Original subtitles

♪ ♪

Sonia: Baby ruth! High five!

(whistle tweets)

That was such a good one.

Evelyn: Good, wait.

Good, down.

Kara: Flying like a champ.

Awesome! Yes!

♪ ♪

Howie: Alaska is bear country.

Everybody wants to see bears when they come to alaska.

The awcc is home to three brown bears.

They have over 14 acres of land that they get to call their own.

(laughs)

Brittany: Sit pretty!

(whistle tweets)

Howie: We have hugo the grizzly bear.

Brittany: Hugo. Austin: Come on, jb!

Howie: And jb and patron, the brother-sister brown bears.

Austin: Patron! That's my fat bear!

Jamie: What were you doing? Your face is a mess.

Howie: Jb and patron were brought here

Because their mom was put down to protect human life,

And hugo arrived here as an orphan

Because she was found abandoned on a trail

And rescued by hikers.

Thankfully when these three cubs were orphaned

We had room for them

And we were able to give them a permanent home.

Austin: They're super smart. They're ridiculously cute.

And it's really important for us

To keep them mentally stimulated.

Howie: When we get it loaded, I'll tell you to back up.

Today's a big day.

We actually do this once a year;

The state fair donates their veggies.

Look at it compared to the size of my head.

That's a...Cabbage.

We make it a really fun enrichment day for the bears.

We're going to doll them up, make them really delicious

And entice the bears to dig into it.

I'm gonna shove some jam into the leaves.

Austin: Like most children, bears prefer the sweet stuff

Over the healthy vegetables.

Howie: It's kind of like tricking your kids

Into eating spinach.

Sweet.

I've got my whole team working today.

So jamie, austin, and sonia

Are going to keep the bears occupied up by the boardwalk.

And then brittany and I

Are gonna manhandle that gate in the back

So the tractor can get in.

We don't go into the adult brown bears very often,

But when we do, it's always with equipment.

It's not stressful for them.

It's not stressful for the operator.

Austin: Come on, jb!

Sonia: Come on, hugo!

Austin: Once we bring the bears over to the tractor,

Our role is just making sure everything's okay,

Everything stays safe.

A little nervous, because at the end of the day

They are still bears.

♪ ♪

Howie: There we go.

So it looks like patron was actually the first one

To take that plunge there.

(laughing)

Jb and patron are 16 years old this year,

And they're our biggest bears at awcc.

Sonia: Oh, my god, jb, stop it.

Howie: Jb's easily a thousand pounds,

And patron's not too far behind him.

Austin: They have a lot of fun getting in the bucket.

Brittany: Aw.

Sonia: The bears definitely have

Their own little social hierarchy,

And hugo is not on the top of that.

So when the other two bears

Were exploring the bucket of fruit and veggies,

We were able to toss her some things.

Hugo!

Austin: Oh.

Howie: Hugo is actually 20 years old.

She's our oldest bear that we have here at awcc.

Sonia: Hugo!

Howie: She took a little cabbage leaf,

And she's on her merry way.

Certainly was a huge sugar rush that all these bears got today.

But they don't get it every day,

So it's not harmful to their diet.

That's the whole point of enrichment

Is to kind of enrich their lives.

They're gonna go for a really long nap.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Dr. Victoria: Do you want me to take that off?

Jen: Another baby.

This looks to be about a 3-year-old eagle

That was sent to us from the juneau raptor center.

What's up, bud?

He wasn't able to fly.

So we don't really know what's going on.

Dr. Victoria: So this bird is out of it.

Jen: He ain't altogether with it.

Got him.

Oh, he's skinny.

It does seem like it's a little depressed.

Its eyes don't look really bright,

And doesn't really pay much attention

To the fact that there's people standing around it.

Dr. Victoria: X-ray? Jen: Yeah.

Dr. Victoria: What happened to this bird?

We need to try to piece things together

By evaluating its injuries.

It does seem goofy, doesn't it?

Jen: Yeah.

Well, his tail's off to the side.

Dr. Victoria: It's acting as if it has a head injury.

(beep)

See what he did? Jen: Yeah.

Dr. Victoria: It's kind of interesting

That it's so asymmetric.

One, two, three.

His feet were asymmetric:

One was hanging out and one he pulled in.

♪ ♪

But we might have gotten lucky.

X-ray looks good!

We didn't see any signs of a head injury.

Jen: What's the matter, bub?

Dr. Victoria: We still really don't know

What's going on with this bird.

So these are special tubes for getting a lead reading.

We test every eagle at admit

To see how much lead is in their system.

So it will be interesting to see what we find.

In alaska, lead poisoning is a growing concern

With bald eagles.

It's a big issue when hunters shoot animals with lead pellets,

Then bald eagles eat the remains.

We're wondering, is this a head injury

Or is this lead poisoning?

What's wrong with you?

Huh?

I'm worried it's going to be lead.

Jen: Cross our fingers.

♪ ♪

Dr. Victoria: 40. Nice.

40 implies no lead.

Blood looks good.

Mystery bird!

Jen: We have decided to name the bird mystique

Because he's a big mystery to us.

Dr. Victoria: It's got to be a head injury.

The salmon are running, and we've had a lot of eagles

Fighting or tumbling or chasing each other over food

That have then injured themselves in that way.

Jen: Oh, he's stumbling, too.

Dr. Victoria: So we're just gonna keep mystique

In icu for a couple days

And give it a safe place to be while that brain injury heals.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Pam: I heard some barking,

And it appeared to be a little seal.

Just was hanging around crying.

We could hear him at night even.

We could tell something wasn't right.

Al: I had seen seals up close before,

But this one looked a little different.

It was almost jet black.

It breaks your heart, you know.

You want to do something...

(phone ringing)

...So we called the sealife center in seward.

Natalie: Okay.

We got a call about a stranded harbor seal pup in juneau

Off a private beach.

They're going to send it on a plane to anchorage.

And I'm on my way to turnagain pass.

(seal cries)

Oh, hi, buddy.

What's up, dude?

(crying)

This pup looked very young to be away from its mom,

So it's hard to tell what age it is.

But it definitely needed more time with its mother.

All right, buddy.

So he's pretty thin.

I'm going to go ahead and try to get a temp from him.

It looks to be a little dehydrated,

So it definitely looks like it needs some food and tlc from us.

So his temperature is 102.

That is a little warm.

What I'm going to do is get him into the other kennel,

And I'm going to put some ice down there, too.

Okay, buddy.

And then we can hit the road

And get him back to the center as quick as we can.

♪ ♪

(crying)

Dr. Elizabeth: Typically in the summers at the sealife center

We tend to get a lot of baby animals that strand.

Sometimes mommies feel like their babies

Aren't gonna make it, and so they'll let it go.

Natalie: He's so dark!

Dr. Elizabeth: This seal is what we're calling a dark morph seal.

And that just means that he's a darker color

Than our typical seals.

Typically our seals are a light gray color,

But they can vary from light gray all the way to black.

(crying)

I know, handsome.

Most of our critters come in,

Their eyes are kind of pasty shut,

So when I see that, I know my animal's dehydrated,

And fluids are going to be

The first thing I'm gonna throw at it,

So that I can get their systems back in order.

There you go, my friend.

(pup crying)

Natalie: The main concern

Is to see how well it does in our care,

And it's responding to the treatment

That we're giving it.

Sorry, little one.

(crying)

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Jen: Look at those beautiful salmon, though. Woo.

Jennifer: Oh, wow!

Jen: Look at them!

Jennifer: Right now is the time of year

Where we see salmon coming upriver to spawn.

Any animal that eats fish is in heaven right now.

What comes with those salmon are bears.

The alaska raptor center is within the city of sitka,

But we are unique in that we are completely surrounded by forest.

We're on what's known as an ancient bear highway.

Jen: Hey, bear!

Jennifer: Hey, bear.

And the bears use this

As they're going to and from the mountains,

To the coast and back.

Pretty much every single bear that comes to this area

Will come through here.

Jen: God, look it, you can tell.

Jennifer: Mm-hmm.

With all this bear activity that's happening,

We start worrying about our signs and our structures.

Jen: Hey, bear!

Jennifer: So, we're going to walk the nature trail

To see if any damage has been done.

Jen: There's fish.

Jennifer: Oh, yeah. Some remains.

Jen: Damn, I don't like being out here!

Jennifer: Oh, it's okay.

Jen: I seriously don't!

Jennifer: What we have in southeast alaska

Is called coastal brown bears.

They have a genetic link to both polar bears and grizzly bears.

Jen: It does feel like you've walked

Into the middle of their space, and they're everywhere.

Oh, great.

Well, this kind of looks like it could be new.

Jennifer: Oh, yeah, that does look fresh.

Little bit of bear fur on there.

As we feared, the bears did get into a bit of mischief.

Oh, the eagle release sign!

Jen: Oh, man.

Jennifer: They used this to pick their teeth.

The worst was the eagle platform was pretty damaged.

Jen: Well, the top is gone.

Jennifer: Oh, no.

Jen: So the eagle release platform

Is a great place for us to release eagles.

Woman: Woo! (applause)

Jen: And it's taken us many years to come up with the fact

That this is probably the best way for us to release them.

Jennifer: Oh, yeah.

Definitely been ripped apart a little bit.

Jen: Oh.

Jennifer: I think we should close down the trail.

Jen: Bears.

Jennifer: I'd really like to get to the bottom

Of how many bears we're dealing with here.

Jen: I know.

Jennifer: So, I think we should set up some trail cameras.

Jen: Yeah.

Jennifer: Okay. It's hooked.

We've decided we're gonna put those trail cams up

And try to capture some footage of them in their element.

It's a whole different world out here after dark.

♪ ♪

We kind of want to know,

Is it a mother and cubs, is it a big boar?

Is it a sow?

We just kind of want a handle on what we're dealing with.

♪ ♪

(crunching)

♪ ♪

Jennifer: Hey, jen!

Jen: Hey. How's it going?

Jennifer: Pretty good!

We got some hits on the trail camera we set up.

Jen: Oh, cool. Jennifer: Yeah.

We've had some trouble with bears

Roaming around the property and damaging things along the way,

So we set up some trail cameras

To try to catch the culprits in action.

Here we go.

Jen: Ooh!

Jennifer: Oh, my gosh.

Are you kidding me?

Jen: Oh, my god. That's so cool!

Jennifer: A mom and two cubs is a very exciting thing to see.

Usually you don't get to see cubs.

Mom is very protective and elusive with them.

Jen: Oh, my god, trail cams are the best things ever.

Jennifer: Yeah.

Jen: I just want to hug those little babies.

(laughs) they're just so cute.

They're like little teddy bears,

And I probably would hug them

If it wasn't for mom, because she would kill me.

Jennifer: Okay, now we're nighttime.

In sitka where there's lots of people,

The bears that live in the surrounding area

Have adapted to be more nocturnal

So they can avoid negative interactions with people.

Um...

(crunching)

Jen: Whoa. That was weird!

Oh! Are you kidding me?

Jennifer: Well, there's your evidence!

Jen: What a little poop.

I think they're young bears, they're bored,

Because they've got all of this free food in the river

And just looking to get in trouble.

Jennifer: I can't believe they didn't destroy the camera.

Coastal brown bears' sense of smell

Is seven times greater than a bloodhound's.

So they know we're here.

Let's, uh, you know, let everybody know what we found

And reiterate that we need to be cautious and noisy

And extra cautious after-hours.

Jen: Yeah.

♪ ♪

(frogs chirping)

♪ ♪

(birds squawking)

♪ ♪

Brittany: Sorry, buddy.

They are actually the smartest invertebrate.

So he is highly, highly intelligent.

Just a little bit more water, and then we'll get him.

Savannah: One really tasty herring.

Dr. Elizabeth: Our new seal came from juneau,

About three days ago, so we decided to call him juneau.

So far he's doing okay, but he's not eating yet,

So we're concerned about him.

Jane: One of our challenges with juneau

Is it's hard for us to get him to focus on eating fish.

Savannah: Today I'm actually going to go into the condo

And wiggle the fish in front of his face with some tongs.

Sometimes this helps the predator drive

Of our harbor seals kick in, and they eat the fish.

So I'm just going to take the herring

And kind of rub it under his whiskers

So he gets the feel of the herring.

And the smell.

Juneau is actually shunning his fish.

We don't really know why, but it breaks your heart, to be honest.

He just hasn't quite realized, "this is food.

I need to swallow this

In order to get the calories that I need."

Dr. Elizabeth: We have to make sure that our little juneau

Gets a certain amount every day so that he continues to grow

And be healthy and eventually can be released.

So if he won't take it willingly,

Then we will actually have to force feed that fish

Into his system to get those calories that he needs.

Savannah: I don't think today's going to be the day

That he decides to tong feed.

Hopefully I'll come back later and the fish is gone,

That's always our hope.

But we'll see.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Howie: When you live in alaska

And you get to go fishing all the time,

You kind of become a salmon snob.

It's kind of hard not to take advantage

Of having dinner in your backyard

That you can just go out and catch every day fresh

While they're running.

Morning!

Austin: Good morning!

Howie: I have a friend that also likes to go fishing,

So he goes down on the russian river.

And he let me know that he saw a whole family of brown bears.

You definitely don't get to see that

Very often with brown bears,

So it's kind of something we can't pass up.

Austin: It'd be kind of cool to see if they're eating

The whole fish or just eating parts of it.

Howie: Our bears around here

Are starting to get really picky this time of year

With the fish that we're giving them,

So it'll be really interesting to see if the wild bears

Are still going nutso for the fish.

The other day I threw a whole fish in there,

And jb looked at me like, "what else?"

It'll just be some good insight,

Just some good information for our pocketbook,

And then we'll go have some fun.

All right, well, let's mount up.

Brittany: It's definitely going to be different

Than dealing with our bears here at the center.

The bears here know us, they know we bring food,

They're our friends almost.

While we still take precautions with our bears,

We have to take more extreme measures with bears in the wild.

Howie: We're going on an adventure!

Follow the sounds of the river!

Austin: Okay!

So hiking through bear country.

It's exciting, but it's also a little nervous as well

Because those bears definitely know where you are

Before you know where they are.

Howie: Well, it's important to stay loud,

Because the louder we are,

The less likely we are to surprise a bear.

Hey, bear, ho, bear, my name's yogi bear.

Austin: We're just constantly aware

Of what's going on around us.

Brittany: I'm in the middle,

Which means I have the least chance of getting eaten.

(laughing)

Howie: I like your logic.

Brittany: Oh, wow.

Howie: There's a lot of people here.

So, as soon as we showed up,

Of course there was tons of fishermen around.

Hello.

So unfortunately, we kind of got skunked.

Austin: Jb, patron, and hugo

Usually aren't this active this time of day either.

Howie: Yeah. It's quieter down this way.

Brittany: When it's hot and sunny

At the conservation center,

The bears are out of it.

They are lazy, hanging out in the shade

Or just, like, floating in the water,

But most of the time they're just asleep.

Howie: I'm not giving up.

We're just going to hike around and see what we stumble upon.

Here, bear bear.

(whistling)

The river has a bend right there,

Which means the fish are going to tunnel

Into a certain part of the stream.

So, if we're going to see bears fishing today,

I feel like this is our spot.

Good bear country.

Rivers, trees, and mountains and fish.

Brittany: All the fish.

Howie: If we want to see bears,

We're just gonna have to be patient and stick it out.

♪ ♪

Austin: Bear! Howie: Look at that!

Howie: Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?

Brittany: So, no bears yet.

Howie: I'm gonna knock on wood pretty hard today

Because I really hope we get to see them.

Austin: Bear!

Howie: Oh, jeez!

Look at that!

Your heart stops.

You're like a five-year-old kid in the toy store again.

Get it buddy, get it!

(laughing)

Aw, that's so cool!

Brittany: Oh, he got a fish.

Someone is so happy to have that fish.

Howie: (gasps) yes!

Those are brownies. Look at that shoulder.

But then another one showed up!

Oh. Oh, there's the third one! There's a third one!

Austin: Oh, yeah.

Howie: And then another one showed up.

(gasps) oh, look at him!

Austin: Oh. Here comes mom! Yeah.

Howie: Oh, yeah, that's mom.

God, look how big she is.

Brittany: We see the brown bear, which is just super, super cute.

And then to see like three more come up behind it,

Its siblings and its mom, is incredible.

She looks tired.

Howie: She's like I got three,

Wouldn't it be something if they were all boys, too?

She must be a really good mom to have three youngsters like this,

All coming of age.

Mom was teaching her cubs how to fish,

And they have to know how to do that

If they want to live to be as old as their mother.

Look at those two hams.

I think, did he get one?

He got a fish.

Oh, I can't get enough of these little guys.

Austin: Definitely looks like they are eating the entire fish.

Howie: Yeah. And they're excited about it too, so. (laughs)

It was really interesting to see the lifestyle of our bears

At the wildlife center

Versus the lifestyle of bears in the wild.

It's kind of fun to see a bear have to use their brain

To figure out what they're doing.

They've all got a fish.

I'm stoked, man.

Austin: Seeing the animals in the wild

Gives us a whole new perspective in working with our bears.

Austin: It can give us new ideas for enrichment,

New ideas for feeding strategies,

And just hopefully make their lives a little bit better.

That was awesome.

Howie: That was a good day of bear viewing.

All right, austin, you lead the way.

♪ ♪

Jen: Who do we need to look at?

Dr. Victoria: We need to look at mystique.

What's wrong with you, huh?

Jen: Mystique is a three-year-old eagle

That came to us from juneau.

We don't really know what happened to this bird.

We're thinking that it's just a head trauma

And he's got some neurological issues because of that.

We're just checking for flight, right?

Dr. Victoria: Yeah.

Jen: He's been eating great.

We kept him in a kennel in icu, and then we decided

That we would move him out to main flight.

When we first put him there,

It was a little concerning because he wasn't really flying.

So on 7/1 it said,

"not flying, having a hard time getting around."

Toward the left side there.

Dr. Victoria: Oh, yeah.

Jen: He's the second one down.

Dr. Victoria: Yeah.

Obviously he's flying if he's up on the high perch.

Ooh, he's thinking about it.

Jen: Come on! Come on!

Dr. Victoria: Ooh, look at that!

Jen: He's looking amazing.

That looks good.

Dr. Victoria: That was lovely.

Jen: This bird is flying amazingly.

He can go from one end of main flight to the other,

Turn corners, and he even did a little loop-de-loop

Down by the swing perch.

Woo!

♪ ♪

Birds like mystique are the reason

That main flight is amazing.

They can move around.

They can experience a somewhat natural setting,

And yet still take the time that they need to heal

And work through their issues.

I'm so happy for him. (chuckles)

You're just so cute!

Dr. Victoria: Well, I think we've seen everything we need to see, huh?

Jen: I mean, I'd let mystique go today.

We want to get mystique captured quickly and release him.

But we've had a lot of trouble with bears this summer.

Not many other places have to worry about dealing with a bear

Ripping up their release platform

Before they can get an eagle out the door.

♪ ♪

Dr. Elizabeth: Juneau, our dark morph harbor seal

That we rescued,

Is having trouble eating fish from tongs

When our staff are offering it.

So today we're going to give him a quick exam

Just to make sure everything is okay.

(seal crying)

Let's start with the body parts that don't bite.

Jane: Okay.

Dr. Elizabeth: Juneau absolutely doesn't like people.

(snarling)

Teeth look great.

Keep him where you got him.

Jane: Oh. Now he's doing his gator rolls.

He's just very bitey. He likes to roll.

Dr. Elizabeth: I think I'll go ahead and get a heart rate

While we're in this position if that sounds good to you.

Jane: Sounds good.

Dr. Elizabeth: I think the dark morphs are crankier.

(growling)

I've seen other dark morphs be as feisty as him, too.

There we go.

Hi.

So I don't know if it's a trait of that morph of seal,

But, man, he does not like people.

(growling)

Jane: You stay angry, mister.

Dr. Elizabeth: He's a cranky pants.

It makes exams challenging.

(growling)

I can hear that.

But we, we work with that.

Yeah, I don't feel any weird inflammation under there,

Any lumps or bumps.

That's great. Good job!

Jane: Let's give him water access.

Dr. Elizabeth: Okay. Jane: Go get his breakfast.

Dr. Elizabeth: Juneau looks great.

There's no reason why he shouldn't be eating whole fish.

So we're gonna try a new strategy

And see if we can help him figure this out.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Jane: All right.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Dr. Elizabeth: When we're present,

He does not want to eat.

He's scared. He's nervous. He's protecting himself.

♪ ♪

Jane: He's pretty focused on you?

Dr. Elizabeth: He was too focused on me, so I left.

But when we throw from a distance

And he doesn't know it's us, he's willing to eat.

(snarling)

(laughing)

(snarling)

And that's actually the perfect behavior that I want.

I don't want him to associate humans and food

Because when he goes back to the wild,

I want him to be able to forage and find food all by himself.

So we need to keep everybody away while he eats.

Jane: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Elizabeth: That would be good.

But that noise that he makes when he eats?

That's priceless!

Jane: Yeah, that is, that's a new noise.

Dr. Elizabeth: I've never heard that before.

(snarling)

♪ ♪

(squawking)

♪ ♪

(cawing)

♪ ♪

Austin: Well, we were walking by,

We saw quite a commotion

With a bunch of ravens on the roof.

And upon closer inspection,

Saw one of the ravens was stuck in the gutter.

So we called the raptor center to assist

In, uh, helping the raven.

Jen: He's really wedged in there, and he can like,

He can flap, looks like his right wing.

But he's stuck. He's like stuck.

I just feel bad for this poor guy.

He's like got to be hurting.

Ravens are very, very intelligent birds.

It's kind of like curiosity killed the cat.

It's kind of the same thing with ravens.

They're very curious about everything,

And sometimes it gets them in trouble.

Man on radio: Sitka fire. Craig.

Jen: Hi! This is jen from the raptor center.

I was wondering if you could come over to centennial hall

And help me get a bird out of the gutter

That's like stuck in the gutter.

(man laughing)

I don't need a very tall ladder.

I just need a ladder, and I can't get up on the roof.

Man: All we have are tall ones.

(horn blows)

Austin: It's the calvary.

Jen: Here they come!

I can always count on these guys to help me out.

♪ ♪

Oh, baby hold on, hold on!

Jen: A raven somehow found himself trapped in a gutter.

I'm not exactly sure how he did it, but he did.

Had to call the fire department to come and help me with a bird.

Oh, man!

Dr. Victoria: Ravens are very curious.

They're always exploring new things.

Jen: The ladder was pressing on the gutter,

So they moved the ladder.

He climbed up on the roof and holy cow.

Oh, baby!

That poor bird.

Dr. Victoria: We are very lucky here in sitka.

We have a fire department that is happy to help us.

Jen: Oh, my god, he's bringing out the jaws of life.

Thank goodness, the poor thing

Is not stuck in the gutter anymore.

Thank you, sir!

Firefighter: All for you. Yeah.

Jen: My package. Firefighter: Your package.

Jen: You guys are the best. Thank you so much!

Honey, honey, oh, my god, you're okay.

Hopefully this little bird is none the worse for wear,

And we can get him back out pretty quick,

So cross our fingers.

Dr. Victoria: Are you a baby?

Jen: Yes, he is.

Dr. Victoria: You are a baby.

Oh, you're all wet.

Jen: He is.

Look at those brown eyes!

Oh, I'm in love.

Dr. Victoria: It's a hatch-year bird,

So it's only a couple months old maybe,

Even though it appears to be full sized.

Hey!

Jen: Oh! Sorry!

I don't know if he has any cuts or anything.

He's gonna be squirmy.

Dr. Victoria: Yeah.

Jen: This bird doesn't seem to have any substantial injuries

From being stuck down in the gutter.

Dr. Victoria: Can we call him gutter?

Jen: Yeah.

We started calling him gutter for obvious reasons.

Kara: Yeah, you're so cute.

Dr. Victoria: I'm fairly sure that he is completely healthy.

But I'm going to check out his wings

And make sure that he is fat and sassy and ready to go.

And what I do is I drop the bird.

And then I'll be able to see, one, can he extend his wings?

And two, is he doing it in a fairly symmetric manner?

You are being a raven!

Jen: Yep.

(squawking)

Dr. Victoria: That looks nice and symmetrical.

Jen: Yeah.

Dr. Victoria: Fortunately, gutter appears to be

A healthy bird that just got into a bad situation.

One, two, three.

So I think gutter's good to go.

So should we do it at this totem pole up here?

Jen: Sure. Dr. Victoria: Okay.

Jen: That looks like a good spot, I think. He's getting jumpy.

Dr. Victoria: Our little raven agrees. He's ready.

So we've decided to release gutter in the national park.

It's a great habitat.

There's a lot of food to be found here,

And most importantly, there are no gutters.

Dr. Victoria: Here you go.

Come on.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Jen: Aw, look at him go! That's a great flight.

Dr. Victoria: That was a nice flight.

Jen: He's still going.

That's a happy bird.

The release went really well.

The one message I hope that gutter got

Out of this whole thing is, don't mess around with gutters.

They're not a safe place.

Dr. Victoria: All right, back to other birds.

Jen: Okay.

Another successful release.

Dr. Victoria: Yes.

♪ ♪

Ollie: Want to try a peanut?

Yesterday she loved her apples and her grapes.

Got to try new things.

No pineapple?

Mango? You don't get the bowl yet.

♪ ♪

Austin: Seeing the animals in the wild

Gives us a whole new perspective in working with our bears.

Howie: (gasps) uh! Look at them!

Austin: Oh, here comes mom.

In the wild, bears, their main priority

Is just simply to survive.

Howie: When you come out and see wild bears

And you see how intelligent they are,

It really drives that home.

We need to be creative with our enrichment that we come up with.

Austin: Hey, come on!

As soon as they can start predicting

Their day-to-day routine

Is when it all really goes downhill.

They develop really bad behaviors.

So we like to mix it up for them, keep them on their toes.

Patron!

One of the ways that we're doing that with patron

Is with painting.

We're currently teaching her how to paint.

Good girl!

Paint!

(whistle tweets) there we go.

Patron loves learning, loves training.

It's such a fun game for her.

Paint!

(tweet)

I created a paint stick made out of pvc pipe

That attaches to her fence.

On my side is gonna be the paintbrush,

On her side, all she has to do

Is move it around and move the paintbrush.

(tweet)

Good girl.

Patron is one of my favorites.

I do have her tattooed on me.

That's patty-cakes.

She has quite a few nicknames.

She has patty, patty-cakes, patricia, fat patricia,

Love of my life...

Anything and everything patty.

She's perfect. I love her.

Patty!

Lilly: So I get to put my colors on here.

Austin: So next we're gonna actually use the paint

And hopefully start getting some artwork from her.

Lilly: Should I just dip them in here?

Austin: Uh, yeah.

Everyone seems to be really excited to help out with this

Because who all can say they have a painting

From the best brown bear on the face of the planet?

Paint!

No.

That's not it.

Patty.

I am excited to see this,

But I'm also definitely a little nervous.

Paint!

Lilly: She'll stick her tongue out for you.

Austin: Paint!

Nope, that one!

Wrong one!

Austin: Paint!

Nope, that one!

Wrong one!

This one!

Bears are incredibly intelligent animals.

They're constantly needing to be mentally stimulated.

Why aren't you doing it?

Because patron is so smart,

We want to find new ways to challenge her.

We're currently teaching her how to paint.

All right, we're gonna try something new.

Closer together so that she maybe doesn't have to go as far.

Patty.

Paint!

(tweet)

There we go!

Paint!

(tweet)

Let's switch to the other side and see if she'll do it.

Patron seems to be doing really well.

She picked up on it.

Paint!

She's moving the paintbrushes around,

And she's also starting to be able to introduce

A second paint stick.

Lilly: Oh, there's some glitter in that one.

Yes.

Austin: Paint!

I think the paintings are turning out pretty great,

But I think everything she does is perfect.

So I'm a little biased.

Now, for the best part.

Lilly: Ooh, boy!

Austin: Patron did amazing.

She's going to get an extra special treat,

Which is gonna be a whole king salmon.

Lilly: Oh, my goodness.

Bye-bye!

Beautiful.

♪ ♪

(snarling)

Dr. Elizabeth: Juneau has hit all of his milestones.

He's eating with gusto, which is awesome.

(squawking)

Jane: Oh, boy.

Dr. Elizabeth: So today we'll give him a final exam

To make sure he can be released.

Uh, 18...

Jane: Yes!

Dr. Elizabeth: 45. Without towel.

Dr. Elizabeth: Yay!

His belly button is healed.

He looks amazing, jane.

He's put on weight.

He's still as feisty as the day he came in.

Jane: Mr. Alligator boy.

Dr. Elizabeth: You guys have done fantastic.

(groans)

Juneau is absolutely ready to go.

Savannah: Hey, you're facing the wrong way!

There you go!

♪ ♪

Jane: So juneau is from an area

That is actually several hundred miles from us.

♪ ♪

Savannah: Yep. (laughs)

Jane: Once he gets to juneau,

He's gonna meet up with folks who helped rescue him,

And they're going to release him back to where he was found.

Savannah: Don't put your hands in there! (laughing)

Jane: Every minute he's getting closer to going back home,

So that's pretty exciting.

Bye!

Savannah: Oh, it was so bittersweet.

At the end of the day,

Our goal is to release them back out to the wild,

But we're gonna miss him.

Jane: Bye! Savannah: Bye!

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Sheila: Flash came to us in 2017.

She came in with a right wing injury.

We did some x-rays,

Found shotgun pellets and broken metacarpals.

Good job.

You're dropping food.

(chirp)

Jennifer: Today we are releasing

The juvenile bald eagle mystique.

We thought he had a head injury,

But he healed up in main flight and is doing great.

♪ ♪

But before we can release mystique, we've got a problem.

♪ ♪

The bears have returned.

I came upon the entrance to the muskeg here and I saw nothing.

The platform was supposed to be here, and there's no platform.

It's destroyed.

Not only did they take apart the wooden structure,

Uh, they moved the fish tote part over there for some reason.

It's almost like we're in this groundhog day situation

Because we set it up,

And then a couple days later, it's torn down.

And then we set it up again, and it's torn down again.

I just feel like it's a bit of insanity going on.

I'm excited to see if we caught any footage of the action.

♪ ♪

Oh!

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

Yep, just tipping it over, one section at a time.

That is a big bear.

That's definitely not a cub.

Oh, gosh.

Can't blame it on kids being kids.

There must have been something inside

That he was after, or she.

It is remarkable.

It's a problem because we have a eagle release scheduled.

Channel my inner bear.

We need a safe platform in which to launch the eagles off of.

So time is of the essence.

So I just gotta improvise with what goes where.

Dang it.

It looks like a giant game of jenga gone wrong.

Segment two: Done.

The bears are probably watching me from the tree line,

Planning their next attack.

(whirring)

Okay. Done!

Now that we got the eagle release platform back together,

We can finally release mystique.

As long as the bears stay away for the next four hours,

We're gonna be fine!

Jen: That's mystique.

So the bears destroyed our eagle release platform,

And jen cross went out a few hours ago to fix it up.

Kara: I think mystique went in.

Jennifer: There are no bears around at the moment,

So we are going to release mystique

While the coast is clear.

♪ ♪

Jen: I am really, really impressed with mystique.

You're all right, big guy.

It was just such a, such a strange injury, you know.

We didn't know any information

About how the bird was even injured.

It feels good.

We just gave him the opportunity to heal,

And now he's doing amazing.

♪ ♪

We've been having some trouble with bears.

Man: Bears, yeah.

Jennifer: Bears seemed to do their darnedest

To prevent this release from happening.

Kara: Yay, I'm so excited.

Jennifer: Maybe they just didn't want more competition

For the fish in the area, who knows,

But we prevailed in the end

And are going to be able to release mystique

Back into the wild.

Kara: All right.

All: 1, 2, 3!

(clapping)

Kara: Woo!

There you go! (laughing) yay!

Yay!

Jen: There he goes.

Kara: There you go, baby!

Beautiful flight.

And gone!

Jen: Excellent!

He did great. He took off and was gone.

It's just great to see eagles get back into the wild.

And no more bears destroying our stuff! (laughs)

♪ ♪

Jane: For juneau, this is full circle.

We don't normally release the seals

Exactly where they were found.

And it's really cool that the folks who helped rescue him

Are gonna be the folks who are gonna release him.

Kit: Oh, my, there he is.

Kate: When we first saw him in the kennel as he came back,

He looked great.

Isn't he a beauty?

Woman: Oh, my gosh.

Kate: He'll be happy when he gets in the water.

Woman: Yeah.

♪ ♪

Pam: I wondered how the seal was doing,

So we were very surprised to get the phone call

That he was on his way back.

Woman: Hey, buddy.

Al: He looked fat! (laughs)

Actually he looked well fed, which was so exciting to see.

Woman: Wow, what a beautiful spot.

He's like, "I see water down here!"

Jane: I'm just so excited this is happening.

When these seals come to us so tiny and skinny,

You never know how they're gonna do.

Kit: Do you want to bring him maybe over there?

Woman: Good idea. Kit: Close to the water?

Jane: He's a big fat happy seal,

And now he gets to go back into the ocean.

♪ ♪

Man: Beautiful.

Jane: So it was really cool that they were able to set up

A live feed for us to see his release ourselves.

Woman: I'm just gonna open it up.

Jane: There he is!

Dr. Elizabeth: Hey, baby.

Jane: "grass? What's that?"

(laughter)

Dr. Elizabeth: He's thinking about it, though.

A whole new world out there.

Jane: Oh, he's looking so good!

So what's really cool about juneau

Is we put a satellite tag on him

To kind of see does he stay in juneau

Or is he gonna migrate to another part of the state.

Dr. Elizabeth: It's hard to say goodbye to an animal

That you've been caring for for months.

Jane: Juneau, go! Go, juneau, go!

Dr. Elizabeth: So that satellite tag gives me

A little extra connection to him

Just for a little while before it falls off.

Woman: Yes!

Jane: There he goes.

Dr. Elizabeth: Oh, look at you go!

(laughing)

♪ ♪

Yes, into the water.

This is why we do this, this job,

And why we stay up late hours and agonize over them,

So that we can have this day.

Aww, I love that.

Al: He acted like he didn't want to leave.

He was looking at us and would rear up out of the water.

It was so exciting.

Pam: It's so fun to watch him check out the world now.

Jane: Yay!

Dr. Elizabeth: Oh, I'm so excited.

Jane: Good job, guys!

Al: Gone now, and I hope he doesn't come back!

Pam: No.

Al: He needs to go out there and do his seal thing.

Pam: Yeah.

Jane: His time with us is ending,

But his time in the great big blue world is just starting.

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