Fergus Beeley's Blog
Fergus Beeley is an independant wildlife film maker, who is currently in Georgia making a film about the rescue of an abondoned bear cub. You can follow his blog below!
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First Photos from the PBS ‘Interview’ With Guest Harpy Eagle
| This is the first photo of the Harpy Eagle from San Diego Zoo that was present at the PBS interview with Fergus Beeley about the upcoming release of ‘Jungle Eagle’.
Photo Credit: Rahoul Ghose/PBS
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During PBS’ NATURE 30th Anniversary Season “Jungle Eagle” session at the TCA Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, CA on Saturday, July 30, 2011, filmmaker Fergus Beeley, San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research’s Dr. Mike Wallace, San Diego Zoo senior trainer Cari Clements and series executive producer Fred Kaufman with Toruk, a Harpy Eagle, discuss NATURE’s program that seeks to uncover the secrets of the most powerful birds of prey in the world. |
Photo Credit: Rahoul Ghose/PBS
Fergus arrives in Los Angeles
Fergus arrived at the Beverley Hills Hilton, Los Angeles today for the press conference tomorrow for the release of ‘Jungle Eagle’ on PBS WNET Thirteen Nature.
Iglulik- Canadian High Arctic
Fergus Beeley and his team have started to make the film on snowy owls and will be spending the summer on a location near Iglulik in Nunavut, Canadian High Arctic.
Wide Arctic Tundra Sky Finds Eleven Satellites
The wide arctic tundra sky finds eleven satellites for navigating by GPS
Bear-ing All Hauser Bears Event at the RGS
By Shirley Difrawy
Last night I attended ‘Bear-ing All ‘- An evening of experts, anecdotes, information and entertainment to launch a series of Bear Research Expeditions beyond tourism’ which took place at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington Gore, London and what a fascinating
and informative evening it turned out to be !
Hauser Bears Charity Event
The evening was organised by the Hauser Bears Charity which was started by Anna and Karine Hauser. Their organisation is going from strength to strength and is already achieving great things in bear conservation, focusing on education and research. It’s interesting to see how many celebrities are already supporting Hauser Bears which goes a long way to bringing the cause into the public eye.
The evening started with an introduction from Jim McNeill, the’ Ice Warrior’ who introduced the key speakers and spoke about the launch of eight upcoming bear research expeditions.
The first speaker was Kartick Satyanarayan, the ‘Bear Man from India ‘ from Wildlife SOS which was established in 1995 and whose aims are to protect and conserve India’s natural Heritage, forests and wildlife wealth.
Kartick spoke at length about the methods they are using in India to educate people at grass roots level and how slowly but surely they are beginning to make changes. The task of wildlife SOS is enormous because it’s not just about saving the bears, but how to educate the local people in other ways of making an income rather than using the dancing bears which, in many cases, are used to bring in income to support whole families and have been for generations.
Wildlife SOS realised early on that the only way to begin to make lasting changes was not only to show how the villagers could earn money by other methods but more interestingly by educating the women of the household in ways to make changes within the family structure.
You can read much more about bear conservation in India by visiting the Wildlife SOS website.
An excerpt:
“The Kalandars of Karnataka, originally Muslim gypsies with a highly nomadic lifestyle were famous for their mastery over animals. For three hundred years they earned a living from various types of performing animals, especially dancing bears.”
One of the co- founders of Wildlife SOS, Geeta Seshamani was also present, supporting the event.
Next up on the podium was our very own award winning film maker and presenter Fergus Beeley.
Fergus Beeley on Spectacled Bears- Photo Ellie Bastin
Fergus of course is a very well-known speaker at events such as this, and has it down to a fine art. His topic for the evening was about his documentary on the spectacled bears of the Andes “The real story of Paddington. An investigation into the mysterious disappearance of cattle in the Andes shows that Paddington likes more than just marmalade.”
Fergus explained how difficult it had been to get footage of the elusive Andean Spectacled Bear, which, ‘while some people believe is vegetarian, others believe they take cattle.’
What to believe and more so, how on earth to find them.
The story of how he and his team were able to get the first video footage of these bears in their natural environment made a very interesting presentation and was delivered eloquently, as always by Fergus.
The third and final speaker of the evening was Ian McCarthy, an Emmy and award winnng cameraman and wildlife expert. Ian’s very entertaining presentation was mostly about his dealings with Kodiak bears, also known as the Alaskan Grizzly bears or the American Brown bear.
He spoke of how you must always be respectful of animals of this size and power, in his words ‘Don’t embarass the bear’ so more often than not, they will keep their distance and go their own way. He showed some amazing footage of Kodiak bears fishing for salmon which was part of the documentary previously aired on BBC TV.
Fergus Beeley and Anna Hauser RGS Event - Photo Shirley Difrawy
What struck me the most about all of these speakers was how their passion for wildlife and their appreciation of the beauty of nature shone through in everything they spoke about.
At last night’s event, Jim McNeill announced to the audience a series of fund raising and purposeful Hauser Bear Expeditions to visit all eight bear species in the wild.
From Jim McNeill’s website:
“The idea is for prospective team members to register interest (name and email address) and then receive updates, telling the story of putting on such an expedition using a “members only blog” and describing every step – from research, to safety plans, to equipment lists, to food, to logistics, to capturing the event on camera, etc. All told in detail and
as it happens.
I can’t wait!”
 Fergus Beeley on Spectacled Bears - Photo Ellie Bastin |
 Speakers and Organisers at Hauser Bears Event - Photo Ellie Bastin Anna Hauser – Jim McNeill – Kartick Satyanarayan – Ian McCarthy – Karine Hauser |
Bear-ing All
An evening of experts, anecdotes, information and entertainment to launch a series of Bear Research Expeditions beyond tourism
When: Thursday the 21st of April, from 7pm to 9.30pm.
Where: Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2YR
Tickets: Tickets cost £15 each.
For more information and to book tickets visit
Hauser Bears – Bearing All
Wildlife charity Hauser Bears invites you to learn more about the most wondrous places on earth and the bears that roam there. With stunning photography and unseen video footage, speakers will illustrate their experiences presenting the current situation, drawing on the past and hypothesizing about the future of bears around the world.
Speakers for the event are: explorer and BBC guide Jim McNeill; BAFTA award winning BBC cameraman and wildlife expert Ian McCarthy; award winning filmmaker and presenter Fergus Beeley; and The Bear Man of India, co-founder and director of Wildlife SOS India Kartick Satyanarayan.
Hauser Bears’ mission is to bring together people and organisations to create local solutions and raise global awareness. Education projects, conservation programmes, research and population monitoring – these activities help to promote a change in cultural perceptions and practices and save these endangered and noble species.
The MC for the evening is Jim McNeill, an accomplished polar explorer, presenter and keynote speaker, with over 25 years of experience travelling in the Arctic. Jim will be heading up research and fund raising expeditions taking ordinary people way beyond the tourist trail across the globe into the realm of the bear.
The trips will form part of a long running survey being run by Jim’s organisation, Ice Warrior, on behalf of the Norwegian Polar Institute.
Ian McCarthy will talk about his personal encounters with bears and how it is to be near them in the wild, in particular Kodiak Brown Bears (the largest bears in the world). Ian will include clips of a film that he shot for Natural World on Pacific Salmon of bears hunting and feeding on salmon with several personal and funny stories thrown in. He hopes to give a feel for what amazingly wonderful creatures bears are.
Ever keen to make wildlife films on more elusive and challenging creatures, Fergus Beeley met his match when BBC commissioned him to produce a film about the wild Andean, or Spectacled Bear. His talk will reveal how this was done and show extracts from the documentary- including the first footage of behaviour of these bears ever taken in the wild.
Kartick Satyanarayan’s presentation will take the audience through the challenges of how Wildlife SOS run undercover operations to bring down poachers and rescue bear cubs with a complex network of informers, decoys and anti-poaching coordinators. To achieve success in bear conservation he also works to convert poachers to protectors, creating livelihoods for people who depend on bears for a living.
For more information and to book tickets visit
Hauser Bears – Bearing All
Misha the Abandoned Bear Cub
This is the first video footage of the abandoned bear cub Misha in Tbilisi, Georgia. |
Misha The Abandoned Bear Cub
Misha |
Misha, the abandoned bear cub, plays with us in the snow before leaving the village in Georgia to go to an exciting new home in the hills of Transylvania .
‘Misha’ back to Tbilisi
I’m just back to UK!
Last weekend a convoy of EUMM took us all out from Gori to the village where they knew Misha to be and had seen her on previous patrols. When we got there, there was a huge blizzard. It was a good thing that we were in such heavy vehicles (armoured) otherwise I think we could have got stuck. But where was Misha?
We went to a Mill where EUMM had last seen her outside on the road. No one was around. Then, we saw the door handle moving on the mill door – rattling!
I went up to the door and could hear this rather pathetic wimpering behind the door! Finally, one of the villagers turns up. He opens the mill door and out comes Misha! He’s bounding around excitedly!
The guy tells us (through an interpreter) how the cub just appeared in the village and they have all been trying to look after it. He was saying how tricky it has been for them because there’s no food in the shops (actually the mill was empty, as well, except for fruit and water that had been put on the ground for the cub). They gave Misha shelter in the mill because of the heavy snow.
I noticed there was no smoke coming out from any chimneys in the village. It was flipping cold. There’s no wood. No electricity. Houses are shot up, blown up, ragged and torn. We weren’t aloud to film a lot of activity going on. Very sad and difficult for them.
However, somehow, they had kept Misha alive. I asked him if he would be keen to see the cub get a future in Romania? He was thrilled. He said that they had wanted to release the bear back into the woods, but they all knew it would never work – Misha is the sweetest, tamest little cub you’d ever meet.
He’s a walking teddy. He’d never survive. Misha walked over to the crate in the snow outside one of the vehicles. Then he jumped up to lick the face of the cameraman who was trying to kneel beside him!
Into the cars – and back to Tbilisi. Paperwork is being done as we speak for his flight to Romania. Amazingly, Twycross Zoo are flying out a vet specially for his trip. Even DHL have offered to give him a special flight service from Tbilisi to Romania. Extraordinary how everyone has pulled together on this.
I continue to get twenty emails and texts a day from Hauser Bears keeping me posted on where to be and what’s happening so that I can make arrangements to be there and film.
My film is going to be about the bigger picture of bear conservation in Georgia, but it’s great to hook it all on dear Misha.
Dear Misha…we’ll be back in about ten days or so…
Bear filming up-date
Things are moving at a speed. I get emails from Hauser Bears up-dating me with progress on how we get this abandoned cub out of the war zone and off to Transylvania, where thankfully, thanks to WSPA, it seems to have got a new home.
I met with European Union Monitoring Mission again today. They are being hugely supportive and will be taking us out to the Administrative Border Line on Thursday and Friday.
Tbilisi Zoo, who we also filmed with today, has very kindly offered to help look after the bear between rescue and flight to Romania.
The tragedy (and part of the story) is that there just isn’t anywhere to put these bears! The zoo is full! The director kindly took me out to show me an amazing bit of forest just outside Tbilisi where he hopes they can persuade the Govt to build a large sanctuary in the future. He wants this to be used to re-habituate cubs and educate the public.
We just don’t know yet whether our cub (Misha is his name, meaning ‘boy’ in Russian) will be too old for re-habituation, but our guess is that he will be. Hauser Bears have got vets lined up to inspect him when he comes in and check that he is well nourished and disease free. I’m so excited.
Ministry of Environment is pulling out all the stops to get the bear its passport and legal paperwork to reach Transylvania. I’ve seen links to its new home. It looks fab.
I’ll be meeting with Flora and Fauna International and NACRES (a local conservation organisation) tomorrow and interviewing them about their thoughts on the cub – its future – and the future of similar bears in the future.
FFI and NACRES are doing some amazing bear science down at Vashlovani National Park. We hope to be back for another filming trip in the spring when the Georgian scientists will be radio collaring the bears and getting an idea of their movements.
Watch this space!
Film on bear conservation in Georgia
I’m off to Tbilisi, Georgia this weekend to start filming an exciting new documentary on bears in Georgia. This week will be quite a challenge – I have little idea how the week is going to pan out as yet.
We’ve had word from EU Monitoring Mission that a bear cub is being seen regularly in a village near Gori, in the Administrative Zone between Georgia and Ossettia. They patrol in armed, bullet proof vehicles. They feed this bear from a bottle!
Tragically, it sounds like it has been taken illegally and kept as a pet; perhaps it’s now abandoned. I have no idea where it has come from or what it’s future will be.
A bear conservation organisation called Hauser Bears is working 24/7 to make things happen – bringing together a number of top conservation organisations working in the area to save this bear and help the future of all bears in Georgia.
I was last out in Tbilisi in 1989. Can’t believe I’m going back out. Into the humvees! Paddington VERY lost. I’ll keep you posted!