have done

with just a swipe of their paw.

They could be in your garden shed or in your wood shed

and you may startle them,

they may be simply wanting to escape,

but if you are in their exit path, it could be bad.

What makes Eagles Nest so different from the rest of America

is that some people have been feeding bears in their gardens

for more than 50 years.

I was scared to death -

I would lie awake at night listening to see

if a bear was going to break in to the cabin.

And he would go home and leave me here with the children,

two children.

And I'd think, "Oh, I just hope a bear doesn't come around."

But I just have overcome that fear.

I have absolutely no fear of the bear any more at all.

No, Dot. No.

'They are a beautiful animal'

and...sensitive.

Just a beautiful animal to be able to be close to and be around.

Come on.

No, you can't have the whole dish.

At first, the bears were a little scary

because we didn't know much about them

except all the stories we'd heard over the years.

Yeah, the first night after we moved here,

we had emptied a lot of boxes and put 'em out in the back yard,

and there came the bears, looking through 'em,

to see if there was anything good inside those boxes.

And so then we thought, "OK, we have lots of bears!"

Relationships like these are what attracted Lynn Rogers here.

Before he arrived in Eagles Nest,

he had already been studying bears for two decades.

Black bears are secretive

and, like other researchers,

he rarely saw the animals he was studying.

Lynn thought there had to be a better way.

Until now, the only way to follow a bear

was with a radio collar from the air.

You track the bear from an aeroplane, looking at the tops of trees.

You can't even see the bear that you're studying.

You put some dots on a map, you think you know a lot about bears,

cos you know where they went,

but you have no idea what they're doing.

This is why Eagles Nest

presented such an amazing opportunity for Lynn -

if people were comfortable feeding bears in their own gardens,

why not build similar relationships with them in the wild?

To come to that realisation took me an embarrassingly long time.

I had to overcome my own fears, the stuff I grew up with,

reading the hunting magazines, watching the media.

I'm embarrassed to say how dumb I was.

I mean, I'm supposed to have an open mind as a scientist.

But something that's part of your being,

this fear of bears -

it takes a lot to overcome that with people.

Lynn wanted to uncover the black bear's world

and the proximity of Eagles Nest

offered him the chance to answer some important questions.

One of the reason I'm studying bears right here in this spot

is after studying bears for several decades

in an area where they were not fed,

I want to find out, with people moving ever more into bear habitat,

what are the effects on the bears?

With a bit of food, Lynn was able to gain the bears' trust

and record how they behaved at first-hand.

They take naps, they nurse their cubs,

they make dens, they forage

and pretty soon, it gets so you can put a camera

just inches from the bear's face.

As Lynn felt more and more comfortable

being close to the bears, his confidence grew.

In the winter of 2007,

he did something many scientists considered risky.

Lynn put a camera inside the den of one of his research bears, June,

just days after she gave birth to Lily.

Previously, it was thought too dangerous

getting this close to a mother and her cubs.

These moments were shared online,

and from now on, Lily's fate would be inextricably linked

to her growing popularity.

With her distinctive light-brown face,

Lily stood out from her much darker brothers, Cal and Bud.

Lynn's long-term research colleague Sue Mansfield

has filmed Lily's life from the very beginning.

When Lily was born in 2007,

she was the apple of our eyes,

right off from the beginning.

And she was also the dominant cub of that litter.

I have a vivid recollection

of watching her brothers, Cal and Bud,

tussling as little cubs,

and then, kind of, out of stage left or whatever comes Lily.

And she just comes running and bowls them both right over.

I mean, she was always the centre of attention.

A year passed in Eagles Nest and Lily was now 15 months old.

She emerged from her first winter hibernation

together with her mother, June.

And Lynn had big plans for her.

'Lily is terrific, and she is the daughter of June,

'the bear we have spent the most time with.

'And we could go there and watch June interact with her cubs as if

'we weren't there, and Lily grew up like that, trusting the researchers.'

Together, using a little bit of food, Lynn and Sue were able to get

close enough to put a radio collar on Lily.

'I remember when we got a collar on Lily.

'Um, you know, she was so busy eating the nuts

'that she finally just gave up and just let us do it.'

Previously, scientists would not have dreamed of getting this

close to wild black bears without tranquilizing them.

It was a breakthrough moment.

But then, once the nuts were gone, suddenly she realises,

"Oh, what's this?"

And she's rolling around on the ground, you know,

pawing at it, trying to get it off.

After a while, they just give up and accept it and that's what she did.

With her new collar fitted,

they could follow Lily's every move on a computer.

And, most importantly, walk with her in the woods.

Not to act like a proud parent or anything,

but this family of bears is providing more information about bear biology

than any bear in the world ever has.

It's just amazing. The relationship Sue and I have with this family...

opens the door to stuff we didn't believe was possible.

It was pioneering but controversial because standard practice

believed that a fed bear was a dangerous bear.

In order to challenge this assumption,

Lynn and Sue spent time walking with Lily.

They began a diary of her life, which they published online.

Lily was now being followed by thousands of bear enthusiasts

every day on Lynn's research website.

By now, Lily had become so famous that people came from far and wide

to meet the bears in person.

Now it's time to face your worst fear. Your worst nightmare here!

What's his name?

Black as midnight! LAUGHTER

Lynn was encouraging people to overcome their instinctive fears.

Whoa, you're not even using your teeth!

'I think people have a primal fear of any animal

'that has bigger, more pointed teeth than we have.'

They're the perfect animal to play the villain in TV programmes or

whatever, with that kind of history.

'We are fighting a big tradition of beliefs about bears.'

OK, can you reach it, Dale?

-CAMERA CLICKS

-Cute paws!

'The best way to do that is let people see real bears.'

They learn directly from the bears, not from me,

and nobody can refute what they have seen.

You want a pecan?

There!

Records show that only one person every two years is

killed by a black bear.

In America,

people are 100 times more likely to be killed by lightning.

By now, Lily was a year-and-a-half old

and nearly ready to leave her mother, June.

LOW, MOTOR-LIKE GROWLS

It's interesting that they are nursing just before family break-up.

Cubs make a unique motor-like sound when they suckle.

It means they are content.

LOW GROWLS CONTINUE

Female black bears normally have cubs every two years,

and June was ready to mate again.

Then, a large male appeared in their territory.

June's scent had attracted Big Harry. He's over 200kg.

Male bears can kill youngsters, so Lily retreated up a tree.

Having mated, June's instinct would be to reject her cubs.

From this moment on, Lily and her brothers would be on their own.

Lily's brothers, Cal and Bud,

moved off to find new territories far away.

Lily, as a daughter, was allowed to establish a territory within June's.

Lynn and Sue's research was going from strength to strength.

After 15 years of following bears in Eagles Nest,

they had a wealth of data on 14 collared bears.

While Lynn and Sue were able to observe

and record detailed behaviour as never before,

some began to question their hands-on approach

to studying the bears.

Was feeding bears making them dangerous?

As winter approached, Lynn and Sue continued their research,

following Lily's every move.

She was pregnant...

..presenting Lynn with a unique opportunity.

For the first time, they set up a live den cam,

broadcasting it online.

CUB WHINES

Lily's rise to fame came with the den cam in 2010.

She gave birth to a single cub

and became an overnight internet sensation.

CUB SCREECHES

Until now, scientists thought that black bears just slept

through the winter.

But the camera told a different story.

The main reason we put that camera in there was

so we could learn what happens in a den when nobody's there.

And we thought, "Who would be interested in watching a bear sleep?"

Well, it turned out there was way more than sleep going on in the den.

CUB SCREECHES

A den cam fan offered to set up a Facebook page

for Lily the Black Bear.

And she went viral.

Her popularity grew by the day.

She just might be the most popular bear in the world,

and she lives right here in Minnesota.

Lily became famous when she gave birth to a cub live on a webcam.

Since then, her fan following has gone international.

She has more than 131,000 fans on Facebook.

LYNN: We couldn't believe what was happening.

We saw people joining the Facebook page thousands per hour.

150 countries around the world were watching her.

There was over 500 classrooms following her daily.

We knew that Lily was making a difference.

When Lily and her cub, Hope, eventually emerged from hibernation

in spring, they were oblivious to the fact

they had become international celebrities.

However, no-one was prepared for what was about to happen next.

OK, no, no biting the shoe.

HE CHUCKLES

It was an early spring that year and Hope was very, very tiny

when they left the den, and we were a little concerned about how

things were going to work out. But things seemed to be going fine.

We were very hopeful that it was going to be a successful litter.

And, um, then, at one point,

Lily abandoned Hope.

It's me, bear!

Lily began to follow the trail of some male footprints,

moving away from Hope.

It's me, bear. Come, Lily! It's me!

And then she kept going, and she didn't return.

Abandoned in the woods alone,

Hope was far too young to fend for herself.

Too small to have a radio collar, she simply disappeared.

All that Lynn and Sue could do was follow Lily...and wait.

What I wish you could tell me is,

why did you leave Hope, hm?

Why did you do that?

Made you look pretty bad, you know.

The eyes of the world watched the drama unfold.

It was very difficult to have this bear who had become

so famous and had such a huge following, um...

..leave her cub.

And, um, I mean, even just for us as researchers, it was huge.

And not only did we have that to deal with from our perspective,

but we were also under the spotlight from thousands and thousands

of people around the world that were watching the story unfold.

Both Sue and Lynn wanted to understand why Lily had

abandoned Hope.

After five days, Lynn was convinced that Hope was dead.

But then, a lone cub was spotted.

Lynn went to investigate.

It's hard to believe this is Hope up here, actually, because...

..it's just so far.

-DISTANT VOICE:

-Hope!

OK!

-She almost came down... She went down.

-Oh, OK.

-Did you see her?

-Yeah.

It's me, bear.

-It's me.

-Don't you think that's her?

-It's got to be her, right?

-I do, yeah.

-Yeah.

Unbelievably, it was Hope.

Her fans around the world went crazy.

But the drama wasn't over. The big question was what to do next.

We had this huge following and many people with opinions on what

we should be doing, and we are struggling with a situation

that was entirely new to us.

Should they let nature take its course, or intervene?

HOPE SCREECHES FIERCELY

They decided to take things into their own hands, driven by

their belief that there was an opportunity to learn something new.

And also, their own basic instincts.

SCREECHING CONTINUES

'We have been criticised,'

but I don't know how anybody could work as closely as we do with these

animals without getting emotionally involved to a certain extent.

We're biologists, but we're human as well.

Lynn and Sue attempted something no-one had done before -

to reunite a lost bear cub with its mother.

Would Lily accept Hope?

Eventually, Hope did begin to suckle...

but after a couple of days,

it became obvious that Lily's milk had run dry.

Lynn felt that it was likely that a hormonal change moved Lily's focus

from looking after Hope to looking for a mate.

Now pregnant, her bond with Hope had weakened.

She was left in the wild to her own devices.

She was going downhill real fast. I was afraid she was going to die.

They decided to provide food for Hope in the woods.

We had already intervened by putting, you know, mom and cub

back together again, so then it seems that there's a responsibility

to ensure that the cub gets fed and not starve to death when it's with

mom because she doesn't have milk, so it became a progression

from there.

Sue kept up her visits to Hope for a few weeks,

and remarkably, it worked.

I would stand there at the tree and I would call.

Sometimes she would come and sometimes she didn't.

Initially, if she didn't come, I'd still leave some food.

As she got bigger, I thought, well, if she's not coming

then she's probably just fine.

To the delight of the thousands of Lily's fans, Hope had made it.

Saving Hope may have pleased some,

but such an act was always going to divide opinion.

Marshall Helmberger, editor of the local newspaper,

followed Lily's story during that time.

Well, I think Lynn faced a dilemma here with what to do with Hope,

but if you look at the past practice for Lynn,

and also for other wildlife biologists,

I think standard protocol in most wildlife research would be

that you wouldn't intervene. Nature isn't a Disney production.

It uh...

Young animals die all the time.

I think most people, at least in this area, would feel that you wouldn't

treat a bear cub any differently simply because people are

following its every movement on the internet.

Lily and Hope's public drama had divided opinion.

Although her fans were delighted, some local residents felt that this

incident and the whole feeding of bears had gone a step too far.

I just don't think it's a good idea in a populated area to feed

these bears and get 'em so habituated to people,

and look at us as a means of getting food.

Cos that's what they're all about is getting fattened up

for the winter. I just don't think it's a good idea. I really don't.

Whether they are his research bears with collars or simply bears that

like to use that feeding station,

they learn to associate deck equals food.

What's different here is you also don't let your grandkids go out

with s'mores or ice cream cones

and wander toward the back of the yard or on the road

because if there's a bear anywhere around,

they are going to come toward them because they think, "Oh, good,

"there's a human here, they're bringing me food."

It's kind of divided the community because there's been about

a dozen households that have been hand-feeding bears

in this community for over 50 years, and so most people that have lived

here for a long time know bears, they're used to seeing bears.

A bear can walk through their yard, it's a joy.

In 2011, a group of 38 residents signed a letter protesting

the renewal of Lynn Rogers' permit because, they said,

his collared bears posed a risk to children among others.

At the same time, the community of Eagles Nest set up a committee

to resolve bear complaints.

Oblivious to all this controversy, one month later,

Lily did something no-one expected.

She re-united with Hope.

However, Lily was in an unusual situation.

She was now pregnant, with a very young cub in tow.

And as winter arrived, Lily and Hope denned together.

Lily gave birth to twins, one of which didn't survive.

Once again, Lynn and Sue recorded the birth on a live webcam.

It was a rare opportunity to see how a litter of different-aged cubs

gets along.

When the family emerged in spring, Hope and Lily were back out

exploring the woods together.

And the remaining cub provided a playmate.

A few months later, in early September,

Hope's story was to take a remarkable new twist.

This was the very last footage of the family seen together.

A popular Minnesota bear

being tracked by the Wildlife Research Institute in Ely

has vanished. The bear's name is Hope.

The research group says they've had a hard time keeping a radio collar

on Hope, and they fear that she may have been shot by a hunter.

Hope was not wearing a collar to identify her as a research bear.

She was legally shot at a hunter's bait site,

close to Lynn's research cabin.

To lose a bear that we've been following for that length of time

is huge. Each year we learn more,

and the data we collect builds on the data that we already have

on that bear, and it...

It informs and enriches the things that we've already collected.

And to think that...

..you know, that can be ended so quickly by a hunter's bullet, um...

The shooting of Hope generated an international outcry

from Lily's Facebook fans who attacked the hunter online.

Some bear hunters lashed out at Lily's fans in response.

They set up a rival Facebook site

to give the hunting community's point of view.

They felt that if the bears had names

and became famous it would interfere with their right to hunt them.

They began to take a stand against Lynn

and his collared research bears.

Lily became famous last year

when she gave birth to a cub live on a webcam,

but despite her popularity and the fact she's a research bear,

Lily isn't protected by the State.

Tonight, John Laurenson shows us why one group of hunters believes

she is fair game.

Lily was now a bear with a bounty.

Hunting in northern Minnesota is a way of life. It's big business.

Bears are so successful here, their numbers need to be controlled.

The state of Minnesota decides how many permits to award through

a lottery system depending on the health of the bear population.

The revenue then goes back into bear conservation.

Rick and Cindy live in Eagles Nest, and like some residents,

hunt bears not for trophies, but for food.

I am a hunter. There's real satisfaction providing the food

-that we eat.

-We don't have to buy stuff at the grocery store,

very little. We eat quite well.

Rick has been approached by other hunters locally, and offered

a reward for shooting Lily or her family of collared research bears.

I was informed that there was a bounty out on collars

and if I shot one to let them know,

and then they would see that I got the money, which I...

Yeah, I just kind of shook my head at that.

I would definitely avoid shooting a collared bear.

Current legislation requires hunters to set out bait sites

and shoot from high stands.

This gives them the best chance for a clean humane shot.

It's not illegal to shoot collared bears,

but the State asks hunters not to.

Right around here there's probably a larger percentage of collared bears

than wild bears, and it's hard enough to attract them in as it is

as a hunter. Four years ago...

I had three different collared bears come in, which we passed on.

-It's kind of hard to do, actually.

-Yeah, it's like, hmm.

We watched them and I can honestly say...

I don't know whether I would have shot a collared bear at that point

or not because I was getting rather frustrated.

And luckily that decision didn't have to be made

because a bear that came in that evening was the first bear I'd seen

that year that didn't have a collar.

-And it was a very tasty bear!

-Yes, it was a very good bear!

Yes, it was!

There are about 50 bears living in the woods around Eagles Nest.

This year Lynn has collared ten.

Dot is Lily's ten-year-old niece, who visits Glen and Nancy's garden

most days.

Aster is Lily's younger sister.

Come here, girl.

Hey, girl.

Any one of these bears could be shot during the hunting season...

with Lily top of the list.

We are now up to date with Lily's story. She is six years old,

and it's the day before hunting season.

I can hardly believe that people are out trying to shoot

this mother with cubs wearing a radio collar that we have

spent so many years working with.

Lynn goes to great lengths to try to protect his collared bears.

OK. All right, bear. Come on. Right here.

He has come today to decorate her collar with ribbons.

There. That was in your way, wasn't it?

OK. I gotta go to work here.

I support hunting, because if you don't control bear numbers

to the number that people will tolerate,

they just want to get rid of them.

We just beg hunters not to shoot the radio collared bears.

OK, there we go.

We put ribbons on them so they can see that there's a collar.

Most hunters respect that. Some don't.

Well, I think anybody can see you. There's reflective strips on this.

Hunting season starts tomorrow.

For the next six weeks, Lynn and Sue track the collared bears,

following their movements to try and keep them safe.

Today is the first day of hunting season, September 1.

That's why I didn't sleep much last night, why I got up well before dawn

and was out just trying to see what was happening.

The first bears I checked on when I came to work this morning,

well, was Lily.

Each of their collared bears sends a GPS signal every ten minutes

to Lynn's computer.

I'm looking to see where some of these bears are.

So I check each bear, see if there's enough movement

to be sure that it's still alive, and then is it in a location

where there's likely to be a hunter's bait or not.

If we see a cluster of locations, it makes us wonder what is wrong.

GUNSHOT

Shots have been heard close to Lynn's cabin.

This time of year if you hear shooting, they're shooting a bear.

I'm wearing orange because I don't want to get shot.

We've seen some of the hunter blogs, we've seen...

..the threats to these bears written on social media...

..and we are worried.

It's a hunter's vehicle.

Lynn responds to every gunshot he hears.

He follows his bears closely in hunting season,

taking a personal risk to protect them.

GUNSHOT

This is close to Lily's territory,

but it's another bear signal he's picked up.

Aster - Lily's younger sister.

Something is wrong. Aster is not responding to Lynn's voice,

and her signal suggests she is not moving.

It's me, bear. Come, come, Aster. You're OK.

She's been shot.

See her through the trees here.

And uh, she got up and hobbled off. I don't want to press her any more

cos she doesn't want company.

This is the first confirmation that some hunters are targeting

his collared bears.

The way that leg is just dangling, I think it's a shoulder shot.

There's probably bones broken up here.

So far this year, Lily has escaped the bullets,

but the odds are stacking up against her.

It's me, bear.

And there is more than just her life at stake this year.

Come, Lily.

Lily has two cubs - Ellie and Eli.

It's now the middle of September and nuts and berries

in the woods are becoming scarce.

Ellie is seven months old, and like her mum is naturally inquisitive.

Her brother Eli is more reserved.

There are four weeks remaining in the hunting season,

and natural food is becoming scarce in the woods.

It's not the cold weather that drives the bears in to hibernation,

it's the availability of food.

And at this time of year, there are two alternatives,

hunters' baits in the woods,

or the gardens and bird feeders of Eagles Nest.

But bears are not welcome at every cabin.

I had a friend over, and we were watching television in my home here,

and she turned around and looked out and said, "Oh, my God, the bear."

As the bears become habituated to being around humans,

it creates a problem.

We've had bear come in to the yard, we've had them up on

our deck, they broke railings off,

trying to get in to the house for food.

And, if I may...

here is the bear.

Like this.

The bears that come here that are wild bears,

which we enjoy, we have to sneak up

to the window and be quiet, or they're gone,

whereas the collared bears really don't feel any reason to leave

until they're good and ready.

In my opinion, it's not a matter of if but it's a matter of when

someone in this immediate area is going to get mauled

or even killed by a black bear, a collared bear.

To fearful people, any bear that does not run away at the slightest

sight of a person they consider a threat.

What I have found everywhere I go, with grizzly bears, black bears,

polar bears, what ever, if they are not afraid of people,

they become less dangerous, they become less apt to attack.

No-one has ever been attacked here in Eagles Nest.

Until recently, bear complaints are lower here

than elsewhere in Minnesota.

However, the controversy surrounding Lily's family is now

at crisis point.

In June 2013, Lynn's research permit

was restricted by the Department of Natural Resources,

or DNR for short, partly because of fears for public safety.

Lynn is currently suing the DNR,

who were unavailable to comment for legal reasons.

If Lynn loses, he will have to remove the collars from Lily

and the other bears.

At this point, this research project is fighting for survival.

Although we have managed to educate a large proportion of the public,

we have failed to educate wildlife officials,

and the wildlife officials are the ones that make the rules

that govern our permit.

Until a judgment is reached, all they can do is try

and keep their remaining collared bears safe.

It's Friday the 13th, and ominously, Lynn sees something on Dot's

signal that worries him.

On the computer, Dot's collar took a fast ride

from deep in the woods to in the middle of Ely,

so that's where we're headed first.

We're going to home in on signal in Ely...

..using telemetry.

Dot's signal leads Lynn to the house of a DNR state ranger.

It can only mean one thing.

She's been shot.

Lynn and Sue are anxious to find out what happened.

He said that he got a call to come pick up the collar

from a hunter that shot her

and everything was legal.

So, it's another disappointment that, even though the DNR sent out

a letter to all hunters in the area asking them

not to shoot radio collared bears,

and there's plenty press coverage and all asking that from us,

and the signs we have everywhere, the ribbons on her collar,

there was another hunter that didn't care, same as with Aster.

It's really hard to understand why.

It just feels senseless.

That evening, there were a frenzy of comments online from both

sides in the Facebook war.

There are four weeks of hunting to get through,

and Lily is clearly not safe.

To make matters worse,

she's now feeding underneath a hunter's camouflaged stand.

Nearby, Aster, the bear that was wounded by a hunter, is still alive.

What's amazing is, I can't believe it, in her condition,

she was way down in the state park, walked 12 miles,

20km north-northwest, deep into the road-less wilderness.

She's now come back about eight miles to this dense cedar swamp,

which is a common place that injured bears take refuge.

The injured bears feel vulnerable. They know they can't run,

they can't climb, they can't fight,

so they just want to stay away from any danger.

In the past, Lynn has seen bears recover

from severe hunting injuries.

I want to be able to track her to a den.

She's pregnant, so that should be soon.

Hunting season is almost over,

and time is running out for both bears and hunters.

On the 27th of September,

news came in of another collared bear being shot.

It was June, Lily's mother,

and Lynn's oldest and favourite research bear.

Sue called and said the collar is at the Department of Natural Resources.

I knew she was dead, and just hit with shock

and then a feeling of emptiness,

worse than some people that I've lost.

It's kind of like an ending of an era.

Killing June was the best way to get to Lynn and I,

to hurt us, to hurt the research.

In many ways, she will live on through everything

that she's given to us, and the window into black bear life

that she opened for us won't close with her death.

Again, there was nothing illegal about the shooting...

..but for Lynn and Sue, this was now the worst hunting season on record.

Two of their bears have been killed and one injured.

Any hunter looking to make a statement had certainly succeeded.

Here in Eagles Nest, the relationship between people

and bears is always going to be a close one.

We love the bears. We do. We love the wildlife,

that's why we are here. We love the wildlife.

I think the bears are, they're a natural part of the environment,

along with wolves and moose and everything else.

We like to see them. It's part of it, it's part of why we moved here.

I love to see the bears. I love to see any of the wildlife,

but you got to take it with what it is. It's a wild animal.

If the bears were still "wild", and were not as big a problem,

as they are today, I would have no problem with that.

A lot of times it isn't a bear problem, it's a people problem.

Mm-hmm.

The bears can learn to live with the people,

and even though there's more people, I think the bears can adapt to that

pretty well if the people will allow them to.

The bears certainly do make Eagles Nest what it is for many people.

Be it good or bad.

Two weeks after hunting season ends,

Lily finds a den deep in a rock crevice.

It's me.

It's me, bear.

Come, Lily.

You're OK, bear. It's me.

It's me, bear.

Ah.

You're coming cautiously, aren't you? But you're coming.

Good bear.

For the first few weeks, she can be tempted out for a bit of food.

OK. Right, bear. Come on. Right here.

I'm just going to sit down here.

Hey, bear.

She is safe for another year,

and now the hunting season is over, Lynn removes her ribbons for winter.

Good bear.

Lily and her cubs will remain in this den until spring next year.

There.

I know you don't care one wit about me, it's only the food,

but I'm glad you're here.

OK now.

Ellie, the bolder female cub, doesn't turn down the opportunity

for a snack.

One of the great things is that Lily,

probably the most famous bear alive, has made it through hunting season.

She is settling down. I don't think she is vulnerable to a hunter

any more this year.

The future of Lynn's research with Lily

and her family is uncertain until the legal battle is resolved.

What we do know is that Lily has survived the most challenging

year of her life.

Lily is a pretty good bear. She has done more than just about any

bear of letting us know about bear life.

Lily is still alive. She will go on.

The life of a celebrity bear is not without its hazards,

but fortunately, she will spend the next five months below ground,

out of the limelight.