The Bear Family and Me

Happy New Year! Later on this week, I've got a 2015 Science Review post coming, but for now, I thought I'd tell you about one of my favourite Christmas TV series I watched over the festive period. The Bear Family and Me was one of the many wildlife TV programmes I watched over the Christmas period - in fact, we watched the recording of it whilst we were waiting for midnight on New Year's Eve. The Bear Family and Me was probably one of the best programmes I've watched in a long time - although I can't call it between the other ...Family and Me programmes. The series follows wildlife cameraman, Gordon Buchanan and a series of black bears. During the 3 part series , he follows a family of bears and nearby families, following their story, getting to know the real bear behind the headlines. He arrives in Minnesota in the spring, with one major challenge to begin with - gaining the bear's trust. Understandably, he's scared of them- they've had a pretty hard time in the press and they're well known for becoming angry when they're hungry. When local researchers introduce him to one particular family, Lily and her cub, Hope, his fears disappear. During the second episode, he arrives to discover that Lily has abandoned her cub - Gordon and the researchers track Hope down in attempt to reunite her with her Mum and to keep her alive. In the final episode, the journey takes an unexpected turn as far as Hope is concerned, Gordon also turns into a bear body guard when he's out protecting the bears from hunters. Perhaps the most important thing Gordon achieved was that he became part of their family and was accepted - he achieved the seemingly impossible and managed to get close to the bears, regularly feeding them out of his hands. Bears aren't the animals I'd like to meet alone on a dark night, but I certainly would love to go and see them in the wild.