Narrator: Deep in canada's remote yukon,
On the fringe of the arctic circle,
In the shadow of a majestic mountain
A dramatic coming of age story unfolds.
An adolescent grizzly takes her first harrowing steps
Into adulthood and motherhood. (bear growling)
The odds are stacked against her and her rambunctious cubs.
But in a hidden sanctuary,
Known only to a handful of grizzlies,
A river churns with the key to their survival.
It takes smarts, skills, (water splashing)
And a certain amount of style
To take part in this contested feast.
(bears growling)
But sophie will stop at nothing to save her first family
In the legendary land of the ice bear.
(icy fur crunching)
(dramatic music)
(crow cawing)
It's April on the pristine expanse of the yukon.
In the heart of a mountain, creatures are stirring.
(light dramatic music)
Bear cave mountain rises out of lands sacred
To the vuntut gwitchin people.
It serves as a singular fortress
For sleeping giants during the winter.
Shot through with water-carved caverns,
This limestone peak couldn't be more perfect
For a five month nap.
But now, a groggy young grizzly emerges
And stumbles down the mountainside.
After nine years growing up here, sophie knows the mountain
And its surroundings like the back of her paw.
But she'll soon be in unfamiliar hormonal territory.
Her childhood is nearing its end.
(light music)
Not for these guys.
A couple of sub-adults find the descent off
The mountain supremely entertaining.
Sophie doesn't seem so sure.
(bears growling)
As with all young mammals,
Play feeds their growing intelligence,
And grizzlies are very smart bears indeed.
(bears growling)
But sophie seems to be putting away such childish things.
She's being observed, but pays no attention.
Wildlife filmmaker phil timpany has been
Chronicling sophie all her life,
And has all but faded into the background.
For 30 years, his unique access in this remote,
Protected wilderness
Has provided an unprecedented glimpse
Into the lives of all the local grizzlies.
It's phil who gave sophie her name, watched her grow,
And has long wondered if she'd have her own family.
(bird chirping)
(light dramatic music)
The advent of spring has everyone on the move.
Porcupine caribou are headed toward
Their northern calving grounds,
At least the ones that survived the winter.
Some did not.
After months of not eating during her long winter sleep,
Sophie needs to find food quickly.
But this caribou carcass has already
Been picked nearly clean.
Not much here for a hungry bear.
(light dramatic music)
She heads further north, away from bear cave mountain,
In what will become a restless search for food.
Her range extends over 100 square miles,
Across open tundra, a summer feeding ground
She shares with many other bears.
As spring draws to a close, warm winds bring moisture
From melting snow cascading over the mountains.
A big male lumbers across the valley.
(light dramatic music)
He's following his formidable nose towards
An irresistible scent; a female coming into estrus.
It's sophie and another female, both ready to breed.
His ardor may not be reciprocated,
But he's not about to wait for permission.
(dramatic music) (bears growling)
The other female heads for the hills, literally.
So, he targets sophie. (suspenseful music)
Her instincts battle within her: To flee, to fight,
(bears growling)
Or to flirt, in loud grizzly fashion.
Finally, the male herds her up onto a ridge,
Where he can keep her away from other males.
She accepts his advances for a while.
(bears growling)
Grizzlies often quarrel after sex.
They'll stay together for three days, mating frequently,
Before the male heads off in search of another partner.
His reproductive duty is done here.
But sophie's is just beginning,
And she'll need all her energy for the journey ahead.
Inside her, at least one
Fertilized egg now rests dormant.
It will only develop this winter
If she enters hibernation in prime condition.
(light music)
(grass rustling)
It's June.
With the brief arctic summer upon her,
Sophie enters hyperphagia, a phase of excessive eating.
She must pack on 1/3 of her body weight
To get herself through the winter,
More, if her pregnancy is to succeed.
(light music)
She forages relentlessly but it's slim pickings.
And there's only so much nutrition in grasses and roots.
(crows cawing)
August offers salvation, setting the hillsides aflame
With plump, sweet blueberries.
(gentle music) (birds chirping)
Sophie gorges to her heart's content
On calorie-rich fresh fruit.
But the berry harvest lasts just three weeks.
Instinct drives her to eat long after her appetite is sated.
She must build up reserves for the struggles ahead.
(light dramatic music)
Once the berries are gone,
Autumn brings lean times for bears.
Even big males are reduced
To hunting the smallest creatures.
In this case, an unfortunate ground squirrel,
Whose subterranean escape proves futile.
(bear paws thudding)
(bear growling)
It's barely a mouthful, but a nice fatty one.
(light dramatic music)
Sophie knows it's time to head home
And sets off toward bear cave mountain.
But she's not ready to hibernate just yet.
(light dramatic music)
In the shadow of her mystical mountain
A lavish bear's banquet should soon be arriving.
She follows the meandering fishing branch river
That cuts through this pristine wilderness.
A protected park managed by the yukon territory
And the vuntut gwitchin first nation.
(light music) (birds chirping)
The river is the life-blood of the park,
Vital to the many creatures that thrive here.
(water splashing) (birds chirping)
(light music)
But especially to the grizzlies.
It seems bear cave mountain has called
All its residents home.
The grizzlies gather in eerie silence, waiting.
(bear growling) another nomad is expected,
And their survival depends on it.
(gentle music)
It's mid-September.
A hushed anticipation hangs over the fishing branch river.
Sophie and her fellow grizzlies await
The annual miracle on which they depend.
It began six weeks ago, and 1,500 miles away.
A journey from the bering sea, across alaska to yukon.
An epic migration that ends here,
In the fishing branch river.
(water splashing)
Finally, the nomads arrive.
Salmon.
Tens of thousands of chum, returning to the very waters
Where they hatched, four years ago.
(gentle music)
The gravel beds here are perfect for spawning.
But the key ingredient is the water itself.
Oxygenated groundwater and gases percolate up
Through the river bed year-round.
This constant flow keeps the river from freezing
Long after the yukon's other waterways have iced over.
Nowhere else this far north do chum spawn
So late in the season, giving bears here more time
To fatten up before hibernation.
A female salmon completes her grueling journey
Just as her eggs reach maturity.
(light music) (water bubbling)
She surveys the bottom intently,
Using her sensitive nostrils to sniff out
The ideal water chemistry for her nest.
She's an ambitious engineer, excavating rocks and scraping
Gravel before depositing her eggs.
(water bubbling)
The male chum are arriving as well.
During the long trek from the bering sea
They develop powerful jaws equipped with fearsome teeth.
For two weeks they fight each other
For mating rights with desperate fury.
(dramatic music) (water splashing)
The rivalries spill over into the mating itself.
As the female deposits her eggs, her partner releases
A cloud of sperm while other males try to muscle in.
The female then gently covers up the fragile eggs,
Cementing them in place.
Her battle-scarred mate stands guard,
Preventing rivals from getting too close.
But the end is near.
Exhausted males are in tatters.
The female, also doomed, defends the nest to the last.
(somber music)
She abandons her post only as her
Near lifeless body is carried downstream.
(water splashing)
As if the salmon's desperate battle
To reproduce weren't enough,
All the grizzlies of bear cave mountain
Are intent on devouring them.
Every adult bear is hundreds of pounds
Of hunger that can't be sated.
(bears growling)
Phil's here, as he has been for most of the past 30 autumns.
(water splashing)
In the process, he's been swept up in the bears' lives,
Rooting for them, and getting to know
Their quirky fishing techniques.
Nine years ago, (gentle music)
He filmed a very young sophie being tutored
In the fine art of killing chum by her mother, mrs. Tucker.
(water splashing)
And today he watches sophie putting
Those lessons to good use.
(water splashing) (gentle music)
(light dramatic music) (wind whistling)
As October arrives, an arctic cold front
Sweeps in from the north.
The chum spawning season is nearing its peak.
Feeding time for hungry bears is short.
Wary of the tension on the main river,
Sophie heads for a little tributary.
Some of the chum have also escaped
The chaos by retreating into pools here.
But sophie doesn't have her fishing hole to herself.
(dramatic music)
A big male bear appears downstream.
It's morris, a huge, intimidating, 15-year-old.
Sophie doesn't want any trouble.
So, reluctantly she gives up
Her spot grabbing a quick snack to go.
(water splashing)
(light music)
Morris, a veteran fisherman, has refined his technique.
(playful music)
He stands tall,
Getting a top-down perspective on the chum.
(water splashing)
When the coast is clear,
Sophie ventures to the river once more.
Remarkably, mrs. Tucker taught sophie long ago
To use this very same log as a launch pad.
(suspenseful music)
(water splashing)
Her charge, smash, and grab strategy
Might not be as dignified as morris'.
But eventually, it works.
The salmon's juicy eggs help provide
The tens of thousands of calories she needs every day.
(light music)
She continues working the shallow water,
But the chum are getting to know her moves.
(light dramatic music) (water splashing)
When she loudly charges their spawning beds,
They easily escape into deeper water.
Taking a page out of morris' book,
Sophie stands upright to see the fish as they flee.
(light dramatic music)
She herds the salmon toward the bank.
Once they're corralled,
(water splashing) she attacks!
(dramatic music) (crows cawing)
Meanwhile, the chum are upping their game as well.
Every time sophie prowls the water,
They hide in the cloud of debris she stirs up.
(paws thudding)
As the water clears, they beat a full retreat.
But bears are remarkably intelligent.
Sophie realizes that every time she touches the water,
They head downstream.
(light dramatic music)
Not to be out-witted, she triggers the salmon's retreat
With a paw swat, (water splashing)
Then intercepts them as they flee.
(suspenseful music) (water bubbling)
(water splashing)
In the main river channel,
A 20 year old male named stanley fishes in deeper water.
With age comes wisdom and efficiency.
Stanley can't be bothered with all
That chasing, leaping and struggling.
Far easier to go after the fish that don't flee.
He snorkels, scouring the river bottom for dead salmon.
(light dramatic music)
That one's a little too ripe.
(water splashing)
Now that's more like it!
Time for his signature move.
(suspenseful music)
(water splashing) got it!
(light music)
A salmon feast without the bother.
With each passing week, the urgency grows
For sophie to gain weight.
Her pregnancy is on the line.
But again and again large males
Like morris and stanley displace her.
(light dramatic music)
If she isn't fat enough when she starts hibernating,
Her body will absorb the fertilized eggs in her uterus,
And there will be no cubs.
(light dramatic music)
By November, only a few spawning salmon remain.
(water splashing)
Fishing has become a matter of diminishing returns;
It burns more calories than sophie gets to eat.
So she sets off along the river
And picks her way up the slopes of bear cave mountain
To the den where she was born.
(wind whistling)
The limestone mountain's many caves,
Carved out by running water,
Have been used by hibernating bears down through the ages.
Sophie settles in to sleep away the winter.
Her drive to feed for the last six months
Now comes down to this.
If she's healthy enough,
Perhaps by spring she'll be a mother.
(dramatic music)
(wind whistling) (foliage rustling)
April blows cold, here, in yukon's far north.
Cinematographer phil timpany is searching for grizzlies
Not far from bear cave mountain.
(bears growling)
The family he comes across has emerged from their den
To discover winter is still in full force.
A caribou carcass offers the mother meager pickings.
But her two-year-old cubs are more interested
In wrestling anyway.
Phil's pleased to find any bears
To film this early in the year.
But he'll leave these grizzlies and keep looking for sophie.
He's anxious to know whether this year
She's got any cubs in tow.
(light dramatic music)
(wind whistling)
(birds chirping)
Only when the tundra begins to bloom in may
Does he find her in a secluded valley
Where he rarely sees bears.
And he's delighted to find she's got company.
A tiny male cub born in January in the safety of the den
And now four months old.
A little female completes the family.
The cubs have already journeyed for many miles,
Scampering after their mother.
But as a first-time mom, sophie's learning the ropes,
Trying to balance her own needs
With feeding and protecting her young.
More than half of all grizzly cubs die in their first year,
So sophie has little room for error.
(light dramatic music)
During the next two months, the tundra flushes green with
New growth as plants soak up the nearly endless sunshine.
(ravens cawing)
A pair of ravens draws sophie's attention
To the carcass of a caribou.
She and the cubs have been foraging on the lush grasses
But welcome a change of diet.
It's the cubs' first taste of meat.
While the youngsters eat their fill,
Sophie starts burying the windfall to protect it
From ravens and other feathered thieves.
She skillfully rolls up a ball of vegetation
And soil to cover the carcass.
The cubs watch carefully, learning a lesson that may
Someday save them from starvation.
(light dramatic music)
But the most sure-fire way of protecting
A meal is to sleep on it.
With sophie nodding off, her cubs seize the moment.
Meat might now be on the menu but they'll continue
To suckle throughout their first year.
(light dramatic music)
Nearing the end of summer,
The cubs discover one of the joys of the season;
Berries, reaching their peak in late August.
Sophie makes it clear how important it is to gorge
On the fruit while the bounty lasts.
And the cubs are happy to oblige.
But in just three weeks,
The berry patches will be picked clean.
And once again, sophie will hear the siren call
Of the fishing branch river.
(light music)
(birds cawing)
(birds chirping)
By the time the family arrives at bear cave mountain,
The cubs are seven months old.
The youngsters seem delighted to explore this new terrain,
But sophie grows uneasy.
As she's done every year of her life,
She scours her favorite fishing sites for salmon.
(light dramatic music)
(water bubbling) nothing.
Something is terribly wrong.
The salmon run has never been this late before.
For a first-time mother, this is a disaster.
(dramatic music) (wind whistling)
10 days pass with no sign of migrating chum.
The cubs, still nursing, get virtually all their
Nutrition from sophie, draining her of vital calories.
Just when she should be fattening up to get them all
Through months of hibernation, she's losing weight.
(light dramatic music)
If she doesn't eat soon and eat a lot,
They might not survive the winter.
(light dramatic music) (water splashing)
It's late September and first-time mother
Sophie faces a crisis.
The annual run of chum salmon
In the fishing branch river hasn't arrived.
Without binging on fish for several weeks,
Sophie can't store enough fat to survive
Her coming hibernation or feed her cubs.
(gentle music)
At last, the chum start to appear,
10 days later than usual.
Sophie needs to make up for lost time
And immediately gets down to business.
(water splashing)
She targets females when she can,
Because they come with a vital bonus; eggs!
The hungry cubs are eager for their first taste of salmon.
Salmon eggs are a grizzly super-food,
Packed with nutrients and all important fat.
(crows cawing) (bears growling)
Sophie lets her cubs know the precious caviar is hers alone.
She needs the eggs more than they do.
Instinct drives sophie to keep gorging herself,
But her inexperience as a mother starts to show.
Knowing the chum often spawn in shallows on the other side,
She heads across the river,
Leaving behind a pair of disconcerted cubs.
(light dramatic music)
Desperate for their mother,
The cubs try swimming for the first time.
But the strong current carries them downstream.
(dramatic music)
Intent on fishing, sophie is oblivious to the cubs' plight.
They've made the far bank,
But now they've lost track of her.
Alone, they're extremely vulnerable.
(suspenseful music)
Sophie heads back across the river to share her catch.
But it's deserted.
Finally, she hears the cubs' cries and realizes her mistake.
She hustles back to their rescue.
(light dramatic music)
(cubs squealing)
A happy reunion and a lesson learned.
Sophie will keep closer tabs on her youngsters from now on.
(soft music)
In early October, winter arrives at the fishing branch.
But it's of little consequence.
Here, the chum keep spawning and grizzlies
Keep feeding late into the season.
The cubs watch intently as sophie demonstrates her skills
At one of the same spots where she learned from her mother
How to outsmart the spawning chum.
(light music)
The cubs discover for themselves that the ice
Hides fish that don't put up a fight.
(light dramatic music)
Later in October, full winter blankets the valley
Below bear cave mountain.
But the river continues to flow.
At 30 below, ice forms on everything, including wet bears.
It's stanley, the 20-year-old with surprising foot skills.
He rubs his scent on a prominent tree
To post a message to other bears, no trespassing.
Lower-ranking grizzlies will get the message
And head to a different part of the river.
Grizzlies here are known as ice bears.
(icy fur crunching)
That's why.
A good, crackling shake, and this ice bear's
Ready to start fishing again.
(light music)
As always, the special alchemy in this stretch of river
Enables the chum to keep spawning deep into winter.
It helps make up for this year's late arrival of the salmon.
But many of the grizzlies are struggling
To pack on enough pounds.
Soon, the spawning will begin to wind down.
Most of the chum have died
And been washed downriver or eaten.
Sophie still needs to bulk up a bit more.
The new mother has spent vital calories keeping
Her cubs in line and sharing her food with them.
But her fishing savvy is still growing.
(water splashing) (crows cawing)
Slowly and silently, she creeps toward
The spawning beds from downstream.
Then poses, like a sprinter in the starting blocks.
(suspenseful music)
Impatient mouths wait on the river bank.
Eventually, the fish no longer notice her.
A fatal mistake.
(dramatic music) (water splashing)
(gentle music) since arriving on the river,
Sophie has gained nearly 50 pounds.
But now her family is caught in that spiral
Of diminishing returns.
Fewer salmon, requiring more energy to catch.
For sophie and her cubs it's a race against time.
(light dramatic music)
A November dawn and a shroud of ice fog
Rises from the fishing branch river.
Sophie has never lingered here so late in the season.
But this is the first time she'll have to
Nourish cubs during the hibernation ahead.
She must gain even more weight before leaving the river.
And the spawning salmon are nearly gone.
At least the battered and exhausted few
That remain are now easier to catch.
Sophie is torn between two powerful instincts:
Her hunger for ever more salmon
And her need to protect her cubs.
Every day they remain on the river bank,
The threats against her family intensify.
(dramatic music)
With less salmon to scavenge,
Hungry wolves might risk attacking a cub.
(crow cawing)
And the male bears would like to keep
The rest of the chum for themselves.
These big bruisers burn through
Far more calories than smaller females.
They'll stop at nothing to get every fish they can.
Sophie, growing increasingly anxious, sniffs for trouble.
And the scent she just picked up is unmistakable;
A one-eared male the oldest bear on the river.
(light dramatic music)
Like most elderly grizzlies,
His reproductive days are behind him.
The cubs are no competition.
But they've learned their lessons well
And get out of the way of any male bear.
Sophie's choice gets more difficult every day.
The salmon are irresistible,
But the encounter she dreads is inevitable.
(light dramatic music)
It's morris.
Unlike the retired champions, this 15-year-old nearing
His prime is all about eliminating the competition.
Morris is a very real threat to the cubs.
(suspenseful music)
With a last longing glance at the river, sophie decides.
The risks of staying now outweigh the benefits.
She'll just have to trust that she's gained
All the weight she needs to hibernate.
It's time to leave the river to the big guys.
(light dramatic music)
(crows cawing)
Sophie's first year of motherhood is nearly over.
She's done well.
She has guided her cubs through
The most precarious year of their lives.
Thanks to her diligence and the singular bounty
Of the fishing branch river, they've beaten the odds.
She'll still look after them for two more years,
But she's prepared them well for the challenges ahead.
And now they can retreat to the shelter
Of their den for their long winter nap.
(light music) (bear snoring)
Mother and cubs hunker down,
Nestled in the safe haven of legendary bear cave mountain.
(light dramatic music)