- il y a 1 jour
Watch Wilderness with Simon Reeve Yukon, Season 2 Episode 3 on Dailymotion (2026).
Catégorie
📺
TVTranscription
00:03Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
00:301, 2, 3, go!
00:33I'm exploring four of these rugged, glorious regions.
00:37This is straight out of Star Wars.
00:40Tough journeys.
00:43I don't know how much longer I can do this.
00:46Over harsh terrain.
00:50This is becoming one of the least pleasant camping experiences of my life.
00:55Thank you very much, thank you.
00:57I'm going to find the people of the wilderness.
01:00I can sense the emotion in him.
01:03This is a tough time.
01:06Whoa!
01:07Whoa!
01:09Thank you so much.
01:11And discover their defending wild areas.
01:14This is brilliant.
01:18The apex predators are back.
01:21There it is!
01:23There's a snow leopard!
01:25It is a vast ocean of sand and stone.
01:29I'm crossing some of the most hostile and spectacular landscapes.
01:33What a sight!
01:34On planet Earth.
01:36These are the last great wildernesses.
02:04Good morning, Tom.
02:05Good.
02:06Travelling late?
02:07Oh, yeah.
02:10Hello, mate.
02:11How are you going?
02:12I'm all right.
02:13I'm okay.
02:13Yeah.
02:15This small plane is going to take me into the remote heart of northwest Canada.
02:23So we're flying into a wild bit of the planet.
02:26Is that fair to say?
02:27Where roads don't really go, yeah?
02:29Oh, I like that.
02:30Yeah.
02:31Where roads don't really go.
02:32Yeah.
02:44I'm starting my journey, travelling across the Yukon.
02:52The Yukon is a vast territory, almost the size of Spain.
03:02For many, the Yukon is one of North America's most iconic wilderness areas.
03:09Nearly 200,000 square miles of mountains, glaciers, forests and huge river valleys.
03:22But can this really still be one of the world's great wild areas, in wealthy modern Canada, with climate change
03:30biting?
03:31To find out, I'm travelling across the Yukon.
03:35First to the source of the Yukon River, which gives the region its name.
03:39Then, exploring the river by canoe, I hope to meet the First Nations people who make the Yukon home.
03:47Finally, I'm heading to up near the Arctic Circle, in search of grizzly bears, one of the world's top predators,
03:54to see how they're faring as the world changes.
04:00It's an absolute visual feast.
04:04On every surface of land, there is the thick green of forest cover.
04:10But beneath us and around us, there are these glorious, milky-blue, turquoise lakes.
04:17The colour comes from a fine sediment that flows down from glaciers, scattering sunlight and turning these lakes blue.
04:28Canada holds roughly one-fifth of the world's total glacier mass, a huge amount of frozen water.
04:37Above the snow line here, is the vast Juno ice field.
04:52Scientists studying the field say one trillion tonnes of fresh water is locked up here.
04:57In places, the ice is nearly a mile thick.
05:03So, what do we see ahead of us now, Tom?
05:06We're seeing the Llewellyn Glacier.
05:08It's about 30 kilometres long, the main arm of the glacier.
05:13The Llewellyn Glacier is a vast, frozen river that flows down from the ice field.
05:18It is breathtakingly beautiful.
05:23It certainly is, yeah.
05:25Do you still feel that when you fly here?
05:27Oh, 100%.
05:28Yeah, I'd say it's always a treat to get to fly down into here, yeah.
05:34When we get up close to it now, you see it, it is absolutely a whopper.
05:39Yeah, yeah, it's huge, and we're just seeing such a small part of it.
05:43As we get into this area here at the toe of the glacier, you can really see the scarring where
05:49the bare rock is,
05:50is where in very recent times there was still glacier, you know, so it's retreating back at such a rate.
05:56It's exposing this rock that hasn't had time to get vegetation over it.
06:00All of this rock over here.
06:02100%, yeah.
06:03So the landscape is in flux, it is changing.
06:07Very dynamic, yeah.
06:10This is one of the main outflows of frozen water from the ice field.
06:16It's a jagged mass of frozen water, vast along its front, enormous as it stretches back up to the ice
06:26field, behind and above us.
06:28And this, as much as anywhere, is the source of the mighty Yukon River.
06:35As the Llewellyn Glacier melts, it feeds a series of great lakes that in turn help create the Yukon River,
06:43which then starts a 2,000-mile journey across Canada and neighbouring Alaska to empty into the chilly Bering Sea.
06:52This is the Yukon River we're just coming up on now.
06:55We're right by Little Salmon Village.
06:58This village is home to the Little Salmon Carmacks people.
07:02They're one of 14 different First Nations people, indigenous communities, living in the Yukon.
07:08Some of their settlements date back thousands of years.
07:12We're just coming in to land at Frenchman Lake.
07:15And we're going to land into the end of the bay down here.
07:19And we're just up off of the Yukon River here.
07:31I've arranged to meet the deputy chief of the Little Salmon Carmacks people.
07:36If it's all been well, we're going to meet a chap called Calvin.
07:40He's going to glide me along the Yukon River.
07:47This has got to be him.
07:50Calvin!
07:51How's it going?
07:53Simon, very lovely to meet you.
07:55Calvin Charlie, nice to meet you.
07:56I love you.
07:58This is just about the most important time of the year for First Nations people.
08:02The winter hunting season.
08:04Calvin's kindly agreed to take me along with him.
08:07This is the only thing I prioritise every year,
08:09being out on the land and going out hunting and being with my friends and family.
08:14It shows people how the land is healing for us.
08:17and it's a place to get away and disconnect from everything.
08:22I feel a little bit guilty then, Calvin.
08:25You know, like, it gives a perspective.
08:28Yeah.
08:28It should be good.
08:29Thank you.
08:35This is a time when Calvin's community fill their larders and freezers,
08:40working together, collaboratively, out in the wilds of the Yukon.
08:49Calvin's taking me on a two-day journey across this immense landscape.
08:54First, we'll canoe for a day down the Yukon River to Calvin's fishing cabin,
08:59where we can shelter for the night.
09:01From there, we'll head to a remote community hunting camp.
09:18This is stunning.
09:21Colours are just gorgeous at this time of the year.
09:24At the heart of the Yukon Territory is its great river and its hundreds of tributaries.
09:34Growing up, like, you get taught how to, like, read the river.
09:38Yeah.
09:38So, general rule of thumb, the wide bends are the deep side,
09:42because that's where the natural channel flows.
09:45Sure.
09:45Anytime you see water that's, like, shaking, that means it's shallow.
09:49Anytime you see, like, waves like this on the lake or river,
09:53it's usually, like, a bigger rock and stuff underneath.
09:56Right.
10:00Okay, I need to try and keep up with Calvin now.
10:04Follow what he does.
10:06We're going to stick to the left going through here.
10:09Okay.
10:11There's a little bit of white water up ahead.
10:14These are called the Five Finger Rapids.
10:17It's all speeding up a bit.
10:32Whoa.
10:33I nearly went then.
10:34Well, you didn't sink.
10:35Didn't sink so far.
10:37Is that the worst of it?
10:38Yeah, that was all of it.
10:40Okay.
10:41Yeah.
10:44Oh, look at this.
10:46Beautiful.
10:48Lovely natural arch.
10:51Oh.
10:58Everything about the Yukon is just vast.
11:04Vast and beautiful.
11:10The Yukon has a tiny, scattered human population.
11:13A similar density to earth at the end of the stone age.
11:19This is a proper chance, I think, a privilege for me to experience a little bit of what it means
11:25to be truly remote out in the wilds of North America.
11:39I think for many people in North America, that sense of a wilderness is a very powerful belief.
11:48It's still really present in the psyche of people here.
11:54I think it represents a chance to find a frontier, to test oneself.
12:04To experience a life that's raw and real.
12:10Calvin, this feels to me a very special, wild place.
12:15A real wilderness, but is that how you see it?
12:18This is where a lot of our traditional harvesting happens.
12:23We harvest grayling and whitefish, and we do a lot of moose harvesting along the rivers and stuff as well.
12:30Do you prefer to use the word harvesting rather than hunting?
12:35Hunting is more of a Western terminology, in my view.
12:41For us, harvesting was a means of living.
12:46For thousands of years, First Nations people had a fairly light footprint managing the land.
12:52Usually taking or harvesting only what they needed.
12:56European settlers hunted more rapaciously.
12:59Salmon, bears, meat, furs.
13:03Coming in?
13:04Yeah.
13:05The settlers and then the government took land, water, rights.
13:10Indigenous people were displaced, broken.
13:12An ancient way of life was almost wiped out.
13:17But now leaders like Calvin from the Little Salmon Carmacks community are keeping tradition and communities alive.
13:26Now that is a cabin with a million-dollar view.
13:30It sure is.
13:32Ha! What's this?
13:33Those are, uh, those pesky bears like to come and scratch the side of my cabin.
13:38No!
13:39And they've scraped the side here.
13:41Yep.
13:42Goodness me.
13:43All right.
13:44Well, they're out there.
13:51Calvin, what is the Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation?
13:55It's a long history of strong Northern Toshoni people.
14:01Uh, we take pride in our culture and our, our traditions.
14:06This is where your people have been for hundreds, thousands of years.
14:12And you can trace your own family back multiple generations, can't you?
14:17Yeah.
14:18My grandfather, Wilford Charlie, yeah, he was a well-respected elder within our community.
14:24He, he was a hunter, a trapper, a musher, uh, just an all-around great guy, good storyteller.
14:34Keeping stories and identity alive has been challenging.
14:38For more than a century, up to the 1990s, tens of thousands of Indigenous children were forced into church-run
14:46boarding schools,
14:47which partly sought to suppress Indigenous culture, including their connection to this land.
14:54But the history is complicated, isn't it?
14:58Yeah, it's, we got a long history of, of not having trust, uh, you know, when, when people first came
15:08here and, and put people through residential schools
15:12and forced their religion and forced a way of life that we weren't accustomed to or known.
15:19It's tricky trying to keep your culture and beliefs and moving that forward in the new world that we live
15:26in today.
15:27And, uh, trying to keep that, that way of living within our young children and to continue living like that
15:36for generations to come.
15:38I mean, my sense is that as much as anywhere on the planet, the, the landscape, the environment out there
15:45in the big wild of the Yukon is,
15:49I can already tell it's, it's completely central to your identity, I feel.
15:55I'm sure I speak for everyone in the Yukon, uh, we, we like remote.
16:00It's, it's, it's, uh, it's a, it's a lifestyle that, that you can't get in other places in the world.
16:07It's something that we value and, and we want to keep within the Yukon.
16:20Next morning, we're up early, heading to the Little Salmon Carmacks hunting camp in what feels like endless wilderness.
16:34Around one in 20 Canadians identify as indigenous or First Nations people.
16:40They often live in poorer, remote communities where jobs are scarce and food is expensive.
16:47So meat from hunting can be crucial to getting through the winter.
16:51And there's one animal in particular here that helps people to survive.
16:55This is where I started hunting when I was a kid.
16:58I was seven when I got my first moose down this valley over here.
17:02That's a, that's a big creature, isn't it?
17:05It's a, a giant of the deer family.
17:07Yeah, it's one of the, the main, main meat source that we have.
17:12It's who we are.
17:13We're hunter-gatherers, trappers, and, uh, it's, it's a skill that you should know and, and know how to provide
17:21for yourself and your family if you need to.
17:24And it's, it's important.
17:25We've got to get across the little creek.
17:27Yes, we do.
17:32He's carrying modern survival kit and weaponry.
17:36But Calvin's also carrying generations of accumulated knowledge of the land and its creatures, including the moose.
17:44The moose is the world's largest type of deer.
17:47It's central to the community here.
17:50For Calvin, the traditions and skills of tracking and hunting a moose are just as important as the food and
17:56protein a winter hunt provides.
17:59So this is a spot you want to come to where you have three or four valleys leading into one
18:05spot.
18:06You get a nice view of the open water and spot stuff.
18:10So this is where I would stop and I would start doing cow calls to start drawing in the bulls
18:18from the valleys and bring them closer to us.
18:21You're going to pretend to be a female moose.
18:24Yeah, I use my hand, I plug my nose, so I get a higher pitch sound and you want to
18:30make this up and down screech sort of noise.
18:35Okay.
18:36That's what you'll hear.
18:37All right.
18:38Okay.
18:39Sound good.
18:58Sound you're listening for is bull moose grunts, what are like, you'll be able to hear that for about two
19:07kilometers away.
19:08Ideal, it's the younger bulls, they're the ones that usually don't have a cow.
19:15So you have a higher chance of getting a younger bull to come in right away because they're desperate looking
19:23for a cow.
19:25So you're looking to be crude about it for a horny young male.
19:29That's pretty much what it is.
19:30And why only the males?
19:32It's crucial to not take the cows out that produces life.
19:38So you can take the bulls, one bull can mate with 20 other cows.
19:45So it's to not let the numbers drop on the moose and stuff.
19:51So you've got to manage it, be responsible and respectful.
19:55So you call, you wait.
19:58Call, you wait.
19:59Call again.
19:59And I'll call again probably about every 10 to 15 minutes until something starts, until I hear something.
20:09I just keep repeating that and something eventually will hear me and will make its way to me.
20:16And when you say eventually, do you mean today, tomorrow, the next day, who knows?
20:22Yeah, it could be sometimes it's right away, the same day you get there.
20:27Sometimes it's two, three, four days.
20:31We're pretty close to Calvin's winter hunting camp.
20:36It's on raised ground with a view over the valley.
20:41Some of the younger men from the Little Sam and Carmack's community are already there.
20:46A chance for Calvin to pass on some of his wilderness skills.
20:50Hello, hello.
20:51Hello.
20:52Hello.
20:53Have we caught you at a busy time?
20:56We got Preston and we're hoping to get the first moose.
21:00Goodness.
21:01I've been on a few hunts and skinned a few too.
21:04But yeah, first one to shoot too.
21:07Okay.
21:07He's been around there, but like when I'm here, I've got a lot passed down to me from my grandparents.
21:13So I pass down what they pass to me to other people.
21:17Time to pass it on.
21:18Yeah.
21:19So it's a big, a big year for you then?
21:22Yeah.
21:22Yeah?
21:23Now, to be honest, I'm going to show you all of them.
21:28Oh my goodness.
21:35Wow.
21:37It's gorgeous.
21:40Look at this.
21:44Look at the carpet.
21:47Look at the carpet here.
21:49That is the most beautiful carpet I've ever seen.
21:53I mean, it'll get wet in the morning, but what the hell?
21:57It's a work of art.
21:59I love it.
22:02This can, complete with mossy carpet, will be our home in the wilderness for the next few days.
22:19I just popped out to get some wood for my stove.
22:21And look at the northern lights.
22:29It's as if someone has painted the heavens above with a bright fluorescent pen.
22:38But it's alive.
22:40It's moving.
22:42But it's alive.
22:44Something glorious in a very special wild place.
22:59Hunting or harvesting always played a huge role in indigenous culture, providing food, clothing
23:06and tools from antlers and bones.
23:09For a young man like Preston, taking his first moose is still a rite of passage.
23:14But it's an unpredictable and enormous creature.
23:19So, Calvin is taking Preston out for his first chance at getting a moose.
23:28It's a hunt.
23:29They don't know what's going to happen.
23:37These are, like, perfect spots to find and have the patience to call.
23:43Like, a lot of the times I hear the moose before I ever see it.
23:52So...
24:08Now he's listening for a response.
24:14I did think I heard something up there.
24:16So...
24:17You thought you heard something?
24:18I thought I heard something.
24:19You've got younger ears.
24:20I'm trusting you.
24:21I don't...
24:22I don't hear anything right now, but I heard something a couple times now.
24:24So you've got a two-year-old and a four-month-old.
24:29A four-month-old.
24:32So you've got to start hunting to provide for the...
24:36Your littlers as well?
24:38Yeah.
24:38A moose.
24:39Couldn't provide for a family.
24:42For a whole year, you wouldn't need to buy protein.
24:46Essentially.
24:48A whole year?
24:50Yeah.
24:50It'll...
24:50It'll fill a deep freeze for that sort of length of time.
24:54Yeah.
24:55I went out on my own the last two years.
24:59I've seen moose, but they've just never shown themselves to me.
25:02So I just couldn't take the shot.
25:03Right.
25:04But...
25:05I'm looking to take the shot any time I can now.
25:17Moose can weigh more than half a tonne.
25:19They far outnumber humans in the Yukon.
25:22There's more than 65,000 of them.
25:25But it still seems so unlikely a huge beast will suddenly emerge.
25:32Calvin, however, is quietly optimistic.
25:42Probably a few days old.
25:44Just bull moose tracks.
25:46You can tell bull moose tracks by...
25:48See how they're more pointy and...
25:51Like this?
25:53Cows are more, like, rounded.
25:55So bull moose was here but a couple of days ago?
25:58Yeah.
25:58Might still be around?
26:00Hopefully, yeah.
26:11We just don't know whether at any moment a one-ton beast is going to appear.
26:19We'll try it.
26:20Yeah.
26:32Oh, my God.
26:37Can you see you in the back?
26:37If you Because I don't know where to go,
26:37you're going to be there and go.
26:38Yeah.
26:38Okay.
26:39You're going to look.
26:40You're going to see you.
26:40Hey, everybody.
26:40Yeah, we're going to see you.
26:41I'll be there.
36:55Sous-titrage ST' 901
37:08C'est parti de l'air de l'air de l'air de l'air.
37:38Bison, caribou, wolverines, lynx, wolves, and of course bears.
37:49Oh, it's cold here.
37:52But it is really magnificent.
37:56Beautiful.
37:58But always here is that lurking sense that something is watching you.
38:08What are you seeing?
38:10See the log there?
38:11Mm-hmm.
38:12It's been walked on.
38:14So you think it's a bear?
38:16Well...
38:17Am I wrong to feel like eyes are always watching us?
38:23Is it just in my fevered imagination?
38:25I've had a lot of ears listening for us.
38:27If we encounter a bear here, I'm pretty sure I'll know who it is and they'll know who I am.
38:33And it'll be a passive encounter.
38:37A passive encounter?
38:39No stress.
38:40Whenever I meet a bear, I speak to it.
38:42I always say the bear's name.
38:44I say hi, whoever it is.
38:46How's it going?
38:47That's what I say.
38:48It sounds a little bit hokey, but you are, as much as anyone on this planet, an expert on grizzly
38:58bears.
38:58So if you say, say hello and give its name, I take that 100%.
39:06I have practiced that like 200 meters from here, where we had a stressful encounter with a bear that knew
39:15me very well.
39:16And I said, hey, Sophie, how's it going?
39:20And she, within one second, just calmed down, turned around and was looking back at the fish.
39:27I will remember those words as I follow behind you.
39:35Standing tall on its back legs, a male grizzly can be more than eight feet and weigh in at more
39:42than a quarter of a tonne.
39:43And they're fast, as fast as a wolf, hitting a top speed of 35 miles an hour.
39:50Their lacerating four-inch claws can tear almost anything to pieces.
39:56The grizzly bear is truly one of the world's great predators.
40:00And for as long as anyone can remember, this is where they come.
40:06Phil, why is this such an important place for bears?
40:09It's the water quality.
40:11This water is from underground springs, from underground aquifers.
40:17It delivers the perfect condition for salmon spawning.
40:23It's the perfect water to incubate salmon eggs.
40:28Just right here, on the other side of this island, there's fish spawning in there right now.
40:34The eggs, they hatch into little fish.
40:37When they come out and emerge in the spring from the substrates, they go directly to the ocean.
40:43We're a long way from the sea here.
40:45We're 1,500 kilometers by water from the Bering Sea, where these fish feed as adult salmon in the ocean.
40:54They will feed and grow in the Bering Sea.
40:57They start to mature sexually, and they come in and reproduce.
41:02Salmon come here to spawn.
41:04Salmon come here to spawn, and the bears come here to prey on them.
41:11The salmon of the Yukon are crucial to this entire ecosystem, providing food for the bears, which leap into the
41:18river to hunt them, but also other predators like eagles and wolves.
41:24The salmon that spawn die soon after, and their bodies provide food for dozens of other creatures.
41:31Their remains nourish whole valleys, literally fertilizing the trees.
41:37Large salmon used to swim here in almost unimaginable numbers.
41:41Indigenous people joked they could cross rivers by walking on their backs.
41:46But over the last few decades, salmon numbers have plummeted.
41:50And that is bad news for the bears.
41:54No luck seeing bears today, unfortunately, but fingers crossed for tomorrow.
42:02We're still pretty confident there are bears out there.
42:07But over here, by the way, I should show you this.
42:10This is our outdoor toilet, which is very outdoors.
42:15Not least because that's all that's protecting you when you're sitting here.
42:21The reality of where I am is very definitely hitting home.
42:26This is one of the remotest places I have been on the planet.
42:51If we're going to see any wildlife, our small team needs to move quietly through the forest.
43:12There's a moose in the water, just up the river.
43:16There are no hunters up here.
43:19Bear Cave Mountain is a protected area, so the wildlife is less wary of humans.
43:24We've got a cow moose and her calf from last year, and a bull moose that's been mating with that
43:32cow.
43:33She's more than likely been in estrus for a few days at least.
43:37She's ready.
43:38Possibly a week, but he's sticking by her side.
43:42He's hopeful.
43:43He's hopeful.
43:44They'll mate, and she'll produce another calf next spring.
43:50What's going on?
43:51The cow just urinated in the water right close to the shore there, just an inch of water.
43:56And the bull's actually, he has a gland in his gum that allows him to determine if she's in estrus.
44:08She's ready to mate.
44:09She's ready to mate, and he'll determine that by...
44:12He's just had a mouthful and realised that.
44:14...having a little bit of urine scent in his gum, yeah.
44:20What a way to find out.
44:21Yeah.
44:26But where are the grizzlies?
44:28They should be feasting on salmon to build up their fat reserves through the winter.
44:35There's the fish head right there.
44:38What's eating that?
44:40I don't see any bear tracks.
44:43There are no bears here.
44:46No sign of bear.
44:47No sign of bear.
44:51No sign of bear.
44:59No sign of bear.
44:59Are there normally more bears than this?
45:02Normally, there is a lot more bears than this.
45:07Yes.
45:09There's just not enough salmon to attract bears here anymore.
45:12So this river would historically have been alive with fish and with grizzly bears.
45:21feasting on them.
45:22Absolutely.
45:23Yes.
45:24I don't see enough right now to attract a bear.
45:30What's the cause of the salmon disappearing?
45:36Too damn many people catching too damn many fish in the Yukon River.
45:44That's catching fish that are coming up the Yukon to spawn.
45:50People have been fishing them in huge numbers.
45:54Huge numbers.
45:56As far as I'm concerned, this is the worst example of salmon management on the planet.
46:04The Yukon River.
46:06Totally irresponsible.
46:08So things that are happening outside this particular wilderness are dramatically affecting it.
46:15That's right.
46:15That's right.
46:16Yep.
46:18Yes.
46:19Very disappointing.
46:23The problems for the salmon start out in the Bering Sea, with many caught by industrial trawlers.
46:31Some make their way back up the Yukon River to spawn here in Canada.
46:35These incredible creatures swim 1,500 miles up river.
46:40Sometimes 50 miles a day, against the current.
46:44But they run a gauntlet.
46:45They're fished along their journey.
46:48Climate change has altered water levels, temperatures and increased disease.
46:52All making their epic migration much harder.
46:56In parts of the Yukon, some salmon runs have crashed by more than 90%.
47:02A catastrophic collapse.
47:04It was quite upsetting to see and hear today how few salmon there are in the river.
47:12There used to be thousands upon thousands.
47:17And now there is just a fraction of that.
47:36We're all anxious to see whether bears are still here.
47:39And if so, how they're coping with the plummeting salmon numbers.
47:45Next morning, to increase our chances of spotting bears, and assessing their numbers and health, we decide to split up.
47:54I'll stay with Phil.
47:58While Angela and cameraman Jonathan are heading to another location just down river.
48:13Do you see anything?
48:16No.
48:23Phil Timpany is a fascinating guy.
48:26He's a bear man through and through, but he has a complicated relationship with them.
48:32Before helping to set up this refuge, he actually used to act as a tracker and guide for bear hunters.
48:40I have a history of having people pay me to kill wildlife.
48:48So, paying off a debt.
48:51I've skinned a lot of bears.
48:53You've skinned a lot of bears?
48:56Yeah, way more than I feel comfortable with.
48:59So, this is in a previous life.
49:02It feels that way.
49:04Professionally.
49:05Yeah, we would look for and hunt down grizzly bears and kill them with high powered rifles.
49:13It's called trophy hunting.
49:16One fall we killed 13 grizzly bears.
49:19Just, there was two guides, myself and a friend of mine that worked with me.
49:23And we slayed 13 grizzly bears in one fall.
49:30Slayed.
49:31It's quite a word to use.
49:33The first thing a trophy hunter does when he's allowed, the guide proclaims that his trophy is dead and you
49:43can approach.
49:45The first thing they do is kick it.
49:47They kick the bear.
49:48Every one of them.
49:49The other thing was they all curse it in some way.
49:57Most of the hunters that I've brought to bears that were dead called it, they would say something similar to,
50:05I killed you, you son of a bitch.
50:08Most of the people identify their activity with the killing of a bear as a sport.
50:16But I don't identify trophy hunting as a sport because one of the players doesn't even know there's a game
50:24going on.
50:26I had to quit doing that because it didn't feel right.
50:29I didn't feel very good about myself.
50:31So now, this feels like, yeah, I'm paying a debt.
50:38I feel it is like that.
50:42And I haven't quite accomplished that yet.
50:48Yeah.
50:49Yeah.
50:51You're quite emotional about it.
50:53Yeah.
50:54Sorry, Phil.
50:55No, no, don't be, don't be.
51:00You know, of what we're not seeing here, that has a lot to do with it.
51:07What do you mean?
51:08Well, you find yourself doing what you can to influence the conservation of bears.
51:14And then you see this.
51:17You know, the bear is suffering.
51:22Um, and it's not by shooting them with high-powered rifles.
51:25There's still a lot of other hurdles for bears and those people trying to help bears.
51:36So, um, that's just disappointing.
51:39And I think you just drew that out of me.
51:42Like, for maybe the first time.
51:44You know, where I actually felt like, wow, you know, yeah, I've done a lot.
51:47I've done what I could.
51:49But, uh, yeah, where are we going now?
52:04Downriver, Angela and Jonathan have been waiting and watching in sub-zero temperatures for several hours.
52:13You, beauty.
52:29You recognise the bear?
52:32Hey, buddy, how's it going?
52:34Hey, buddy, it's okay.
52:36Everything's okay.
52:37Are we okay?
52:39Yep.
52:40Hey, buddy.
52:42How's it going?
53:00Hey, Sam, this is John.
53:01You can hear me.
53:03We've got some great news.
53:04We've managed to get a bear really, really pleased.
53:08We've got some good footage.
53:09That is fantastic.
53:10Well done.
53:11Well done.
53:13Back at the research station.
53:16Jonathan, looking forward to this.
53:17Can we see?
53:18Yep.
53:19Okay, here we go.
53:19Oh, it's a very sweet bear as well.
53:24Oh, it looks wonderful.
53:25Yeah.
53:26Oh, this is brilliant, Jonathan.
53:28Well done.
53:29See its nose twitching there.
53:30He's smelling everything in the valley right there.
53:33He's doing really well.
53:35He's in very good shape.
53:36He already has a lot of fat stored on his body.
53:39If there was salmon here to any abundance, he would continue to gain weight.
53:43But he's gained what he's got on him now from eating fruit.
53:48It's quite sad to see that he's not getting fish.
53:51He's crossed the river, which should be full of salmon, and he's not getting them.
53:56What happens to him now?
53:58He's heading towards winter.
53:59What's he going to do?
54:00If there's no fish, the fish are gone.
54:02These bears are, like, this guy is in good shape.
54:05And he could den right now, and he would survive without a problem.
54:09They don't den because it's cold.
54:12They den because there's no more food available for them.
54:15Right, so if there isn't food, he's going to go to den.
54:19Exactly.
54:19Or hibernate, as we used to say.
54:22Yes.
54:22Do we still say hibernating?
54:24Well, they're not hibernators, no.
54:26It's a convenient way, I think, to explain.
54:29They do go underground for six months, plus.
54:34But no, their body temperatures and heart rates don't come anywhere near hibernation levels.
54:38But they still have this extraordinary ability that I'm quite fascinated by to,
54:43for the length of their, while they're denning, for maybe seven months.
54:49They don't eat, they don't drink, they don't urinate, they don't defecate.
54:54And somehow their body has evolved so their muscles don't waste away.
54:59It's an astonishing physical feat, isn't it?
55:04It's actually been studied by NASA for trying to figure out how to keep astronauts in good health in space.
55:13So these bears do something naturally that NASA is now hoping to emulate.
55:19Yes.
55:21He's heading directly in your direction here.
55:24What were you thinking?
55:24We're thinking, okay, do we just stay calm?
55:28Or do we need to start thinking about moving back?
55:30Because, I mean, this is a powerful creature.
55:33He saw you there.
55:35Yeah.
55:35Right there.
55:37And he's ignoring you now.
55:38He knows you're there.
55:40He looked right at you, right in your lens.
55:43A little side eye.
55:44Yeah.
55:44No.
55:45There he is again.
55:46Boom.
55:47The bear is purposely not looking at you now.
55:50And he's purposely not looking at you because he doesn't want it perceived as a threat.
55:54There, he went after a fish.
55:56Not successfully.
56:00There he goes.
56:01He's looking straight towards us.
56:02He's smelling you and looking at you.
56:03God, he's getting a right lungful, isn't he?
56:07Yeah.
56:07But you'll notice there's no aggression whatsoever in his face.
56:11You see?
56:11Just curious.
56:13He's smelling.
56:14Doesn't like what he smells.
56:18And then it's a bit of a backwards look and he runs.
56:21Yeah.
56:21He's off.
56:21He took off at a rate of knots across the water.
56:25Well, that bear probably hasn't seen a human being for two years.
56:30I'm gutted not to have seen it myself, but I'm so pleased you have.
56:35Oh, well done, mate.
56:37That is brilliant.
56:38Thank you.
56:39It's an incredible moment.
56:42The grizzly bear is an icon of the North American wilderness.
56:46They're born survivors, all rounders who can live off more or less anything and go to den when the food
56:52runs out.
56:54But climate change and the collapse of the salmon run here in the Yukon will inevitably have an impact on
56:59them and the entire ecosystem.
57:03Americans and Canadians claim to love their wilderness, but I'm not sure they're doing a great job of protecting this
57:08one.
57:13On the face of it, the Yukon is a pristine, untouched, wild part of the planet.
57:18And it is definitely still magnificent.
57:22But I do think what I've learned on this journey is that this is one of the most affected and,
57:27I fear, damaged wilderness areas that I have been to.
57:32Right now, this should be one of the great salmon spawning events on our planet.
57:38A feast for grizzly bears.
57:42And I leave here saddened because I fear this is no longer the case.
57:57Next time.
57:58It is a vast ocean of sand and stone.
58:02I'm traveling across Mongolia.
58:05This is straight out of Star Wars.
58:07Encountering ancient traditions.
58:09I can sense the emotion in him.
58:12This is a tough guy.
58:14And searching for one of the world's most elusive and magnificent predators.
58:19It's a snow leopard!
58:25Discover how rewilding could help recover areas where wilderness has been lost due to human activity.
58:31Take an interactive journey back in time with the Open University by scanning the QR code on your screen
58:37or by going to connect.open.ac.uk forward slash wilderness.
58:49Dear contact with us on Zoom so пал Day 1.
58:51Next time.
58:52indicates you 침 800.
58:52Please watch the next ray pavement.
58:52Fear %1, 2 5800.
58:59So I have to keep verge o cherry,�이ga droit, go economics from嬉u comfortable joy.
59:01You have to keep falling away from peace .
59:02Now you may be in your eye on directわかASH to see you.
59:03What else?