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Bringing Home the Bears

2 x 52
Broadcaster:  National Geographic Channel

Follow the separate journeys of two captive polar bears, as they travel from their northern hemisphere homes to Sea World, on the Gold Coast of Australia. Drawing upon years of experience in the care and exhibition of marine mammals, Sea World took on their most ambitious project when they set out to create a living virtual reality for one of the natural world’s most majestic and dangerous predators.

By using movie special effects and the most up-to-date zoo technology, Sea World recreated the arctic summer at Polar Bear Shores, and set a new benchmark for the captive care of polar bears. The transfers were long and difficult, and not without setbacks. This film charts the highs and lows, meeting Kanook in Tucson, Ping Ping in Beijing, and staying with them as they get to know each other and their new home. For their new keepers it is an exciting challenge; for their long-time carers, a sad goodbye; for animal lovers around the world, a chance to meet these two very special polar bears face to face.

In the second episode, twin polar bear cubs Lia and Lutik, born and bred in St. Petersburg zoo, are about to be moved to the opposite end of the earth: from snowy Russia, to Sea World on Australia’s sunny Gold Coast. Although Polar Bears are native to Russia, there is no room for them to grow up in their home at the Leningradsky Zoopark. Sea World has already shown that polar bears can thrive in the virtual climate created at Polar Bear Shores. But these are thought to be the youngest cubs ever to travel such a vast distance. Sea World’s Head of Marine Sciences, Trevor Long, undetakes meticulous planning months before the transfer, designing large, stainless steel crates that will allow the bears to see each other at all times during their 49 hour journey. But when the crates go missing in the former Soviet Republic, Lia and Lutik’s travel plans almost have to be cancelled…

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