Bear

VHS cover

*Bear* is the second episode of the third season of Eyewitness. The topic of the episode is about the eight species of bear, their behaviour and ecology and their links with human culture. The episode aired on 22nd September 1997.

*Bear* is not based on a book title, and no Eyewitness book about the subject has been published since the episode aired.

## Episode

### Introductory sequence

The camera zooms in towards a collection of toys positioned around a toybox, with a teddy bear as the central toy; a shadow looms over the box and toys and when the camera pans up, it shows a grizzly bear leaning on the box. The screen fades to white and the title sequence begins.

### Episode outline

Click here for the full transcript for Bear.

The episode opens by introducing bears as animals that have been feared, revered and beloved for many different reasons, such as their size, strength and resemblance to humans.

There have been many times that bears have been elevated to the heavens, with constellations like the Great and Little bear, which in Hindu myth were the centre of the universe and controlled the seasons. Bears were also believed to control the seasons by some Native American tribes. This leads to the spring of the bear’s year, when mothers emerge from the den with newborn cubs that must learn how to hunt and gather if they are to survive.

These skills impressed ancient humans, who established bear cults using the skulls of extinct cave bears. The evolution of bears is then explored, looking at the biggest and smallest ever bears, the bulldog and dawn bears.

There are currently eight living bear species – the sun and polar bear, the giant panda and sloth bear, the spectacled bear, the grizzly or brown bear, the Asiatic black bear and finally the commonest of all bears, the American black bear.

The narrative then turns to the creation of a ninth type of bear, the teddy bear, after president Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a chained bear. Because the bear became a softened and beloved childhood toy, its danger was sometimes forgotten. In the old west, there were no doubts about the dangers of bears and some took advantage of the fact – western men believed a face scarred by bear claws was attractive to women. In cultures from Native Americans, ancient Rome and Iceland, bears became symbols of power and masculinity. Today, the guards at Buckingham Palace still wear bearskins on their heads.

Bears may have stimulated our imagination because they are like us in many ways, with forward-facing eyes and flat feet, although bears can run as fast as horses. Some cultures, like the Inuit, believed bears were humans. Bears lack tails. Polar bears evolved over 250,000 years ago from brown bears that migrated into the Arctic. They have tiny suction cups on their paws, black skin, white fur and thick fat to help them survive. A Chinese legend explains that pandas were all white, but got their black markings from attending a funeral.

Pandas have the biggest skull of any bear to help them chew through bamboo, which is low in nutrients and so they need to eat a lot of it. Sloth bears have a diet mostly of termites. The polar bear prefers to eat seals. All the other bears are opportunists, eating a mixture of plant and animal foods. Bears use plants as medicine, with Native American cultures coveting this information. The teeth of a bear, cut in half, show its age. In China, it is believed that eating parts of bears can give certain bear attributes.

When bears eat, they prefer to dine alone, but if all the food is in one place, they have no choice. Bears are happiest on their own and will scratch tree bark and lay scent signals to mark their territory.

In autumn, bears start to put down fat reserves for hibernation. Male bears are big enough to hibernate in the open while mothers with cubs need to use a den. Human cultures saw the disappearance and reappearance of the world’s bears as a sign of the changing seasons. Bears hibernate differently to all other animals and do not get up, eat or get rid of waste during the winter. NASA are seeking the answers to bear hibernation so that astronauts could be put into a type of suspended animation on space missions.

In the winter den, female bears give birth to their cubs. They are born tiny but by the time the spring comes they are big enough to emerge. The mother immediately starts searching for food to put back on her lost weight and the cubs start to learn about how to be a bear.

While bear cubs look cute, these animals can be dangerous although they kill far fewer people than lightning, snakes or trains. It is advised to let bears know you are around if walking in their habitat. There are many cautionary tales about bears. Sometimes human activity can make bears more dangerous than they need to be, by feeding them. Unfortunately, a bear that has been fed tends to see human food as being for it. Bears can live alongside people, as is shown in the Canadian town of Churchill.

Six of the eight bear species are threatened with extinction, with the giant panda being the most at-risk of those. There has been a massive international effort to save them. This may be all due to the actions of Teddy Roosevelt, the day he let the bear cub live. There are now thousands of teddies for every real bear and some are valuable collectors’ items. The episode closes by retelling a Siberian tale that shows the bear’s true worth – the little bear came to earth from the clouds and taught people the wisdom of the heavens. The grateful people gave him silver, which he then used to make the stars shine.

## Animal species filmed for the programme

### Studio footage

* Brown bear, *Ursus arctos*
* American black bear, *Ursus americanus*
* Domestic dog, *Canis familiaris*
* Bluebottle, *Calliphora vomitoria*
* Royal python, *Python regius*

### Stock footage

* Sun bear, *Helarctos malayanus*
* Polar bear, *Ursus maritimus*
* Brown bear, *Ursus arctos*
* Giant panda, *Ailuropoda melanoleuca*
* American black bear, *Ursus americanus*
* Sloth bear, *Melursus ursinus*
* Spectacled bear, *Tremarctos ornatus*
* Asiatic black bear, *Ursus thibetanus*
* Domestic horse, *Equus ferus caballus*
* Wapiti, *Cervus canadensis*
* Ringed seal, *Pusa hispida*
* Black-capped marmot, *Marmota camtschatica*
* Siberian chipmunk, *Tamias sibiricus*
* Pink salmon, *Oncorhynchus gorbuscha*

## Stock footage sources

The Velvet Claw (1992) – Sun bear and sloth bear feeding, American black bear raiding picnic basket

Wildlife on One

* Trivial Pursuit - The Natural Mystery of Play (1988) - Adult polar bear playing
* Pandas Aren’t Always Cuddly (1992) – Giant pandas

The Natural World: Pandas of the Sleeping Dragon (1994) - Giant panda dust-bathing

## Credits

* Director - Karen Walsh
* Writer - Stan Cullimore
* Music - Guy Dagul
* Graphics Director - Jean Cramond
* Graphics Design - Simon Clarke
* Camera - Robert Payton and James Clarke
* Set Design and Visual Effects - Chris Reynolds and John Boundy
* Research - Honor Peters
* Production Co-ordinator - Jessica Powell
* Production Team - Molly Fry, Philip Whelman and Jackie Byrne
* Unit Manager - Teresa Watts
* 3-D Animation - Paul Kavanagh and Andy McNamara
* Offline Editors - Stuart Napier and Frank Riches
* Online Editor - Charlie Cope
* Dubbing Mixer - Steve Hudson and Kian Wong
* With thanks to:
	+ Dover Pictorial Archive
	+ Hercules the Bear

## Making this programme

The production of Bear is only shown in The Making of Eyewitness 3 – Worlds. It shows how Hercules the grizzly bear had his own entourage and was filmed in front of a green-screen so he could be placed anywhere in the museum. A holding cage had to be constructed for the American black bear, which was too dangerous for anyone but the handler to approach. Finally, it is shown how the crew filmed outdoors for a sequence with the black bear, where Teddy Roosevelt refuses to shoot the bear. On the shoot, the weather proved less than ideal.

This was the last television role for Hercules the grizzly bear. Either during production for Eyewitness Bear or a television advert, he slipped a disc in his back and lost the use of his back legs. Over the next three years he was rehabilitated and did learn to walk again, but died in February 2001 at the age of 25.

## Home media releases

Bear has only ever been released on VHS. None of the three different DVD releases included this episode.

**Writing staff**: Anne MacLeod • Ben Southwell • Ben Steiner • Brian Meehl • David Hanson • David Stafford • David Helton • George Bloom • Lynette Singer • Mike Tomlinson • Paul Thomas • Stan Cullimore
**Directors**: Gavin Maxwell • Justine Kershaw • David Hutt • Andrew Jackson • Justin Hardy • Ludo Graham • Jerry Foulkes • Derek Hall • Sanjida O'Connell • Caius Julyan • Bonni Cohen • Leanne Pooley • Edwina Vardey • Alexandra Beazley • Sam Hodgkin • Karen Walsh • Jack Weber • Richard Simkin • Alex Hearle • Brian Cummins • Ben Southwell
**Composers**: Guy Michelmore (season one) • Guy Dagul (seasons two and three)

**Season One**: Cat • Fish • Horse • Dog • Jungle • Bird • Amphibian • Insect • Shark • Elephant • Reptile • Dinosaur • Skeleton
**Season Two**: Desert • Tree • Ape • Mammal • Butterfly and Moth • Volcano • Rock and Mineral • Seashore • Pond and River • Weather • Arctic and Antarctic • Prehistoric Life • Shell
**Season Three**: Flight • **Bear** • Sight • Island • Survival • Mountain • Monster • Human Machine - Plant • Ocean • Planets • Life • Natural Disasters