Backyard Bears of Transylvania (2023) Movie Script
Bears...
..and humans.
An ancient conflict
that we have clearly won.
We love bears.
They're everywhere.
But we don't want them
in our gardens,
unless they're lit up.
Humans have banished bears
from most of Europe's forests.
But there are exceptions.
Romania for instance,
where people are at their wits' end.
The number of incidents is growing.
Sometimes with disastrous results.
Is there a future
for people and bears,
side by side in Europe?
Winter in Transylvania.
You'd expect brown bears
to be hibernating in their caves.
But here in the heart of Romania
be ready for surprises.
There's much
that defies expectations.
Two brown bear cubs brave the cold.
They show no sign of tiredness.
If they're not hibernating,
there can only be one reason:
They're getting enough food.
And in fact these two
have found an inexhaustible source.
Bears aren't choosy.
They'll eat whatever fills them up.
As soon as a bear
gets used to human foods,
conflict is inevitable.
How could this happen?
Most bears' lives
still begin far away from people.
In a distant valley
in the South Carpathian Mountains,
three tiny bear cubs
were born in their winter cave.
They've only just opened their eyes
and started to explore
their tiny world.
All they know is their mother's
warm fur, and her nourishing milk.
Our forefathers
once sought refuge in caves, too
and vied for their ownership
with terrifying bears.
15,000 years ago
the entrance to this cavern
in western Transylvania
was sealed by an earthquake.
When miners
broke through accidentally in 1975,
they found claw marks on the walls.
And then the astonishing revelation:
More than 140 skeletons
of cave bears.
The experts
were faced with a mystery.
Some skulls seemed
to have been laid out in patterns.
Were they used as cult objects?
Did fear and respect
for these all-powerful creatures,
make humans treat them as gods?
Even in modern-day Romania,
an age-old bear ritual endures.
In the nights around New Year
the boundaries between
human and bear all but disappear.
These dancers
are wearing real bearskins.
The power of the bear dispels the
evil spirits of the year just past,
making space for fresh beginnings.
Bear hunting
is now banned in Romania.
Many of these skins are held over
from the days
when things were different.
Ceausescu,
Romania's communist dictator,
was completely obsessed
by bear hunting.
They say he once shot
31 bears in a single day.
To indulge his blood-lust,
he ordered a bear-breeding
programme, unique in the world.
As soon as the cubs were old enough,
they set off on enforced travels.
They were released into the forests
in their hundreds,
as future trophies for the dictator.
Romanian bears no longer
need to fear trophy hunters.
And that makes
some of them overconfident.
In the winter I am a ski instructor.
I am going up to check the slope.
Stop, I see the bear.
I put my phone in the record.
In this time another skier coming.
Stop!
I hope the bear
is going into the tree.
But no, and I say to the people:
Make some noise.
But the bear is not impressed.
It continues coming to us.
Coming too close.
Eh what can I do?
The bear is not going.
Okay, come follow me.
If you catch me, try.
Just... a little bit crazy.
I am going down, down, down,
I see the people.
Oops.
"Atenzie camine ursu."
It's a situation very dangerous.
Okay, I stop the bear.
With the slope is clear,
I continue to go down.
Not very long distance
to the finish of the slope
the bear hears the noise.
Maybe he was thinking
the race is over.
He stays a little bit waiting
but after this
it is going to the forest.
This is the story.
What seems funny
can quickly turn serious.
This bear has lost
its natural fear of humans,
and thus becomes a danger.
Whereas our three cubs
are where bears should be:
deep in the dense
Carpathian forests.
They're tasting grass
for the first time.
They have no idea
of the culinary delights
awaiting them down in town.
The human world
is a fleeting fragrance,
a tempting aroma briefly caught
when the wind is right.
The forest is their home.
There's still danger here.
Male brown bears will always
try to kill their rivals' offspring.
That gives them a better chance
of siring their own.
But he won't approach our female.
These cubs are lucky
with such an experienced mother.
Shepherds on their way
to their summer pastures.
Grazing on Carpathian Mountain
slopes is ideal for their herd.
But this comes at a price:
On their trek they penetrate
deep into bear territory.
Petre Clem
has 300 sheep in his care.
Villagers trust them to him
for the summer.
If he loses a single one,
he has a problem.
Bears cause trouble. So do wolves.
It's difficult.
When it's raining and foggy
and the bear comes out
of the forest it's dangerous.
We have to get to the sheep fast,
or the bear will rip them apart.
Sometimes it's taken
two or three sheep in a single day.
As night falls,
the atmosphere is tense.
No sheep are allowed to run free.
We put them in the enclosure
every night.
We never leave them alone.
We would protect them with our
lives. They are our only property.
But whatever happens,
we have our dogs, and we are brave.
A Romanian shepherd
is never far from his herd.
Petre sleeps right next
to his charges.
His colleagues take first watch.
See? He caught a sheep.
Is he going to clear out
or will he eat it?
I think he's taking it away.
A fellow shepherd
from a neighbouring valley
took these pictures.
He's a real devil. If I caught him
I'd take an axe to him.
Yeah, yeah.
He'd be after you like a shot.
Dammit, he was here.
Now he's in the valley.
The dogs chased him into the river.
I know a bear is part of nature,
but we shepherds live in nature too.
We have to find our place here,
just like the bears.
If life in the mountains is to work,
we have to share the space.
I understand the people in the towns
who love bears
and want to protect them.
But living beside them
is very difficult.
Over the centuries shepherds and
bears have found a way of living
side by side in the mountains.
But what happens when
Europe's greatest land predator
moves into the human world?
This was some time ago:
I came into town to buy some stuff
and I met a friend
I hadn't seen for a while.
So, we went for a drink
and the two of us told each other
stories till late in the night.
Eventually I said: "Time for bed.
On the way to the apartment,
I saw strange shadows.
I thought they were people,
so I said: "Good evening!"
But they didn't answer.
What'd you think they were?
Two bears, my friend, two bears.
Looked like they were dancing.
Bears in the city? They live
in the mountains, not in the towns.
What's all that about? I'd rather
get back to the mountains.
Nocturnal visitors are rather common
in the small towns
of the southern Carpathians.
As soon as it gets dark
the streets fill with life.
Stop, stop.
Stop the car.
Can you hear them?
Laura Niculescu
and her husband George love bears.
They're out on patrol
almost every night, in spring.
Hardly anyone knows these animals
better than Laura.
And she has a mission.
There are a lot of people
that hate and don't like the bears,
because they think
they are aggressive.
But it's not like that.
I do a lot of filming.
I put them online in a page
to show them that the bears
are not aggressive.
If people learn
how to behave in front of the bear,
that would lead
to a peaceful coexistence.
The bears are here, but
it isn't always easy to find them.
Unless they leave a trace.
Look there is the garbage
on the floor. The bear was here.
We have to follow the dogs.
The dogs are nervous.
The bears can't be far.
Down there. Down there. Slow, slow.
Bears always look
for the easiest way to find food.
That's why
the cities are so attractive.
It's much harder
to find food in the wilderness.
So you see there is
a lot of garbage everywhere
and that attracts the bears
to the city.
You know,
like humans go to the supermarket
instead of looking for food
in the forest.
Same goes for the bears.
If they find easy food,
they go for it.
Under cover of darkness
our mother bear sneaks into town.
She's not alone.
She has her cubs with her.
This isn't
just about the abundance of food.
It's about adult male bears too.
They are loners.
They avoid company,
including human company,
and would rather spend
their time in the mountains.
So the town also protects the cubs
from hungry males.
Bears aren't the only ones
that appreciate the advantages
of an urban environment.
For the little ones,
everything smells new and exciting
and has to be tried.
Now they've had
their first taste of humans' food,
there's no way back.
Following their mother,
they'll connect humans with food
for the rest of their lives.
It's bound to lead to conflict.
There will be consequences for
our three bear cubs.
Over the coming weeks they'll learn
to adapt to the asphalt jungle.
Once foreign territory, the town
will soon be their playground,
food delivery service,
and finally their new home.
Meanwhile, Laura has caught up
with two old friends.
Look, look the brothers.
These are the brothers
from last year.
This is the second year they come
to this park in search for food.
The other one.
They are two years old
and always playing around.
There is a bin with pancakes.
They throw the leftovers
in the trash bins.
They are eating pancakes right now.
Stop! Dont go on.
Get back!
The bear is right in front of you!
Right in front!
The man there
wants to go to the bear.
An apparently innocuous situation
can quickly get dangerous.
It's coming.
It's coming on. No, too close.
No, no, it's dangerous.
Is the gate open? Come here.
Ah, the gendarmes are here.
When the RO-Alert comes they
come from the police, gendarmerie,
and they want to chase
the bear away.
The brothers aren't too worried
by the police's attempts
to intimidate them.
They've heard it all before.
Some Transylvanian towns see bears
almost every night in summer.
The police
answer calls as soon as they can.
But there
is only so much they can do.
The police aren't always sure
exactly what's happening.
On this occasion they've quickly
pinpointed the troublemakers.
Our bear family
have entered someone's garden.
This is high risk intervention.
Because babies do not know
how to handle the situation.
Maybe they go inside the garden
and because of the fence
they cannot go out.
And there is the possibility
that the mother
can be dangerous for the people.
After hundreds of years
of intensive hunting,
what frightens bears most, is noise.
It's the most effective way
to scare them off.
But the night is young.
It's much too early
to return to the forest.
In the maze of gardens
and narrow lanes
the bears easily shake off
their pursuers.
The potential food supply
is infinite.
The dogs can bark all they want.
Their dishes still get emptied.
In the search for easy meals our
mother bear has shed her shyness.
She strolls these streets for weeks
on end, growing increasingly bold,
thus adding herself
to the long list of "problem bears".
"Amazing pictures from Sinaia.
Bears chasing people."
"A moment of horror in Victoria."
"The Police recommend killing
dangerous bears."
"Two boys and a man
injured by bears.
Torn apart by a hungry bear."
- "Bears kill a shepherd."
Security cameras
record scary encounters with bears.
With at least 6,000 bears in Romania
theres always a risk
of an unwelcome confrontation.
When a bear gets aggressive
and resists all attempts
to scare it away,
it is declared a "problem bear".
In exceptional cases,
it may then be shot.
But first they'll try
to deal with it peacefully.
This bear is being relocated.
In some small towns
in southern Transylvania
the density of bears is so great,
the Police have permission
to move almost every one of them.
This time it's a young male.
The vet anaesthetises the bear
so it can't harm itself.
The sedative quickly takes effect.
The bear is weighed,
measured and given an ear-clip
so it can be identified later.
Then it's off on a long journey.
The idea is
to release the bear far enough away
so it can't simply come back.
And the area
must be sparsely inhabited,
so the bear
can't make trouble there.
In today's Romania,
that's a tall order.
Our mother bear and her three cubs
were also caught and released
far away.
When Laura heard about this,
she set off in pursuit,
and soon made a sad discovery.
Here is the blood ...
The blood of the mama bear.
Her cubs were after dog food.
And that sealed their mother's fate.
So the mama bear
always comes from the forest
and stay by here next to the forest
and the cubs go down
to the houses to eat the dogfood.
He called the authorities
to chase the bears from his yard
but they come instead
to kill the bear.
So when they shoot her they chase
the little one in the forest.
And the other two
chased in the other park.
Normally there is a commission
that involves the major,
the vet, the hunters
and the authorities,
police or gendarmerie.
They all have to sign the papers
and agree to killing the mama bear.
This commander
didn't sign the papers.
So that's why it is a scandal.
When bears turn up out of the blue
the result is often chaos.
The authorities are under pressure.
People's lives are at stake.
And that doesn't make it easier
to take the right decisions.
It was a normal morning.
The phone rang. A bear.
In the centre of the city. Really?
A bear in the city?
But I am a journalist, got there
in something like 5 minutes.
And a lot of people,
a lot of police cars
and there was in a few moments
a bear on the roof.
The chaos continued because the bear
was very quick and very agile
in climbing on roofs
and nobody knew exactly
how should we proceed
when a bear comes in the city?
The local authorities didn't know
how to act. That's the main issue.
And they were misinformed.
They said it was a big bear.
"Stay at home there is a big bear."
It was not a big bear.
There was a hunter and he said:
"I have only bullets.
I do not want to kill him."
"Kill him!"
- "No, I don't want to."
Nobody knew what should be done.
It was total chaos.
They finally
got him trapped in a yard.
They shortly decided
to shoot the bear.
So the door was open
and I just got in
and I saw the small bear cub.
And I was
the only photographer there,
so I snapped as fast as I could
a few pictures.
I know it was confusion,
it was dangerous
but the image of that cub
was moving to say the least
and it moved a lot of people.
So things like this shouldn't happen
in our city or anywhere.
Because no bears should be shot.
Laura can't get
the orphan cubs out of her mind.
Their mother gone,
the cubs must be wandering,
lost and traumatised.
Laura knows exactly
where to look for them,
and sure enough:
Slowly, slowly.
Stop, stop, stop. Slowly, slowly.
Two of the cubs
are rifling the garbage bins
close to where
their mother was shot.
Like her,
they've become used to human food
and can no longer
go back to the food of the forest.
Laura knows perfectly well
what will happen then.
If she wants to save them,
she must do something now.
Many people in Transylvania
are spooked by
the bears in their neighbourhood.
Some would rather take the solution
into their own hands.
They feel abandoned
by the authorities.
You're all terrified of the bears.
Am I right, or what?
The bear in your backyard.
The bear out in the street.
I have children, man.
Can't you understand that?
If conflict is to be avoided,
people must adapt
their own behaviour to the bears'.
Not everyone is happy with that.
No one understands that better
than Bogdan Sulica.
He's a ranger with one of Romania's
biggest conservation organisations:
Carpathia.
If we see a bear
coming down in the village
we just go there with the dogs,
with weapons, with rubber bullets,
with all kind of stuff,
and ...
... we're trying to push him away.
Look up there at the pasture,
something up there,
right at the top.
It is difficult to make out.
Just some few young bears
coming to the fruit trees.
That's all.
Can you still see them?
- No, they're gone. Off to the left.
Everything's working out
for Bogdan today.
He sees himself as the link
between the people of the community
and the wilderness around them.
He knows that bears and people
get on best
when they leave each other alone.
His job is to make sure
it stays that way.
But it doesn't always work.
Hello Bogdan.
- Hello.
So, tell me: How we're going
to solve the bear problem?
What are we going to do?
One of the farmer's cows
has been attacked by a bear.
He chased the bear away,
but it was too late to save the cow.
The bear comes from there
and from there,
and from the street down there.
The bastard came from there too.
So, you've got problems again?
- He keeps coming.
The loss of a cow
is a serious financial setback.
Bogdan can help
protect the rest of the herd,
once he confirms the cow
really was killed by a bear.
To do that, he has to find it.
Okay, bye.
- Bye. Bye for now.
Yeah,
usually it's much more difficult
to work with people
than with animals.
People do not want to live
with wild large carnivores,
so it is a lot of discussion.
In the past,
shepherds all time in spring
when they go up in the mountain,
they had 1000 sheep.
We go up in the mountains
with them but for sure
at least 50 are for bears and wolfs.
Now nobody is talking like this,
so they do not accept
to have some losses you know?
They do not really
want to pay a tribute to nature.
Bogdan has a simple but effective
way of protecting livestock.
So ... it is a thin line
between people and wildlife.
So, it is ...
Somehow it is impossible
to don't have conflicts.
But actually we do not know any case
when a bear goes
inside an electric fence.
An almost invisible strip of wire
solves the problem.
To stop bears looking for food
where humans live,
the food must be
put out of their reach.
Once sheep and cows are safe,
there's only
one last object of desire:
garbage.
Now we are trying to ...
... put another kind of bin,
with some lock thing
inside an electric fence.
It's not so expensive.
It's just an easy way
to prevent problems
with bears coming to the garbage.
I am totally sure it will be better.
One final test.
Autumn in the mountains.
Petre is taking his sheep
down to the valley.
The pastures stay
more succulent here for longer,
and the sheep are protected
from winter storms.
Bogdan knows Petre well.
Hi! How's it going Petre?
How was the summer?
- He took three sheep.
I found two of them,
but not the third.
Fences help against bears.
But in the mountains,
the sheep roam free in the daytime.
So Bogdan has another way to help.
Well, as we discussed.
I've brought the Carpathians.
Here's the male.
And the female. They are a couple.
Carpathian sheepdogs.
Especially effective against bears.
Bogdan's organisation breeds them
and gives them
to the shepherds for free.
Good luck. Let's hope
they grow really big and help you.
Thanks. So long.
If you ask me,
I would say yes, we need bears.
If you ask a farmer,
maybe he will say no or maybe
let's have some, but in the zoo.
But bears
are like a logo of our country
and if we have bears, we have
all the other species under this.
So yeah, we need bears.
The fate of our orphan cubs
has taken an unexpected turn.
One of the three has disappeared,
but thanks to Laura its
two siblings are no longer alone.
After we call the authorities they
took two days to catch those bears
and the association
took them to the sanctuary.
Yes, come on.
Come on, come to me.
Hi there.
I looked for you for seven hours.
What is it?
What is it, are you hungry?
They should be
out in the freedom, playing
but because
their mother was shot ...
... they are here in this enclosure.
The king of the forest,
reduced to a begging vagabond.
Is this the future
of Europe's last great predators?
Bears have disappeared
from most of the forests.
In some areas they are being
re-established. With difficulty.
Not everything
is perfect in Romania,
but at least this country
still has its bears.
Things aren't easy
for the people on the frontlines.
But they have proved by example,
that if
the right adjustments are made,
the age-old coexistence
of humans and bears
is still possible.
Untertitel-Werkstatt Mnster, 2023
..and humans.
An ancient conflict
that we have clearly won.
We love bears.
They're everywhere.
But we don't want them
in our gardens,
unless they're lit up.
Humans have banished bears
from most of Europe's forests.
But there are exceptions.
Romania for instance,
where people are at their wits' end.
The number of incidents is growing.
Sometimes with disastrous results.
Is there a future
for people and bears,
side by side in Europe?
Winter in Transylvania.
You'd expect brown bears
to be hibernating in their caves.
But here in the heart of Romania
be ready for surprises.
There's much
that defies expectations.
Two brown bear cubs brave the cold.
They show no sign of tiredness.
If they're not hibernating,
there can only be one reason:
They're getting enough food.
And in fact these two
have found an inexhaustible source.
Bears aren't choosy.
They'll eat whatever fills them up.
As soon as a bear
gets used to human foods,
conflict is inevitable.
How could this happen?
Most bears' lives
still begin far away from people.
In a distant valley
in the South Carpathian Mountains,
three tiny bear cubs
were born in their winter cave.
They've only just opened their eyes
and started to explore
their tiny world.
All they know is their mother's
warm fur, and her nourishing milk.
Our forefathers
once sought refuge in caves, too
and vied for their ownership
with terrifying bears.
15,000 years ago
the entrance to this cavern
in western Transylvania
was sealed by an earthquake.
When miners
broke through accidentally in 1975,
they found claw marks on the walls.
And then the astonishing revelation:
More than 140 skeletons
of cave bears.
The experts
were faced with a mystery.
Some skulls seemed
to have been laid out in patterns.
Were they used as cult objects?
Did fear and respect
for these all-powerful creatures,
make humans treat them as gods?
Even in modern-day Romania,
an age-old bear ritual endures.
In the nights around New Year
the boundaries between
human and bear all but disappear.
These dancers
are wearing real bearskins.
The power of the bear dispels the
evil spirits of the year just past,
making space for fresh beginnings.
Bear hunting
is now banned in Romania.
Many of these skins are held over
from the days
when things were different.
Ceausescu,
Romania's communist dictator,
was completely obsessed
by bear hunting.
They say he once shot
31 bears in a single day.
To indulge his blood-lust,
he ordered a bear-breeding
programme, unique in the world.
As soon as the cubs were old enough,
they set off on enforced travels.
They were released into the forests
in their hundreds,
as future trophies for the dictator.
Romanian bears no longer
need to fear trophy hunters.
And that makes
some of them overconfident.
In the winter I am a ski instructor.
I am going up to check the slope.
Stop, I see the bear.
I put my phone in the record.
In this time another skier coming.
Stop!
I hope the bear
is going into the tree.
But no, and I say to the people:
Make some noise.
But the bear is not impressed.
It continues coming to us.
Coming too close.
Eh what can I do?
The bear is not going.
Okay, come follow me.
If you catch me, try.
Just... a little bit crazy.
I am going down, down, down,
I see the people.
Oops.
"Atenzie camine ursu."
It's a situation very dangerous.
Okay, I stop the bear.
With the slope is clear,
I continue to go down.
Not very long distance
to the finish of the slope
the bear hears the noise.
Maybe he was thinking
the race is over.
He stays a little bit waiting
but after this
it is going to the forest.
This is the story.
What seems funny
can quickly turn serious.
This bear has lost
its natural fear of humans,
and thus becomes a danger.
Whereas our three cubs
are where bears should be:
deep in the dense
Carpathian forests.
They're tasting grass
for the first time.
They have no idea
of the culinary delights
awaiting them down in town.
The human world
is a fleeting fragrance,
a tempting aroma briefly caught
when the wind is right.
The forest is their home.
There's still danger here.
Male brown bears will always
try to kill their rivals' offspring.
That gives them a better chance
of siring their own.
But he won't approach our female.
These cubs are lucky
with such an experienced mother.
Shepherds on their way
to their summer pastures.
Grazing on Carpathian Mountain
slopes is ideal for their herd.
But this comes at a price:
On their trek they penetrate
deep into bear territory.
Petre Clem
has 300 sheep in his care.
Villagers trust them to him
for the summer.
If he loses a single one,
he has a problem.
Bears cause trouble. So do wolves.
It's difficult.
When it's raining and foggy
and the bear comes out
of the forest it's dangerous.
We have to get to the sheep fast,
or the bear will rip them apart.
Sometimes it's taken
two or three sheep in a single day.
As night falls,
the atmosphere is tense.
No sheep are allowed to run free.
We put them in the enclosure
every night.
We never leave them alone.
We would protect them with our
lives. They are our only property.
But whatever happens,
we have our dogs, and we are brave.
A Romanian shepherd
is never far from his herd.
Petre sleeps right next
to his charges.
His colleagues take first watch.
See? He caught a sheep.
Is he going to clear out
or will he eat it?
I think he's taking it away.
A fellow shepherd
from a neighbouring valley
took these pictures.
He's a real devil. If I caught him
I'd take an axe to him.
Yeah, yeah.
He'd be after you like a shot.
Dammit, he was here.
Now he's in the valley.
The dogs chased him into the river.
I know a bear is part of nature,
but we shepherds live in nature too.
We have to find our place here,
just like the bears.
If life in the mountains is to work,
we have to share the space.
I understand the people in the towns
who love bears
and want to protect them.
But living beside them
is very difficult.
Over the centuries shepherds and
bears have found a way of living
side by side in the mountains.
But what happens when
Europe's greatest land predator
moves into the human world?
This was some time ago:
I came into town to buy some stuff
and I met a friend
I hadn't seen for a while.
So, we went for a drink
and the two of us told each other
stories till late in the night.
Eventually I said: "Time for bed.
On the way to the apartment,
I saw strange shadows.
I thought they were people,
so I said: "Good evening!"
But they didn't answer.
What'd you think they were?
Two bears, my friend, two bears.
Looked like they were dancing.
Bears in the city? They live
in the mountains, not in the towns.
What's all that about? I'd rather
get back to the mountains.
Nocturnal visitors are rather common
in the small towns
of the southern Carpathians.
As soon as it gets dark
the streets fill with life.
Stop, stop.
Stop the car.
Can you hear them?
Laura Niculescu
and her husband George love bears.
They're out on patrol
almost every night, in spring.
Hardly anyone knows these animals
better than Laura.
And she has a mission.
There are a lot of people
that hate and don't like the bears,
because they think
they are aggressive.
But it's not like that.
I do a lot of filming.
I put them online in a page
to show them that the bears
are not aggressive.
If people learn
how to behave in front of the bear,
that would lead
to a peaceful coexistence.
The bears are here, but
it isn't always easy to find them.
Unless they leave a trace.
Look there is the garbage
on the floor. The bear was here.
We have to follow the dogs.
The dogs are nervous.
The bears can't be far.
Down there. Down there. Slow, slow.
Bears always look
for the easiest way to find food.
That's why
the cities are so attractive.
It's much harder
to find food in the wilderness.
So you see there is
a lot of garbage everywhere
and that attracts the bears
to the city.
You know,
like humans go to the supermarket
instead of looking for food
in the forest.
Same goes for the bears.
If they find easy food,
they go for it.
Under cover of darkness
our mother bear sneaks into town.
She's not alone.
She has her cubs with her.
This isn't
just about the abundance of food.
It's about adult male bears too.
They are loners.
They avoid company,
including human company,
and would rather spend
their time in the mountains.
So the town also protects the cubs
from hungry males.
Bears aren't the only ones
that appreciate the advantages
of an urban environment.
For the little ones,
everything smells new and exciting
and has to be tried.
Now they've had
their first taste of humans' food,
there's no way back.
Following their mother,
they'll connect humans with food
for the rest of their lives.
It's bound to lead to conflict.
There will be consequences for
our three bear cubs.
Over the coming weeks they'll learn
to adapt to the asphalt jungle.
Once foreign territory, the town
will soon be their playground,
food delivery service,
and finally their new home.
Meanwhile, Laura has caught up
with two old friends.
Look, look the brothers.
These are the brothers
from last year.
This is the second year they come
to this park in search for food.
The other one.
They are two years old
and always playing around.
There is a bin with pancakes.
They throw the leftovers
in the trash bins.
They are eating pancakes right now.
Stop! Dont go on.
Get back!
The bear is right in front of you!
Right in front!
The man there
wants to go to the bear.
An apparently innocuous situation
can quickly get dangerous.
It's coming.
It's coming on. No, too close.
No, no, it's dangerous.
Is the gate open? Come here.
Ah, the gendarmes are here.
When the RO-Alert comes they
come from the police, gendarmerie,
and they want to chase
the bear away.
The brothers aren't too worried
by the police's attempts
to intimidate them.
They've heard it all before.
Some Transylvanian towns see bears
almost every night in summer.
The police
answer calls as soon as they can.
But there
is only so much they can do.
The police aren't always sure
exactly what's happening.
On this occasion they've quickly
pinpointed the troublemakers.
Our bear family
have entered someone's garden.
This is high risk intervention.
Because babies do not know
how to handle the situation.
Maybe they go inside the garden
and because of the fence
they cannot go out.
And there is the possibility
that the mother
can be dangerous for the people.
After hundreds of years
of intensive hunting,
what frightens bears most, is noise.
It's the most effective way
to scare them off.
But the night is young.
It's much too early
to return to the forest.
In the maze of gardens
and narrow lanes
the bears easily shake off
their pursuers.
The potential food supply
is infinite.
The dogs can bark all they want.
Their dishes still get emptied.
In the search for easy meals our
mother bear has shed her shyness.
She strolls these streets for weeks
on end, growing increasingly bold,
thus adding herself
to the long list of "problem bears".
"Amazing pictures from Sinaia.
Bears chasing people."
"A moment of horror in Victoria."
"The Police recommend killing
dangerous bears."
"Two boys and a man
injured by bears.
Torn apart by a hungry bear."
- "Bears kill a shepherd."
Security cameras
record scary encounters with bears.
With at least 6,000 bears in Romania
theres always a risk
of an unwelcome confrontation.
When a bear gets aggressive
and resists all attempts
to scare it away,
it is declared a "problem bear".
In exceptional cases,
it may then be shot.
But first they'll try
to deal with it peacefully.
This bear is being relocated.
In some small towns
in southern Transylvania
the density of bears is so great,
the Police have permission
to move almost every one of them.
This time it's a young male.
The vet anaesthetises the bear
so it can't harm itself.
The sedative quickly takes effect.
The bear is weighed,
measured and given an ear-clip
so it can be identified later.
Then it's off on a long journey.
The idea is
to release the bear far enough away
so it can't simply come back.
And the area
must be sparsely inhabited,
so the bear
can't make trouble there.
In today's Romania,
that's a tall order.
Our mother bear and her three cubs
were also caught and released
far away.
When Laura heard about this,
she set off in pursuit,
and soon made a sad discovery.
Here is the blood ...
The blood of the mama bear.
Her cubs were after dog food.
And that sealed their mother's fate.
So the mama bear
always comes from the forest
and stay by here next to the forest
and the cubs go down
to the houses to eat the dogfood.
He called the authorities
to chase the bears from his yard
but they come instead
to kill the bear.
So when they shoot her they chase
the little one in the forest.
And the other two
chased in the other park.
Normally there is a commission
that involves the major,
the vet, the hunters
and the authorities,
police or gendarmerie.
They all have to sign the papers
and agree to killing the mama bear.
This commander
didn't sign the papers.
So that's why it is a scandal.
When bears turn up out of the blue
the result is often chaos.
The authorities are under pressure.
People's lives are at stake.
And that doesn't make it easier
to take the right decisions.
It was a normal morning.
The phone rang. A bear.
In the centre of the city. Really?
A bear in the city?
But I am a journalist, got there
in something like 5 minutes.
And a lot of people,
a lot of police cars
and there was in a few moments
a bear on the roof.
The chaos continued because the bear
was very quick and very agile
in climbing on roofs
and nobody knew exactly
how should we proceed
when a bear comes in the city?
The local authorities didn't know
how to act. That's the main issue.
And they were misinformed.
They said it was a big bear.
"Stay at home there is a big bear."
It was not a big bear.
There was a hunter and he said:
"I have only bullets.
I do not want to kill him."
"Kill him!"
- "No, I don't want to."
Nobody knew what should be done.
It was total chaos.
They finally
got him trapped in a yard.
They shortly decided
to shoot the bear.
So the door was open
and I just got in
and I saw the small bear cub.
And I was
the only photographer there,
so I snapped as fast as I could
a few pictures.
I know it was confusion,
it was dangerous
but the image of that cub
was moving to say the least
and it moved a lot of people.
So things like this shouldn't happen
in our city or anywhere.
Because no bears should be shot.
Laura can't get
the orphan cubs out of her mind.
Their mother gone,
the cubs must be wandering,
lost and traumatised.
Laura knows exactly
where to look for them,
and sure enough:
Slowly, slowly.
Stop, stop, stop. Slowly, slowly.
Two of the cubs
are rifling the garbage bins
close to where
their mother was shot.
Like her,
they've become used to human food
and can no longer
go back to the food of the forest.
Laura knows perfectly well
what will happen then.
If she wants to save them,
she must do something now.
Many people in Transylvania
are spooked by
the bears in their neighbourhood.
Some would rather take the solution
into their own hands.
They feel abandoned
by the authorities.
You're all terrified of the bears.
Am I right, or what?
The bear in your backyard.
The bear out in the street.
I have children, man.
Can't you understand that?
If conflict is to be avoided,
people must adapt
their own behaviour to the bears'.
Not everyone is happy with that.
No one understands that better
than Bogdan Sulica.
He's a ranger with one of Romania's
biggest conservation organisations:
Carpathia.
If we see a bear
coming down in the village
we just go there with the dogs,
with weapons, with rubber bullets,
with all kind of stuff,
and ...
... we're trying to push him away.
Look up there at the pasture,
something up there,
right at the top.
It is difficult to make out.
Just some few young bears
coming to the fruit trees.
That's all.
Can you still see them?
- No, they're gone. Off to the left.
Everything's working out
for Bogdan today.
He sees himself as the link
between the people of the community
and the wilderness around them.
He knows that bears and people
get on best
when they leave each other alone.
His job is to make sure
it stays that way.
But it doesn't always work.
Hello Bogdan.
- Hello.
So, tell me: How we're going
to solve the bear problem?
What are we going to do?
One of the farmer's cows
has been attacked by a bear.
He chased the bear away,
but it was too late to save the cow.
The bear comes from there
and from there,
and from the street down there.
The bastard came from there too.
So, you've got problems again?
- He keeps coming.
The loss of a cow
is a serious financial setback.
Bogdan can help
protect the rest of the herd,
once he confirms the cow
really was killed by a bear.
To do that, he has to find it.
Okay, bye.
- Bye. Bye for now.
Yeah,
usually it's much more difficult
to work with people
than with animals.
People do not want to live
with wild large carnivores,
so it is a lot of discussion.
In the past,
shepherds all time in spring
when they go up in the mountain,
they had 1000 sheep.
We go up in the mountains
with them but for sure
at least 50 are for bears and wolfs.
Now nobody is talking like this,
so they do not accept
to have some losses you know?
They do not really
want to pay a tribute to nature.
Bogdan has a simple but effective
way of protecting livestock.
So ... it is a thin line
between people and wildlife.
So, it is ...
Somehow it is impossible
to don't have conflicts.
But actually we do not know any case
when a bear goes
inside an electric fence.
An almost invisible strip of wire
solves the problem.
To stop bears looking for food
where humans live,
the food must be
put out of their reach.
Once sheep and cows are safe,
there's only
one last object of desire:
garbage.
Now we are trying to ...
... put another kind of bin,
with some lock thing
inside an electric fence.
It's not so expensive.
It's just an easy way
to prevent problems
with bears coming to the garbage.
I am totally sure it will be better.
One final test.
Autumn in the mountains.
Petre is taking his sheep
down to the valley.
The pastures stay
more succulent here for longer,
and the sheep are protected
from winter storms.
Bogdan knows Petre well.
Hi! How's it going Petre?
How was the summer?
- He took three sheep.
I found two of them,
but not the third.
Fences help against bears.
But in the mountains,
the sheep roam free in the daytime.
So Bogdan has another way to help.
Well, as we discussed.
I've brought the Carpathians.
Here's the male.
And the female. They are a couple.
Carpathian sheepdogs.
Especially effective against bears.
Bogdan's organisation breeds them
and gives them
to the shepherds for free.
Good luck. Let's hope
they grow really big and help you.
Thanks. So long.
If you ask me,
I would say yes, we need bears.
If you ask a farmer,
maybe he will say no or maybe
let's have some, but in the zoo.
But bears
are like a logo of our country
and if we have bears, we have
all the other species under this.
So yeah, we need bears.
The fate of our orphan cubs
has taken an unexpected turn.
One of the three has disappeared,
but thanks to Laura its
two siblings are no longer alone.
After we call the authorities they
took two days to catch those bears
and the association
took them to the sanctuary.
Yes, come on.
Come on, come to me.
Hi there.
I looked for you for seven hours.
What is it?
What is it, are you hungry?
They should be
out in the freedom, playing
but because
their mother was shot ...
... they are here in this enclosure.
The king of the forest,
reduced to a begging vagabond.
Is this the future
of Europe's last great predators?
Bears have disappeared
from most of the forests.
In some areas they are being
re-established. With difficulty.
Not everything
is perfect in Romania,
but at least this country
still has its bears.
Things aren't easy
for the people on the frontlines.
But they have proved by example,
that if
the right adjustments are made,
the age-old coexistence
of humans and bears
is still possible.
Untertitel-Werkstatt Mnster, 2023