This is the original Bart, a trained Kodiak brown bear who appeared in about a dozen films. If you saw a huge brown bear in a film from the 80’s and 90’s, it was likely Bart. Bart died in 2000 at the age of 23, but Seus and his wife used some of their earnings from the films to start a grizzly conservation organization called Vital Ground, which works to preserve grizzly bear habitat.
Doug Seus is an excellent animal trainer.
You can clearly see it from the clip.
A neophyte might think that Bar is working for only the food reward, but the truth is Bart is working because of the deep mutual respect that Seus and he share.
That bear could get the apple any way he wanted– and he could have some fresh meat to go along with it!
But you can see an eagerness to please in the bear’s eyes. It’s exactly that same look that one gets from a dog that has been trained using mutual respect as the basis for the relationship. Bart believes in Seus, which is why he’s willing to be “handled” from a distance. In a weird way, he almost reminds me of a retriever that is being handled on a blind retrieve. Strange, isn’t it?
The brown bear species, which is holarctic in its distribution, is known for its intelligence. It is also known for being a bit reactive toward people, which is why it’s not such a good idea for anyone other than a professional to keep one in captivity.
Doug Seus is a very special kind of trainer, a bear whisperer of sorts.
And that skill is not easily transferred.
If it were easily transferred, man would have domesticated the brown bear– and that would have been a much cooler animal than a wolf!
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