I watched a great documentary last night, “The Bear Man of Kamchatka.” It follows Canadian naturalist Charlie Russell during his final season in the Kamchatka region of Eastern Russia. He spent 10 years there raising and observing orphaned bear cubs. His whole reasoning behind this was that he believes that grizzly bears are not inherently dangerous to humans, and if we treat them properly we can co- xist with them. The story begins with two 6 month old cubs, and shows how he teaches them and protects them like a mother bear would. It’s really incredible to see him interact with the cubs and with the other bears out in the wild that he raised. One incredible moment in the doc was when he takes the cubs down to the lake for some fishing practice, and a huge male grizzly stands in their way. Charlie walks right up to the male (also he carries no guns) and just tells him to get out of the way, all the while ordering his cubs to stay close and follow him, the large male then backs down and allows them to pass. It’s really amazing.

So look out for it on TV, I saw it on Animal Planet, or search out the DVD, it’s really a must see