Bears...
..and humans.
An ancient conflict
that we have clearly won.
We love bears.
They're everywhere.
But we don't want them in our gardens,
unless they're lit up.
Humans have banished bears from most of Europe's forests.
But there are exceptions.
Romania for instance, where people are at their wits' end.
The number of incidents is growing.
Sometimes with disastrous results.
Is there a future for people and bears,
side by side in Europe?
Winter in Transylvania.
You'd expect brown bears to be hibernating in their caves.
But here in the heart of Romania be ready for surprises.
There's much that defies expectations.
Two brown bear cubs brave the cold.
They show no sign of tiredness.
If they're not hibernating, there can only be one reason:
They're getting enough food.
And in fact these two have found an inexhaustible source.
Bears aren't choosy. They'll eat whatever fills them up.
As soon as a bear gets used to human foods,
conflict is inevitable.
How could this happen?
Most bears' lives still begin far away from people.
In a distant valley in the South Carpathian Mountains,
three tiny bear cubs were born in their winter cave.
They've only just opened their eyes
and started to explore their tiny world.
All they know is their mother's warm fur, and her nourishing milk.
Our forefathers once sought refuge in caves, too
and vied for their ownership with terrifying bears.
15,000 years ago
the entrance to this cavern in western Transylvania
was sealed by an earthquake.
When miners broke through accidentally in 1975,
they found claw marks on the walls.
And then the astonishing revelation:
More than 140 skeletons of cave bears.
The experts were faced with a mystery.
Some skulls seemed to have been laid out in patterns.
Were they used as cult objects?
Did fear and respect for these all-powerful creatures,
make humans treat them as gods?
Even in modern-day Romania, an age-old bear ritual endures.
In the nights around New Year
the boundaries between human and bear all but disappear.
These dancers are wearing real bearskins.
The power of the bear dispels the evil spirits of the year just past,
making space for fresh beginnings.
Bear hunting is now banned in Romania.
Many of these skins are held over
from the days when things were different.
Ceausescu, Romania's communist dictator,
was completely obsessed by bear hunting.
They say he once shot 31 bears in a single day.
To indulge his blood-lust,
he ordered a bear-breeding programme, unique in the world.
As soon as the cubs were old enough, they set off on enforced travels.
They were released into the forests in their hundreds,
as future trophies for the dictator.
Romanian bears no longer need to fear trophy hunters.
And that makes some of them overconfident.
In the winter I am a ski instructor.
I am going up to check the slope.
Stop, I see the bear.
I put my phone in the record.
In this time another skier coming.
Stop!
I hope the bear is going into the tree.
But no, and I say to the people: Make some noise.
But the bear is not impressed. It continues coming to us.
Coming too close.
Eh what can I do? The bear is not going.
Okay, come follow me. If you catch me, try.
Just... a little bit crazy.
I am going down, down, down, I see the people.
Oops.
"Atenzie camine ursu."
It's a situation very dangerous.
Okay, I stop the bear.
With the slope is clear, I continue to go down.
Not very long distance to the finish of the slope
the bear hears the noise.
Maybe he was thinking the race is over.
He stays a little bit waiting
but after this it is going to the forest.
This is the story.
What seems funny can quickly turn serious.
This bear has lost its natural fear of humans,
and thus becomes a danger.
Whereas our three cubs are where bears should be:
deep in the dense Carpathian forests.
They're tasting grass for the first time.
They have no idea of the culinary delights
awaiting them down in town.
The human world is a fleeting fragrance,
a tempting aroma briefly caught when the wind is right.
The forest is their home.
There's still danger here.
Male brown bears will always try to kill their rivals' offspring.
That gives them a better chance of siring their own.
But he won't approach our female.
These cubs are lucky with such an experienced mother.
Shepherds on their way to their summer pastures.
Grazing on Carpathian Mountain slopes is ideal for their herd.
But this comes at a price:
On their trek they penetrate deep into bear territory.
Petre Clem has 300 sheep in his care.
Villagers trust them to him for the summer.
If he loses a single one, he has a problem.
Bears cause trouble. So do wolves.
It's difficult.
When it's raining and foggy
and the bear comes out of the forest it's dangerous.
We have to get to the sheep fast, or the bear will rip them apart.
Sometimes it's taken two or three sheep in a single day.
As night falls, the atmosphere is tense.
No sheep are allowed to run free.
We put them in the enclosure every night.
We never leave them alone.
We would protect them with our lives. They are our only property.
But whatever happens, we have our dogs, and we are brave.
A Romanian shepherd is never far from his herd.
Petre sleeps right next to his charges.
His colleagues take first watch.
See? He caught a sheep.
Is he going to clear out or will he eat it?
I think he's taking it away.
A fellow shepherd from a neighbouring valley
took these pictures.
He's a real devil. If I caught him I'd take an axe to him.
Yeah, yeah. He'd be after you like a shot.
Dammit, he was here. Now he's in the valley.
The dogs chased him into the river.
I know a bear is part of nature,
but we shepherds live in nature too.
We have to find our place here, just like the bears.
If life in the mountains is to work, we have to share the space.
I understand the people in the towns
who love bears and want to protect them.
But living beside them is very difficult.
Over the centuries shepherds and bears have found a way of living
side by side in the mountains.
But what happens when Europe's greatest land predator
moves into the human world?
This was some time ago:
I came into town to buy some stuff
and I met a friend I hadn't seen for a while.
So, we went for a drink
and the two of us told each other stories till late in the night.
Eventually I said: "Time for bed.”
On the way to the apartment, I saw strange shadows.
I thought they were people, so I said: "Good evening!"
But they didn't answer.
What'd you think they were?
Two bears, my friend, two bears. Looked like they were dancing.
Bears in the city? They live in the mountains, not in the towns.
What's all that about? I'd rather get back to the mountains.
Nocturnal visitors are rather common
in the small towns of the southern Carpathians.
As soon as it gets dark the streets fill with life.
Stop, stop.
Stop the car.
Can you hear them?
Laura Niculescu and her husband George love bears.
They're out on patrol almost every night, in spring.
Hardly anyone knows these animals better than Laura.
And she has a mission.
There are a lot of people that hate and don't like the bears,
because they think they are aggressive.
But it's not like that.
I do a lot of filming.
I put them online in a page
to show them that the bears are not aggressive.
If people learn how to behave in front of the bear,
that would lead to a peaceful coexistence.
The bears are here, but it isn't always easy to find them.
Unless they leave a trace.
Look there is the garbage on the floor. The bear was here.
We have to follow the dogs.
The dogs are nervous. The bears can't be far.
Down there. Down there. Slow, slow.
Bears always look for the easiest way to find food.
That's why the cities are so attractive.
It's much harder to find food in the wilderness.
So you see there is a lot of garbage everywhere
and that attracts the bears to the city.
You know, like humans go to the supermarket
instead of looking for food in the forest.
Same goes for the bears.
If they find easy food, they go for it.
Under cover of darkness our mother bear sneaks into town.
She's not alone.
She has her cubs with her.
This isn't just about the abundance of food.
It's about adult male bears too. They are loners.
They avoid company, including human company,
and would rather spend their time in the mountains.
So the town also protects the cubs from hungry males.
Bears aren't the only ones
that appreciate the advantages of an urban environment.
For the little ones, everything smells new and exciting
and has to be tried.
Now they've had their first taste of humans' food,
there's no way back.
Following their mother, they'll connect humans with food
for the rest of their lives.
It's bound to lead to conflict.
There will be consequences for our three bear cubs.
Over the coming weeks they'll learn to adapt to the asphalt jungle.
Once foreign territory, the town will soon be their playground,
food delivery service, and finally their new home.
Meanwhile, Laura has caught up
with two old friends.
Look, look the brothers.
These are the brothers from last year.
This is the second year they come to this park in search for food.
The other one.
They are two years old and always playing around.
There is a bin with pancakes.
They throw the leftovers in the trash bins.
They are eating pancakes right now.
Stop! Don’t go on.
Get back!
The bear is right in front of you! Right in front!
The man there wants to go to the bear.
An apparently innocuous situation can quickly get dangerous.
It's coming.
It's coming on. No, too close. No, no, it's dangerous.
Is the gate open? Come here.
Ah, the gendarmes are here.
When the RO-Alert comes they come from the police, gendarmerie,
and they want to chase the bear away.
The brothers aren't too worried
by the police's attempts to intimidate them.
They've heard it all before.
Some Transylvanian towns see bears almost every night in summer.
The police answer calls as soon as they can.
But there is only so much they can do.
The police aren't always sure
exactly what's happening.
On this occasion they've quickly pinpointed the troublemakers.
Our bear family have entered someone's garden.
This is high risk intervention.
Because babies do not know how to handle the situation.
Maybe they go inside the garden
and because of the fence they cannot go out.
And there is the possibility
that the mother can be dangerous for the people.
After hundreds of years of intensive hunting,
what frightens bears most, is noise.
It's the most effective way to scare them off.
But the night is young.
It's much too early to return to the forest.
In the maze of gardens and narrow lanes
the bears easily shake off their pursuers.
The potential food supply is infinite.
The dogs can bark all they want.
Their dishes still get emptied.
In the search for easy meals our mother bear has shed her shyness.
She strolls these streets for weeks on end, growing increasingly bold,
thus adding herself
to the long list of "problem bears".
"Amazing pictures from Sinaia. Bears chasing people."
"A moment of horror in Victoria."
"The Police recommend killing dangerous bears."
"Two boys and a man injured by bears.
Torn apart by a hungry bear." - "Bears kill a shepherd."
Security cameras record scary encounters with bears.
With at least 6,000 bears in Romania
there’s always a risk of an unwelcome confrontation.
When a bear gets aggressive
and resists all attempts to scare it away,
it is declared a "problem bear".
In exceptional cases, it may then be shot.
But first they'll try to deal with it peacefully.
This bear is being relocated.
In some small towns in southern Transylvania
the density of bears is so great,
the Police have permission to move almost every one of them.
This time it's a young male.
The vet anaesthetises the bear so it can't harm itself.
The sedative quickly takes effect.
The bear is weighed, measured and given an ear-clip
so it can be identified later.
Then it's off on a long journey.
The idea is to release the bear far enough away
so it can't simply come back.
And the area must be sparsely inhabited,
so the bear can't make trouble there.
In today's Romania, that's a tall order.
Our mother bear and her three cubs
were also caught and released far away.
When Laura heard about this, she set off in pursuit,
and soon made a sad discovery.
Here is the blood ... The blood of the mama bear.
Her cubs were after dog food.
And that sealed their mother's fate.
So the mama bear always comes from the forest
and stay by here next to the forest
and the cubs go down to the houses to eat the dogfood.
He called the authorities to chase the bears from his yard
but they come instead to kill the bear.
So when they shoot her they chase the little one in the forest.
And the other two chased in the other park.
Normally there is a commission
that involves the major, the vet, the hunters
and the authorities, police or gendarmerie.
They all have to sign the papers and agree to killing the mama bear.
This commander didn't sign the papers.
So that's why it is a scandal.
When bears turn up out of the blue the result is often chaos.
The authorities are under pressure. People's lives are at stake.
And that doesn't make it easier to take the right decisions.
It was a normal morning.
The phone rang. A bear.
In the centre of the city. Really? A bear in the city?
But I am a journalist, got there in something like 5 minutes.
And a lot of people, a lot of police cars
and there was in a few moments a bear on the roof.
The chaos continued because the bear was very quick and very agile
in climbing on roofs and nobody knew exactly
how should we proceed when a bear comes in the city?
The local authorities didn't know how to act. That's the main issue.
And they were misinformed. They said it was a big bear.
"Stay at home there is a big bear." It was not a big bear.
There was a hunter and he said: "I have only bullets.
I do not want to kill him."
"Kill him!" - "No, I don't want to."
Nobody knew what should be done. It was total chaos.
They finally got him trapped in a yard.
They shortly decided to shoot the bear.
So the door was open and I just got in
and I saw the small bear cub.
And I was the only photographer there,
so I snapped as fast as I could
a few pictures.
I know it was confusion, it was dangerous
but the image of that cub was moving to say the least
and it moved a lot of people.
So things like this shouldn't happen
in our city or anywhere.
Because no bears should be shot.
Laura can't get the orphan cubs out of her mind.
Their mother gone, the cubs must be wandering,
lost and traumatised.
Laura knows exactly where to look for them,
and sure enough:
Slowly, slowly. Stop, stop, stop. Slowly, slowly.
Two of the cubs are rifling the garbage bins
close to where their mother was shot.
Like her, they've become used to human food
and can no longer go back to the food of the forest.
Laura knows perfectly well what will happen then.
If she wants to save them, she must do something now.
Many people in Transylvania
are spooked by the bears in their neighbourhood.
Some would rather take the solution into their own hands.
They feel abandoned by the authorities.
You're all terrified of the bears. Am I right, or what?
The bear in your backyard. The bear out in the street.
I have children, man. Can't you understand that?
If conflict is to be avoided,
people must adapt their own behaviour to the bears'.
Not everyone is happy with that.
No one understands that better than Bogdan Sulica.
He's a ranger with one of Romania's biggest conservation organisations:
Carpathia.
If we see a bear coming down in the village
we just go there with the dogs,
with weapons, with rubber bullets, with all kind of stuff,
and ...
... we're trying to push him away.
Look up there at the pasture,
something up there, right at the top.
It is difficult to make out.
Just some few young bears coming to the fruit trees.
That's all.
Can you still see them? - No, they're gone. Off to the left.
Everything's working out for Bogdan today.
He sees himself as the link between the people of the community
and the wilderness around them.
He knows that bears and people get on best
when they leave each other alone.
His job is to make sure it stays that way.
But it doesn't always work.
Hello Bogdan. - Hello.
So, tell me: How we're going to solve the bear problem?
What are we going to do?
One of the farmer's cows has been attacked by a bear.
He chased the bear away, but it was too late to save the cow.
The bear comes from there and from there,
and from the street down there.
The bastard came from there too.
So, you've got problems again? - He keeps coming.
The loss of a cow is a serious financial setback.
Bogdan can help protect the rest of the herd,
once he confirms the cow really was killed by a bear.
To do that, he has to find it.
Okay, bye. - Bye. Bye for now.
Yeah, usually it's much more difficult
to work with people than with animals.
People do not want to live
with wild large carnivores,
so it is a lot of discussion.
In the past, shepherds all time in spring
when they go up in the mountain, they had 1000 sheep.
We go up in the mountains with them but for sure
at least 50 are for bears and wolfs.
Now nobody is talking like this,
so they do not accept to have some losses you know?
They do not really want to pay a tribute to nature.
Bogdan has a simple but effective way of protecting livestock.
So ... it is a thin line
between people and wildlife.
So, it is ...
Somehow it is impossible to don't have conflicts.
But actually we do not know any case
when a bear goes inside an electric fence.
An almost invisible strip of wire solves the problem.
To stop bears looking for food where humans live,
the food must be put out of their reach.
Once sheep and cows are safe,
there's only one last object of desire:
garbage.
Now we are trying to ...
... put another kind of bin,
with some lock thing
inside an electric fence.
It's not so expensive.
It's just an easy way
to prevent problems with bears coming to the garbage.
I am totally sure it will be better.
One final test.
Autumn in the mountains.
Petre is taking his sheep down to the valley.
The pastures stay more succulent here for longer,
and the sheep are protected from winter storms.
Bogdan knows Petre well.
Hi! How's it going Petre?
How was the summer? - He took three sheep.
I found two of them, but not the third.
Fences help against bears.
But in the mountains, the sheep roam free in the daytime.
So Bogdan has another way to help.
Well, as we discussed.
I've brought the Carpathians.
Here's the male.
And the female. They are a couple.
Carpathian sheepdogs. Especially effective against bears.
Bogdan's organisation breeds them
and gives them to the shepherds for free.
Good luck. Let's hope they grow really big and help you.
Thanks. So long.
If you ask me, I would say yes, we need bears.
If you ask a farmer,
maybe he will say no or maybe let's have some, but in the zoo.
But bears are like a logo of our country
and if we have bears, we have all the other species under this.
So yeah, we need bears.
The fate of our orphan cubs has taken an unexpected turn.
One of the three has disappeared,
but thanks to Laura its two siblings are no longer alone.
After we call the authorities they took two days to catch those bears
and the association took them to the sanctuary.
Yes, come on.
Come on, come to me.
Hi there.
I looked for you for seven hours.
What is it? What is it, are you hungry?
They should be out in the freedom, playing
but because their mother was shot ...
... they are here in this enclosure.
The king of the forest, reduced to a begging vagabond.
Is this the future of Europe's last great predators?
Bears have disappeared from most of the forests.
In some areas they are being re-established. With difficulty.
Not everything is perfect in Romania,
but at least this country still has its bears.
Things aren't easy for the people on the frontlines.
But they have proved by example,
that if the right adjustments are made,
the age-old coexistence of humans and bears
is still possible.