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NATURE: Bears Of The Last Frontier: The Road North

This mother black bear and her cubs are true urban bears. They have learned to look both ways before crossing the street.
Nimmida Pontecorvo © WNET
This mother black bear and her cubs are true urban bears. They have learned to look both ways before crossing the street.

Airs Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 8 p.m. on KPBS TV

Get up close and personal with North American bears in NATURE's three-part special "Bears of the Last Frontier." NATURE joins adventurer and bear biologist Chris Morgan on a year-long motorcycle odyssey deep into Alaska’s bear country to explore the amazing resiliency and adaptability of these majestic animals as they struggle to make a living in five dramatically diverse Alaskan ecosystems: coastal, urban, mountain, tundra, and pack ice.

In this episode, Chris Morgan explores the world of black bears caught in the crossroads of urban development in Anchorage and the wilderness. This is a new normal for bears and for their human neighbors.

Some bears are so comfortable living in urban surroundings that their primary habitat is a golf course. In residential areas, bears frequently raid garbage bins and birdfeeders for easy snacks. But these behaviors are less than ideal for bears and residents alike.

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Morgan heads north out of Anchorage to Denali National Park, where the mountains loom over treeless plains and bears get by on a diet of thousands of berries a day. The grizzlies share the enormous park with foxes, wolves and moose — and with one intrepid bear biologist and his team.

Morgan continues his journey north on a bone-shaking, 610-mile motorcycle journey from Denali to Prudhoe Bay along the only Alaskan highway to reach the Arctic. Prudhoe Bay, a once pristine area at the edge of the Arctic Ocean, has been changed forever by the oil industry.

Up Next:

"Bears Of The Last Frontier: Arctic Wanderers" airs Wednesday, July 25, 2012 at 8 p.m.

The first episode, "Bears Of The Last Frontier: City Of Bears," originally aired in 2011, and rebroadcast July 11, 2012.

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Watch the full episode. See more Nature.

Watch the full episode. See more Nature.

Get up close and personal with North American bears in NATURE's three-part special "Bears Of The Last Frontier." Nature joins adventurer and bear biologist Chris Morgan on a year-long motorcycle odyssey deep into Alaska’s bear country to explore the amazing resiliency and adaptability of these majestic animals as they struggle to make a living in five dramatically diverse Alaskan ecosystems: coastal, urban, mountain, tundra, and pack ice.