Face-to-Face with a Bear - Meet the Expert | National Geographic

Welcome! It is so lovely to see you all here today. I'm your host, Lizzy Daly, and I am thrilled to be bringing you all on an epic journey to meet some of the world's best scientists, wildlife experts, and National Geographic explorers from around the world, live! And I mean live!

We're going to be chatting to people who have explored deep into the ocean, who have visited some of the world's most remote places, and someone who's come face to face with bears as well! So this is a real opportunity for you guys to get your questions in to our experts live and also just hear some behind-the-scenes stories and epic wildlife tales as well.

Now, firstly, I'd like to introduce myself to you. So, I'm a biologist and wildlife TV host from the UK, coming from not-so-sunny UK right now. But yeah, I mean, I've been so lucky myself. I feel really privileged to explore across the world, documenting wildlife. But my real job is actually as a scientist.

So, I'm using animal-attached tag technology on wildlife to better understand animal behavior with the real focus on those species that are coexisting alongside Earth alongside humans. I think it's fair to say that it's a global conversation—human-to-wildlife coexistence—and I'm sure it's one that you watching can resonate with wherever you are in the world. It's a topic that we'll be talking about today with our fantastic guests.

Speaking of which, I am very excited to welcome today's guest. Today, we're going to be chatting to Dr. Rhea Wind Grant. Now she's a large carnivore ecologist, an incredible scientist, an inspiring woman. She's done so, so much. She's a National Geographic Society fellow. She's currently working in Montana, looking at how she can better wildlife corridors or bear corridors that help conserve bears.

Her main focus is on bears—specifically black bears and grizzly bears. She's even worked with African lions in Tanzania and Kenya. Just an incredible woman, and she's here with us now.

Lizzy: "Hello, Rhea!"

Rhea: "Hi there! Hey Lizzy, how's it going?"

Lizzy: "It's so good! It's even better that you're here. I've just been learning all about what your career looks like as a bear biologist. I mean, I think perhaps an obvious place to start is, what is it like to be face to face with bears as your job?"

Rhea: "You know, it's amazing! I have to say, I used to be a kid just sitting around in my living room watching nature shows on TV and watching these hosts get face to face with large carnivores. I wanted to do that when I was a kid. I didn't realize that I was watching science happen on TV, and so I still feel so fortunate that I landed this career where I get to do the science, which is very purposeful, as you know—just save endangered species from extinction. Also, I get to have so much fun handling them, tracking them, watching them, observing them. It's really amazing. I feel like I'm the luckiest person in the world, and I can't wait to tell people all about what it is in case anyone else wants to do it for a living."

Lizzy: "Yeah, it's such an incredible job that you have! Have you been out with bears today? Where are you currently?"

Rhea: "Oh my goodness! Well, I have to say I am not anywhere close to bears right now. I'm actually in an urban space. So, I am in Southern California right now at this moment. Although I study bears in the West—in the Wild West, in the western United States, that is. Usually, I'm high up on top of mountains or deep in forests. Right now, I'm actually in a very urban space, trying to make it look a little bit more natural. But I am not too far away from bears!

As you know, Lizzy, a lot of our urban areas in the world are actually places that are kind of surrounded by wildlife areas. So, I'm close enough to the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California, which have a number of large carnivores. Unfortunately, I won't be seeing any today, but I brought all my knowledge and a couple of props here to be able to talk to you guys about it!

Actually, I'm sitting in front of a pond. I don't know if you can see it, but kind of whatever bears inside the pond is the movement. See this pond right here? It is full of bears' very favorite food—it is full of big fish! These are koi fish, and actually, in my work, I get a lot of phone calls from people who have really beautiful koi ponds in their backyards. They'll call me and say, 'There's a bear eating all of my decorative fish in my yard!' And I have to say, 'Well, you can't blame them because that's...'"

So, anyway, I am reminded of bears! I would love it if a bear came and snatched a fish or two from here! Bears are all around you at all times and in your mind at all times!

Lizzy: "I don't blame you! I mean, you have really been face-to-face with lots of different species in loads of different places! Can you tell us about a memorable encounter or one particular encounter with a bear that you just absolutely loved?"

Rhea: "Yeah, you know, that's a great place to start because I usually get the question from audiences about, 'You know, have you ever had a close encounter with a large carnivore?' I absolutely have, whether it's been lions in Africa or bears in North America. The common theme is that I get myself into a little bit of trouble with these animals every time I'm not following the rules. So, whenever I kind of let my guard down and I'm not really on top of my game, that's when something scary happens!

I say that because it's important to be safe. It's important to always respect these animals. If you're dealing with bears, carry bear spray! You know, carry some way of protecting yourself. The times that I haven't done it, I have gotten chased by bears. I've never been hurt, thank goodness! I don't know, but one of the reasons is that I set traps for them. When I'm setting a bear trap, it's for the purpose of capturing the bear to check on its health and well-being. It's a very short procedure, but every so often, I will approach my trap a little too soon where there's a bear in the area that just hasn't gotten trapped yet; so it's free-ranging and it's usually not very happy with me!

I have been chased a couple of times, and it's been really, really frightening! But in general, especially with black bears, they're not out there to kill people or to hurt people or to maul people. They're only aggressive when they feel threatened. So if you change a situation so that they can understand that you're not a threat to them, you're usually fine."

Lizzy: "Right, number one."

Rhea: "Yeah, absolutely! I think that's a really important note because often people go out hiking and, you know, you're very much in their habitat! So it's really important to just bear that in mind! And it's funny as well because you, as a scientist, as a biologist, I guess you are instinctively constantly thinking about bear behavior, but sometimes, you just can’t predict where an animal may be coming from, right?"

Rhea: "No! Absolutely not! And also, sometimes you can't necessarily identify the sex of the animal just by looking. So I know it's a female if she has her cubs with her just from a distance. But if the cubs are up a tree or if they're somewhere else, I might not know she's a female. Females are so protective of their cubs; they're more likely to get aggressive with a person just off the bat.

Sometimes the judgment you make is actually not what's going on. You just have to be agile, adapt, and the biggest thing I can say is give these animals space. I mean, humans are not meant to be face-to-face with animals! I do it in the name of science and biology, I know you do too, but that is really the only appropriate way to have those interactions."

Lizzy: "Absolutely spot-on! Now I kind of want to talk very shortly about your research and how you actually go about approaching and studying bears! But before that, I just kind of—you do cover large carnivores. That's kind of your title. With your passion for conservation, you know, why large carnivores? This is a bit of a city question really, but because who wouldn't want to study the big animals of the world?"

Rhea: "You know, I have to say sometimes I feel like I'm competing with primatologists because primates are just so fascinating! And you know there's so much like us that sometimes I'm like, 'Oh yeah, primates are next!' I hope so! But large carnivores because they mean a lot in terms of the ecosystem. So large carnivores being top predators really are able to control a lot of trophic levels, right?

All the way down to soil. We see the impacts of large carnivores. So when they're missing from an ecosystem, it can actually have these terrible cascading effects. So the conservation need is very, very strong. I want to make sure that all of the world's top predators, you know, remain around, even the ones in the water—even the sharks, and the you know killer whales, and all of that. At the same time, large carnivores have a lot of cultural significance.

I really think it's interesting how many indigenous groups have revered bears and lions and carnivores for so, so long. You know, we have children's stories about bears and wolves! They're just so a part of human survival and kind of the human journey and story that there's this ecological and cultural significance I just can't get away from, and I just think it's fantastic! So I'm hooked forever!”

Lizzy: “And I also think there's a lot of ways that lots of people out there—maybe some of the people who are tuning in now—can explore being a part of the conservation of large carnivores. So we need people who are scientists and biologists, but we also need educators and artists and filmmakers and photographers and advocates and all kinds of writers! You know, all kinds of people will play a role in making sure that we continue to have these animals!”

Rhea: “Absolutely!”

Lizzy: “And fascinating that you cover a breadth of studies and understanding of these animals and you'll totally spot on! Everyone's interconnected with nature, right, in some capacity? But I mean, you've got to say you really have an epic job! So though I want to know as a bear biologist, how do you go about studying bears? What do you do? Let's say it's a day in the life of you! You're out in the field, and you're about to go and find a bear! What do you do?”

Rhea: “Yeah, absolutely! So the first thing I have to do is usually set up some kind of camera trap. So that is like the first thing I want to do because I need to make sure that there are actually bears in this area that I’m studying. I don’t want to waste my time!

I don't have a lot of, so I brought a camera trap for you guys to see. Maybe some of you guys are familiar; they can be fancy and high-tech. They can be really kind of simple and low-tech. This is the one that I use, so this is my camera trap. I have a number of them. It's kind of camouflage, which I think is funny because the bears don't care at all, and it actually makes it harder for me to find!

So I am going to get up, take a little trip with me—it’s going to show you how I attach it to a tree. Oh, this is something that is so great! Here is my camera. We're gonna just do the teeny tiny tree behind me, because again, I'm just in an odd urban wild. I'm in this urban space.

So usually, we'd have a thicker, nicer tree, but this one right here—and I just have to get my light adjusted so that you can actually see me. Hold on—there we go! Beautiful thing! It's too beautiful! Oh, the camera trap is really easy! What we're gonna do is we just open it up on the side here, yep, and you can see it uses a lot of batteries; they are rechargeable batteries, so don't worry about that!

Well yeah, there are different settings here. Again, these are all turned off, but all you do is you kind of turn it on, flip it to ‘on,’ and close it back up. You can see this red button that just lit up right here—that means that it's on and ready! So a camera trap is a motion sensor, which means whenever something goes by it, it actually takes an image. It takes a snapshot of whatever goes by.

If it's me walking around, not remembering where I set my camera, then it'll get a lot of shots of me! But hopefully, it's getting pictures of bears, mountain lions, you know, bobcats, whatever is in the area.

So go ahead, Lizzy.”

Lizzy: “The position you placed on the tree is really important, right? Especially for your subject? Those are important!”

Rhea: “Yeah, absolutely! So I'm gonna position it on this tree, and again, just guys to kind of get a sense of what it's like, I loop it through here and then tighten it up. So we are getting all the action! I mean, I wanted to know how to be a bear biologist—though we're literally seeing it right here! Literally seeing kind of the dirty work!

Hold on this camera trap! And I did a really sloppy job again because it’s kind of hard to do this on camera— but you can see it now, and it's positioned! Another thing you want to do is just kind of figure out what the angle is, right? So it has a pretty big field of view, but sometimes, I'll take like a little stick or a branch and, you know, stick it in right here, so the angle’s down a little bit more. Stick it in down here to make sure it angles up a little bit more, and basically make sure that it's catching exactly what I want it to catch!

In an area that a bear might walk by, you get this! How many bears we pop up, you know? In one ecosystem, I might have as many as 10 or 15 camera traps in different spaces, and that's to make sure that we're covering a wide area, right, because bears are wide-ranging. They're not just using one tiny space—they can travel many, many kilometers in a single day, and they are also territorial, right?

So bears are not in prides like lions or packs like wolves. You're gonna find one bear at a time, usually! So in order to make sure that they're there, you have to set as many of these as possible! So I might have 10 or 15, which means I spend a lot of time hiking around the forest, actually trying to check these camera traps.

Best-case scenario, I'll get a couple of camera traps that picked up images of bears, and that tells me finally I'm in the right spot! Bears actually live here, and I can get to work setting some traps to get to know them more! Another thing a camera trap might pick up is different types of prey for bears, right? So like small deer or other small mammals. Sometimes a few surprises, like they can pick up poachers—illegal hunters, you know, those kinds of things that give us really good information for conservation as well.

This is a really great tool—I always want to emphasize the camera trap! It's so basic. I feel like probably there are viewers here who say, 'Oh yeah, I have those in my garage!' So that I can see what's going on outside of my house! There are a great non-invasive way to study animals because we don't always want to be hands-on with these animals; we really want to give them their space in the name of science! This is the best tool for it!"

Lizzy: “Absolutely! Have you ever captured any unusual behaviors or some exciting behaviors from bears on these cameras before?”

Rhea: “My favorite thing to capture are when I do find a mother with cubs because it's a great way to kind of interact with that family without actually scaring them away or making them habituated to humans. The cubs are so precious and cute! I mean, just seeing their little—you know, Lizzy, you study the behavior of animals! So just seeing the way that they behave and understanding them more is really amazing!

I've also been able to find mountain lions in places where I did not know there were mountain lions! Well one time, some really amazing human—I'm sorry, black bear-mountain lion interactions—where a mountain lion had a kill, ate some of it, and then stashed it away. A black bear came down from the slopes of the mountain and stole the kill of the mountain lion, and they had a bit of a faceoff together! It was absolutely incredible! It's amazing footage! Fortunately, it wasn't video footage—it was just pictures! But it really helped us understand that, wow, these interactions are happening here, and perhaps that means there actually isn't enough prey to go around that they're fighting over! So, it's helping us understand conservation needs as well as the environment, you know, the ecology of the area—everything!”

Lizzy: “Gosh! With a simple camera! Out of interest, do you ever get any curious bears coming over? Because they must be able to smell a difference between say, like a tree or substrate to a camera?”

Rhea: “Yeah, you know, not to the camera, thank goodness! But I sometimes put some type of what we call a scent rag just in the area of the camera, and that's to attract the bear there. So it's not good to bait bears; you know, I'm not gonna put food out or anything unnatural like that. But a scent rag is quite literally a rag that you might use in your home to you know to clean something—so a clean rag—and you might have put some, you know, vanilla extract or like a raspberry scent on it!

Then you just toss it up into the tree, so just toss it up into the top of the trees for the winds to carry this scent. A curious bear that's nearby will come lumbering around and say, 'Hey, what's that?' And luckily, they won't go towards the camera to destroy it because they absolutely could destroy it, but they'll just—so I am very careful!”

Lizzy: “Yeah, I'm sure you have to be, right? I think now, habitat—but okay, let's say you've established you've got a grizzly bear with this camera trap. What do you do then? If there's a particular individual you want to learn more about, what's the next step?”

Rhea: “Yeah! So this is the fun part! So let's go back; I'm going to walk you away from my camera trap tree, so come with me! The awesome next part is I get to attach a collar to the animal! So I brought a bit—a collar here—this is not a collar that I use for grizzly bears; it's a little bit small! But it is a large mammal collar!

Basically, it is almost like a dog collar! Just think of it—it is very very lightweight! It does not harm the animal; they do not get attached until the animal is tranquilized. So what I'm not showing you on screen is a tranquilizer gun; it just doesn't translate very well! But a tranquilizer gun just has little darts in it—the darts have a medicine that puts the animal to sleep for 30 minutes to an hour so that we're not stressing it out!

So I will tranquilize the bear, put it to sleep, and then once it's asleep, I do a little health check—almost like the bear is getting like a veterinarian checkup! So it's heart rate, it's breathing rate, I comb through its fur to look for parasites, just to make sure it doesn't have, you know, too many!

Then, I put this collar on—there's this device in the collar. It looks big, but again, it's very very lightweight! It's a GPS device! So a GPS device, like what you might have in your smartphone! This device sends a signal to a satellite in outer space, and that satellite sends a signal back to my computer here—wherever I am right now, it's California! That signal tells me exactly where on the landscape that bear is in terms of latitude and longitude every three hours!

So I will demonstrate on myself about this. Oh, here we go! Let's pretend that I am the lucky bear! Light is able to track my movements and tell exactly where I am! Now, a lot of people may ask, 'You know, why is this important?'”

Lizzy: “Yeah, so why is it important to know exactly where a bear is at all times?”

Rhea: “Well, it helps us understand their primary habitat, right? The place that a bear spends most of its time is its best habitat, and that means those are the parts of the forest that we need to protect for the bear! Some people think that if you have a forest, a bear is gonna use every square inch of the forest! It's not necessarily true!

And Lizzy, you work at the intersection of humans and animals, and you understand that a lot of the places animals like to go are a lot of the places that people like to go! But if we're actually able to track the movements of these animals, we can be able to figure out how we can keep humans and animals apart safely!”

Lizzy: “Absolutely! And okay, so I mean, that's quite an incredible experience that you're able to do that! And I've seen pictures as well! I think maybe some people will just be curious to know, let's say you've tranquilized or you're focusing on a mother, and you have—there's cubs there!

I've seen that you've put cubs inside the jacket. So what—why do you do that?”

Rhea: “My favorite thing to talk about! So some of my social media—or if you see any videos of the work that I do—you might notice that, yes, what you're saying—there are some pictures of me holding cubs right in their snuggling them in my jacket! It's something that is a part of the scientific process! So again, I'm not saying that anyone should do this themselves; please don't!

Leave it to experts! But when a female bear has a GPS collar on her, that allows us to find where she's hibernating—so where she's made her den in the wintertime! And all female bears give birth in the winter! So we actually have this joke in the ecology community that every black bear that's ever been born ever in North America was born in January! And it's actually true! So it’s pretty amazing!

One of the things that we do is count the cubs! It sounds so simple, but it's a really important part of the ethological process and the research study is to just count how many cubs were born, and then to count again how many cubs are emerging from the den in the spring! That tells us about their survival rate, which is super important!

So people like me get to go into these bear dens—again, we give a dart, a tranquilizer guard to the mothers, and she doesn't freak or stress out! We give her her own little health checkup, and then we do the same for the cubs because they're so little! They might be six or eight weeks old, sometimes 12 weeks old—they're too young to actually thermoregulate, which means maintain their own body temperature! So it's actually our job to hold them in our jackets and give them our own body heat while we're doing their checkup!

So again, it is not something we do for fun—although it is a tremendous life experience—but we're actually making sure that we're keeping them safe and healthy until we put them back with their mother and she can keep them warm!”

Lizzy: “Yes, absolutely! I've had the joy of meeting a young brown bear cub, and it was just full of beans! But it was just such an incredible experience to, you know, to witness an animal like that right in front of you! How incredible! And what a brilliant job!

You've talked about changing landscapes—or at least trying to identify safe areas for bears. So I think it's fair to say globally, we're having more human-dominated landscapes. So from what you found in your research, I mean, what does this mean in terms of behavior? What are some of the impacts of these changes?”

Rhea: “Oh absolutely, I mean I could go on and on about it, so I'll try to be very concise! But a species like a black bear or a grizzly bear or brown bear—they are so driven by hunger! They are just so—I mean, they're kind of like me; they're just hungry! And they're always in search of food. Because of that, because there's more people that are closer to their habitats, they have become very, very attracted to human food!

You know, in my science writing, I'll call it anthropogenic resources, but it basically means human food! Whether it's what's in your garbage can, you know, your trash—whether it's what's on your grill when you're having a barbecue with your friends—maybe it might be your koi pond in your backyard or your dog food that you leave up for your dog in the backyard! They are just really, really hungry because they have to hibernate!

So they have to— their job is to get really fat at some point every year and human food is a great way to get really fat! Instead of eating nuts and berries in the forest, they just have to go an extra couple miles to raid a dumpster! So one thing that is actually a part of their instincts; so sometimes we as people get very frustrated with them, but we have to understand this is their instinct driving their hunger just like our hunger drives us too!

So as we have more and more people in places and more and more bears, because the conservation of bears is going pretty well, we're finding more and more places where there might be conflicts. It's really up to people to be responsible with their resources, with their food, to make sure we're not attracting these animals!”

Lizzy: “I mean, yeah, you kind of answered my next question, which is kind of what do you hope will be the outcomes of your research? But I guess it's twofold, right? Because you're actually conducting the science that proves that you're finding bears in these areas, and this conflict is coming up— I don't like using the word conflict, I say in inverted commas just because it's quite a negative connotation! But we're seeing it more and more, right? Coexisting of humans and wildlife is such a big thing!

But in terms of like the broader, wider audience, so your research can have so—it’s so valuable to so many and it’s so widespread! So what would you say your role as a scientist, as a biologist, is on the wider scale?”

Rhea: “Oh, I love talking about that because that's a really good man! But essentially what I'm doing is I'm using different methods to understand the ecology and behavior of bears in order to make wider recommendations for carnivore conservation globally.

So the way that I track bears and the way that I understand their movements and their habitat selection helps me make recommendations for tiger conservation or wolf conservation or, you know, shark conservation! So I'm really using bears as a model for larger carnivores globally!

And what's great is that the bears that I study are actually increasing in population size! So we're having more and more every year instead of fewer and fewer every year! So hopefully my recommendations will be useful once we hit that inflection point with tigers and lions and cheetahs!

And once we get them to start rebounding, it's a different type of conservation process and we'll be ready for it because of the me and my colleagues.”

Lizzy: “Fantastic! Absolutely! And we talked about that as an issue! But what are some of the other threats to bears? And see, I guess different bear species, right? Because as I said, they're widespread across the planet, so they must face different pressures!”

Rhea: “Oh absolutely! So I study bears in North America, but we have bears in South America; we have them in Europe; where you are, Lizzy! We've got them in Asia and continental Asia and then Southeast Asian islands! We do not have bears in Australia or Africa, although there is a prehistoric one on the African continent! Yes, there is!

No, actually, I study mostly black bears, which are the only species of bears that are not endangered! So again, the only one that is in really, really good shape! I also study grizzly bears, which are still on the endangered species list in the United States, but are actually doing pretty well! We have more and more each year!

There's even a debate about whether they should be removed from the endangered species list! But we know as we know about what's going on with polar bears—with climate change warming their environments—and decreasing the amount of sea ice! They are definitely under threat because their main way of hunting prey is becoming less and less available to them!

Then the other species of bears across the world are also endangered—mostly because of habitat destruction! So, you know, in the United States, I'm finding that I'm losing a lot of my bears because they're crossing a busy highway and getting hit by cars! But in other parts of the world, they're just losing habitat space; forests are being cut down! You know, the climate is changing, and we really need to band together as a conservation community no matter what we do to make sure that they can remain protected!”

Lizzy: “Absolutely! Yeah, that's well put! Sometimes it's hard to kind of put it into a small, digestible bit of information right because there are many issues and many threats going on! It can be a bit daunting sometimes!

And for those who perhaps aren't really integrated into that conservation community, if someone sat at home, for example, you know, they've never even seen a bear in the world, how can they try and conserve bears and do their bit as well?”

Rhea: “Absolutely! There are so many ways! Again, I am a carnivore ecologist now, but I started off as a kid watching TV! I started subscribing to National Geographic magazines as a kid so I could learn much more about the greater world!

So there are always ways that you can, you know, donate your money! There are always ways you can donate your time! If you're not able to donate money to volunteer for conservation groups, the thing that I tell people more than anything is to use their voting power!

There are always things on the ballot—whether it's a local election or a national election—there's always something to vote for or against that impacts the environment! And voting is a very, very powerful tool! If anyone is tuning in in the United States, you know that environmental legislation is always a part of the conversation!

So I always implore everyone, no matter where you are in the world, if it is safe for you to vote, please use your voting power to help save all these wild animals and wild places! Ultimately, it's those policies, isn't it? That supports the work of you and the bear biologists!”

Rhea: “Oh yeah, absolutely!”

Lizzy: “And I guess a bit of a killer question, sorry to ask it, but if there’s a species of bear that you’re just like dying to work on or one that you’d still really be keen to learn more about, I mean, you must know everything there is to know about bears, I’m sure!”

Rhea: “Okay, well, I like to think so, but there’s always more to learn! Because all right systems are always changing! And so, you know, Lizzy, you know this! The way that these animals react to changes in the ecosystem can be unpredictable! So there’s always more science to learn!

I have to say, my Twitter account gets pinged a lot of the time by folks in Japan because there is a species of bear called the Hokkaido bear high in the mountains in one of the northern islands of Japan that is under pretty serious threat and doesn’t get a lot of national attention!

So people are really thinking about Hokkaido bears! And I get people asking me, 'Hey, will you come out to Japan? Will you help us with our bear conservation work?' And I’ve been to Japan! I’ve only been as a tourist, and I absolutely loved it! So I really feel like I need to get there and get into that work! So that is my dream, dream, dream! That’s what’s your space! That’s the next mission!”

Lizzy: “That's awesome! So at the beginning, I know people sent in their questions! Should we get to some of them? Because I can see some brilliant ones flying in here! And we've got, I guess, one to start with which I think is quite a common question—differentiating bears. So could you just run through some of the differences between grizzly bears, black bears, and brown bears?”

Rhea: “Okay, yeah, no problem! So this is North Americans specifically! We have brown bears in both North America and in Europe, which is pretty cool! But black bears are the smaller North American bear species! They are smaller—usually sometimes in the western United States, they are actually very, very large! They’re a bit more omnivorous and grizzly bears or brown bears are, but they’re smaller!

They have pointy ears; they have a longer kind of snout! Sometimes people mistake them for dogs if they're small enough! Whereas grizzly bears—and it’s important for me to say that a grizzly bear is a subspecies of a brown bear! So all grizzly bears are brown bears; not all brown bears are grizzly bears!

That makes like, oh, it’s part of the same species! Black bears and grizzly bears are different species! Grizzly bears are bigger; brown bears are bigger—they are larger! In fact, they can be incredibly large—like up to, you know, a thousand pounds sometimes more depending on the season!

And they’re large; they're more aggressive! They are brown in color almost always! And they have curvier ears and more of a compacted snout, so they kind of have a flatter face and then, you know, of course, bigger paws and bigger proper ends and a little bit of a different cloth structure.

So there you go! You're looking for characteristics to tell the differences! I think it’s a common question what you must get asked like quite a lot is the difference, you know? And especially out here in the western United States because many of the black bears here out west are actually brown in color, right?

Well, I spend a lot of time explaining to people, 'No, you did not see a grizzly bear in your backyard; it was a brown-colored black bear!' Well, maybe we can get confusing to people! So I always tell them it’s kind of like human beings! Yeah, all one species! We’re almost all humans! There's only one species of human! But we have different hair color; we even have different skin color!

And that can be the case with black bears! They're all one species, but black bears can be black; they can be brown; they can be gray; they can be blonde! And there's even a subspecies of black bear in Canada that is completely white!”

Rhea: “Wow! There we are!”

Lizzy: “So yeah, mixed up with our polar bears! I’ve also heard of a growler bear! Am I right in saying there’s potentially growler bears somewhere up in Alaska?”

Rhea: “You know, this is no longer a scientific mystery! But for a while, it was! It means it's a hybrid between a grizzly bear and a polar bear! For a while, scientists didn't really think it was possible because polar bears are on the ice and grizzly bears are on the land—the tundra!

But it looks like as the climate has changed and polar bears have come more inland for their hunting, they’ve interacted with grizzly bears and hybridized a bit to make a growler bear! Again, I've never seen one! I believe only one or two have ever been captured on camera! So it's kind of still like this new emerging, completely fascinating hybrid species!”

Lizzy: “Yeah, very fascinating indeed! Growler bears! I mean, I only heard of that this year, so so much to learn! We have another really great question here! What do bears eat from region to region? And does it change significantly with species in the geographic area or in winter?”

Rhea: “So it covers quite a lot there, but yeah, let's talk about diet! I don't think the person who wrote in this question kind of already knows the answer because the answer is yes! Of course, it changes by region! So if I take black bears as an example! In the United States, we have black bears that live in desert systems! We have them that live high in aspen or alpine mountain systems!

We even have black bears in the eastern United States that live on the coast at the beach! You know, we have black bears in Florida and the Everglades, which is like a tropical ecosystem! And then, of course, they are in Canada and Alaska and higher latitudes! And so they eat different things in different places!

There are bears that are nowhere near freshwater fish nor near rivers or lakes or streams that have fish—and so they never eat fish their entire lives! Whereas we have bears that live in places that have a heavy fish diet almost all the time!

But the great thing about black and brown bears is that they are generalists! So they will eat almost anything edible, whether it's berries, nuts, seeds, honey, insects, eggs, small mammals, fish! The bears that I study in the West will hunt and take down wild horses!

Wow, incredible! We know that grizzly bears in spaces like Montana will take down bison! So they can be very aggressive predators, or they can be very, very passive scavengers! Certainly, their eating ramps up when they're getting ready to hibernate! And then when they hibernate, they don't eat anything at all for many, many months! Their bodies shut down, their metabolism slows to a crawl, their breathing rates slow down, their heart rate slows down, and they actually even recycle their own urine and waste within their body!

They can go, you know, almost six months without eating a thing, which is why they're so hungry the rest of the year!”

Lizzy: “Right! And we often, in science, maybe just brush over that fact. I mean, how incredible is hibernation? It's decoupled!”

Rhea: “Oh, it's absolutely—it’s amazing! And sometimes there’s a debate in the scientific community about whether bears are true hibernators or not! I am happy to debate anyone on this! I am on the side of science that believes they are true hibernators because of the metabolism shut down, well! But it has been noticed that some bears might have their eyes open a little bit, or they might, you know, adjust their bodies and move around or lick some snow to get a little bit of water!

But in general, the principle is that because their metabolism is so much slower than normal that they're interesting!”

Lizzy: “I didn’t know that either! That's fascinating!”

Rhea: “Yeah! Brilliant! And a really interesting question has come in: Do you try to fix their teeth if they have problems?”

Rhea: "Now, I've done some health checks on a brown bear—a lovely female brown bear in Romania before—and we check gums and we did have a look at teeth and I'll see phone things! But do you fix them? You know, I'm not that person has ever asked me that before! The answer is no, and I hope it doesn't disappoint anyone!

But as someone who's not a veterinarian, my job is to check on the health of a bear! And if there's some kind of emergency, it's possible that I might intervene in an emergency and bring the animal to a wildlife veterinarian! But otherwise, their health is more of a data point!

So if I'm checking the teeth of a bear—which I also always do—if its teeth are in great shape, then I write that down as data! You know, high-quality teeth! If their teeth are not looking so great, that's also in some data—some information that tells me either about the age of the bear—like, 'Oh! Its teeth aren't great, so it must be old!' Or about the health of the ecosystem—its teeth aren't great; there must be something off in the ecosystem that is making this animal unhealthy!

Then my focus goes to the ecosystem, just trying to figure out how we can make it a better, healthier space! But not necessarily to the bear! But again, there have been some times that I've encountered an emergency with bears in which I've had to take the animal to a veterinarian in order to get its health fixed!"

Lizzy: "There we are! Yes, and no, but not really! But you know, it's a good measure!"

Rhea: "Yeah!"

Lizzy: "And it kind of links to the next question, which is how do you age—well, they’ve asked how do you age twelve animals? But I guess how do you age a bear?"

Rhea: "Teeth are a really great indication! But also size! I mean, we understand that if it's teeny-tiny and kind of has that young fur and young teeth, we know that it's a juvenile! And if it is big and burly with, you know, scars and scratch marks and weathered hair, then we know it's a bit older! But it's a lot of estimating and guessing!

So we will also measure the cranium; we’ll measure the head size! We will look at teeth and health condition, and just compare it against other bears that we know about and be able to age it that way! So it's a lot of educated guesses! The best thing that we can do is again go into those dens when they're hibernating and find the cubs!

When we're able to identify cubs, we can track them throughout their whole life, and then we always know their exact—you know, and that can be very, very useful long-term data! It’s so useful—absolutely!"

Lizzy: “And another really good question—but yes, one that I am totally passionate about—is how intelligent are bears compared to other animals? I mean by bears, they're incredible! They're amazing! I think they're so smart! And it's very obvious again—they have big bodies, which means they have pretty big brains for the animal community! So you can kind of understand, but also, you know, a lot of us have pet dogs!

I have a pet dog! I have a teeny tiny little one! Doesn't really look like a bear! But if you have a sense that dogs are fairly smart, bears and dogs have a common ancestor, you know! So back in the evolutionary tree, they actually came from a common ancestor! So in that way, they often have like similar types of behavior! So certainly, you can—you know! I don't recommend this, but we've seen examples of people training a bear, right?

So we've seen bears! You know, there used to be a time when bears were in the circus and things like that—things that are now considered very inhumane! But it was because you can train these animals because they're smart enough to understand! Also, you know, they are smart enough to know when there's danger and they'll back off! Or when they actually have the upper hand because they're bigger and stronger and they can be aggressive! I find them quite smart animals!

Me too! Absolutely! But I mean, one thing I always love is being in the habitat of a bear and kind of never seeing one and never knowing that there could be a black bear or brown bear, you know— not far from you—but you wouldn't know about it! Because that bear's already clocked you and is already left! They're just incredible!"

Rhea: “Absolutely! And they have an amazing sense of smell! So these bears that I study can smell from over a mile away! So I can smell something, maybe that's cooking in the kitchen, but not next door necessarily! But these bears can smell from over a mile away, which means they can smell us! They can smell our shampoo and our perfume and our dogs, or whatever it is!

So more than likely if we're seeing a bear, it's choosing to allow us to see it and, like you're saying, Lizzy, a lot of them just get out of the way way before we even know they're there!”

Lizzy: “Yes, absolutely! A few more questions, and then I’m—it's flown by! It's gone through it so quickly! What is the most endangered bear species? And you've spoken, I’ll see, about the bear in Japan, but some—in terms of all of the bears, what would you say is the one facing the biggest threats?”

Rhea: “Well, you know, there's actually a couple. So I'm going to argue that polar bears are facing some of the biggest threats because we're seeing how rapidly their habitat is changing, and it's changing too rapidly for them to properly adapt to it. So there's a lot of urgency to work on saving the habitats of our polar bears!

Also, sun bears, which are mainly in Indonesia—Indonesia is facing a lot of huge habitat threats for all of the wildlife species! And sun bears are in a lot of trouble because those rainforests being cut down are depleting their habitat and food sources! So those are the ones that I am most concerned about right now!

So if you have any way to donate or volunteer your time to make some progress for polar bears or the little bitty cute sun bears in Indonesia, that’s what I recommend!”

Lizzy: “Fantastic! And that legs nicely into the next question and the last question of today! Are there conservation efforts we can take in our own areas to help ecology stay in balance?”

Rhea: “What a question! Oh, absolutely! Absolutely! So no matter where you are, there's some type of nature that's accessible! I'm someone who grew up in big cities! I'm from San Francisco, California! I didn't go on my first hike until I was 20 years old! I didn't see my first wild animal until I was in my 20s!

So I still considered myself someone who was a part of conservation as a kid growing up despite not being out in the wild and doing that science work! So again, gaining awareness—watching programs like these that we're doing on YouTube with Nat Geo—is a great way to do it!

You know, if you're old enough and eligible to vote, voting in favor of the environment is something that you can do from your space! But also just being aware of your consumption! So you know, I mentioned sun bears in Indonesia—that part of the world has so many amazing natural resources that people like us and in parts of the United States or in Europe are participating in the destruction of those habitats just by our consumer practices.

So what I mean is if you think about the things that are in our food—if there's any palm oil in your favorite snacks—palm oil strongly comes from the tropics where primary habitat is being destroyed in order to plant oil palm plantations, which impacts orangutans and bears and tons of primates! I mean, whole ecosystems! So looking at our consumption and where it comes from is a really great way to be, you know, in whatever space you are—even in an urban space—and be proactive in conservation!

Such as tracing the supply chains of what you buy, what you wear, what you eat, you know, how you drive—all of that is really helpful! It is helpful! And thinking like a community in that way and you know, not just thinking all the scientists that study wildlife and so, you know, they're really making great efforts!

We are all consumers on this planet, and we're all trying to do what we can to protect the future of, you know, our children and future generations to come! It's been absolutely a joy to chat to you, Ray! Is there anything else to kind of finish on a final message that you'd like to share with everyone here?”

Rhea: “I just want everyone to understand that, you know, careers like ours—like mine, and like yours, Lizzy—are available to anyone! If I can be, you know, a girl from an urban space in a big city who watched TV and got inspired, any single person on this planet can do it!

You know, you can go through university systems to get your science degrees and become active in science! But there are other pathways! Just getting a job at a zoo, at a conservation organization, working your way up is a great way to participate in science and conservation as well! We need more thinkers—more creative solutions! You know, more people who care to join us so that our work can be even stronger!

And thank you because this has been awesome for me, you know, because I prove it! I'm not in the field, but this is the next best thing! I'm so grateful to be talking about what you love and sharing that with everyone watching today!”

Lizzy: “I’m sure! Well, I've absolutely loved it, and I'm sure everyone watching has too! So yeah, a massive thank you to you! I'm sure you'll continue to inspire, inspire many, many others as well as myself! And we'll definitely all be following your next moves and to Japan, I think!”

“Thanks all for tuning in to this live here! We'll be back again with more fantastic, inspiring speakers and scientists from all over the world! And thanks all for your questions today, and we'll see you here very soon on the Nat Geo YouTube channel!”