The Making of The Big Bear Diaries with Jonathan Scott

Company: Hallo Bay Bear Camp

Date: Friday 1st February

Time: 3.00pm

Location: Theatre 2

Having spent the past 33 years living and working in the wildlife field in Kenya - most of that time in the Masai Mara studying Africa’s big cats – I was surprised and delighted by the impact/effect walking with bears had on me.

Katmai’s coastal brown bears are some of the biggest carnivores on earth – incredibly impressive creatures that can run with the speed of a racehorse, possess the raw power of two lions, and are a true emblem of wilderness.

Big Bear Diary was the product of a long line of highly successful Diaries – in the mould of Big Cat Diary – a reality show that needed no hype to generate excitement allowing the wild creatures to be as they are – fascinating in their own right.

The success of the Diaries is based on establishing strong story lines focusing on known animals where it is possible to bring out the character of the animals we are filming. We were fortunate to be able to focus on a mother bear with three Spring cubs recently emerged from the den and to follow their story throughout three separate filming windows – May/June – August – and late Sept into October. This allowed us to experience a wide range of bear behaviour: mothers with cubs of various ages, mating and feeding in the sedge meadows, the salmon run, and the final weeks prior to denning for the winter.

Hallo Bay provided us with the perfect location – a small camp in a scenic location on the Alaskan coast in Katmai NP. Our guides were intimately involved in the lives of the resident bears in the area – they knew them by name and had written up their life histories dating back a number of years. Working on foot made this a totally different experience for me – I spend much of my time in Africa working from a 4 wheel drive vehicle that acts as a mobile hide for photography. This was the chance to experience something completely different – sometimes the bears would walk within feet of us – but we were careful not to betray this trust and always responded to the lead provided by our guides.

 I believe that walking with bears is one of the truly great wildlife experiences – something not to missed and one of my top five wildlife ‘must do wildlife adventures’. A visit to Hallo Bay Camp is no ordinary holiday – it just so much more than you expect.