only person in the world who can get this close to one and survive.

MARK: Good girl. Oh! What a good girl you are.

COMM: And while Mark might be able to keep up on land, will he be as successful in the

water, where polar bears are equally in their element?

MARK: I don't know anyone that swims with an adult polar bear. It's one thing

to swim with them when they're a baby. It's totally different to swim with them when they're adults.

COMM: Mark isn't alone to having such a close bond with bears.

Mark: Come up.

COMM: And as we explore these complex relationships, we'll discover that living with such powerful

animals can be unpredictable,

COMM: surprising,

MARK: She's sucking on my fingers. She enjoys sucking on my fingers.

COMM: occasionally surreal,

MARK: There you go. That tongue goes anywhere, doesn't it?

COMM: And always charged with potential danger.

MARK: I didn't touch you.

COMM: In Abbotsford, Canada, Mark and Dawn Dumas are starting their day and it's feeding time.

MARK: Good morning! So this is Agee's treat for this morning. She just gets leftover food

from whatever we had for dinner.

WOMAN: Greek rice.

MARK: Well there you go. It's Greek rice. I am gonna go in right now with Agee. I am

gonna give her a treats and then I'll clean her cage and this is our quiet time together

where we just kinda hang out and it's always to find out what kind of mood she's in this

day and how we progress.

Hi! She's gonna go over and check everyone out.

COMM: This is Agee. A fully grown, sixteen year old polar bear.

COMM: The couple have raised Agee since she was a tiny cub and because of this life long

bond, Mark can get closer to a polar bear than anyone else in the world.

MARK: I got you, Ahh… I got your great belly. This belly rub. Now, I'm gonna see if I

can pluck off without her getting too upset, some of her old hair. Part of the contact

is, this way you get to find out that she has nothing growing on her and her weight's

good, in fact she's little on the heavy side.

COMM: As you might expect given the number of years they've been together. Mark's

day to day relationship with the bear is complicated.

MARK: Well I am her companion, her disciplinarian, her trainer. I think sometimes she thinks

she's my mistress. She gets very jealous of me when I am talking with other people.

If I go away for, any length of time when I come back, she's the jealous girl, she'll

come over, say hello and then walk away and blow me off.

COMM: But today at least, Agee seems pretty affectionate. And in the mood for a bit of

rough and tumble.

MARK: Oh yeah! Watch this girl. I am gonna switch it up alright. I am gonna take you down.

MARK: I'm gonna have a rest now.

COMM: Mark's neighbors seem to take having a polar bear next door in their stride.

ROB WARNER: Every morning at seven thirty in the morning, me and my wife sit there and

watch Agee swim and to be able to sit back in your porch with a cup of tea and watch

a polar bear in your backyard is the most amazing thing. I love it.

COMM: Mark trains animals that appear in the movies and on television and it was through

work that he first came to get Agee.

MARK: 1994, Fraser Heston; director, producer and son of Charlton Heston came to us and

asked us if we could locate a polar bear cub for a movie he wanted to do. We called all

over the world and found a pregnant female at a zoo in Sweden - the Kolmården zoo.

And we purchased her and raised her working for the film. First three months that we had her

she lived in our basement. She used to like to get behind the washer, washer and dryer

and sleep back there. She's not really domesticated; she's still a wild animal. We just spent

a tremendous amount of time with her, with raising her and bottle feeding her. Got just inside of

her head, understood her and worked it that way.

COMM: Agee is now far too big for a bottle and has quite an appetite.

MARK: She eats around twelve to fifteen pounds a day in her normal diet but when she's

working she can even consume a lot more than that. She's an omnivore even though she

basically eats, in the wild they eat just meats. They'll graze in the summer. She

only eats seal, and I can't give her seal. I mean first of all people would be very objectionable.

It's a hard source of meat to get. So, she's adapted. Favorite food is I'd say salmon.

She loves pastas, she does like pizza. She really does, she likes her doughnuts. And

so she doesn't really have one favorite food but her all time working food is salmon.

COMM: And food also plays an important part in her training.

MARK: You don't really use food as the cue you give her a command or ask her to do a

behavior and then you reward her with the food.

MARK: Stay.

MARK: You always want to make it a positive experience and you want her to enjoy it.

MARK: Stay. Good girl. Oh! What a good girl you are. Yes!

MARK: If you have an animal that doesn't wanna be there, you can see the fact it doesn't

wanna be there and also you have a chance of having an accident happen. She enjoys working,

she enjoys going to the set and actually doing things. She has fun doing it.

MARK: Smile, big big big big. Good girl.

COMM: But despite Agee's willingness to respond to Mark's commands, he's always

aware that she is a wild animal who might change her mind at any time.

MARK: When we are looking at her moods, we look at her body posture, how relaxed her

body is but the most important thing for her is her eye. That is the key thing. Her eye

will go bad first before her body starts to react and it's really hard to read a bear's

eyes. You just have to have years of experience of being around them to understand that.

MARK: I didn't touch you and you jerked.

COMM: It seems that Agee has decided that training is over for the day.

COMM: If one bear seems quite a handful, over in Florida this family have thirteen in

their backyard.

MARK: Here comes trouble.

COMM: For almost a century the Welde family have owned, trained and worked with bears.

JOHNNY: My grandfather started in 1926 in Norway. He came to this country in the forties

and then in the late fifties and sixties did a lot of TV shows and movies.

JOHNNY WELDE: A talent scout saw me leading this bear around at three years old and he said

if that bear can work with a little boy like that, then he can work in Hollywood.

JOHNNY WELDE: I see them more like family. I mean I was raised with the bears in a way.

MONICA WELDE: My husband and I have been married thirty three years and the bears were a part of

the package. So, I don't know who I fell in love with first, the bears or my husband.

We do everything we can to make them happy and give them a proper home.

COMM: And Johnny and Monica's son Johnny Welde IV is following in his parents' footsteps.

JOHNNY WELDE IV: These guys are my family and I don't know how else to put it. I interact

with them every day, play together, feed them, clean them, bathe them, brush them, do everything

with these guys.

COMM: Their thirteen brown bears range in age from three to twenty one years old and

are from three subspecies - European, Syrian and North American. Also known as the grizzly

bear.

MONICA: These are still wild animals and we respect them for that. We build a relationship

with our bears based on mutual love and respect. They know if you have any fear, they can sense

that. These are extremely intelligent but powerful animals.

COMM: The bears demonstrate this intelligence and power in the shows they perform for

visitors at the Welde's Bearadise Ranch.

WOMAN: And a sloppy kiss for the trainer. Aww… good job. Isn't he gorgeous?

MONICA WELDE: One bear likes to do one behavior and one likes to do another. When they are

small and young, my husband plays with them and feels them out to see what they like to do and

develops their personalities because all bears are different like people. So, it's all

based on what they like to do 'cause that's very important.

WOMAN: Wave to the boys and girls. Give them a bear wave. There you go. Good job.

COMM: The Welde's have faced criticism over the years but are proud of the way they treat

their bears.

MONICA WELDE: We do not believe that it's cruel to keep these animals in captivity.

I know 13 bears that won't be somebody's rug.

WOMAN: Let's give him a big round of applause. Good boy.

MONICA WELDE: Every job we do with them, the money goes to them to make their habitat better,

to build our facility bigger and better for them. Their wild counterparts don't have

it too easy. Unfortunately, all species of bears are threatened and endangered; I like

to bring awareness to people about that. Hopefully we can use our facility as an educational

facility. Awareness is education.

COMM: While these bears are happy around this family. Caution is still advised when dealing

with the animals in the wild.

MONICA WELDE: Bears can be dangerous animals. The relationship we have with our bears is

something that's built up over years of living with them; 365, 24/7. They thrive on the contact

and the interaction every day.

COMM: And some of that interaction is not what you might expect.

MARK: She's sucking on my fingers. She enjoys sucking on my fingers. Here comes Andy. Wanna

suckle too? If I didn't know better, I would be intimidated because they could take your

finger off any second. I know which bears to do it with and which one's not to.

They have a very soft tongue like a dog. We want them enjoy their life as much as we

enjoy ours. And that's why we do what we do with them.

MONICA WELDE: So we got happy bears right here. We want happy bears.

COMM: Back in Abbotsford, Canada, Mark and Dawn Dumas might not have thirteen bears to

look after but as well as Agee the polar bear, they do have a new, young animal actor in

training called Billy.

DAWN: Good bear.

MARK: Good boy.

MARK: We got Billy when he was six months old and he was a nice socialized bear already.

So, it was really fun to have him around as a cub.

DAWN: Yeah. Slobber, slobber, slobber.

MARK: Billy was born in Ontario at Northwood's Animal Conservatory which is a private zoo.

Billy is a year and four month old grizzly bear and he weighs right now 250 to 300lbs

and when he stands up, he stands up to my shoulders which is not quite five feet, 4'8

or 4'9.

MARK: I got him again, I got him. I got him in the waist.

MARK: Billy usually wakes when the sun comes up. So, anywhere from five to six, but I let

him out of his cage and let him play and have to give him his breakfast around seven in

the morning and then after he's eaten and I've done other chores, I come back.

It's like fifteen minutes training intervals because his mind is young and he won't absorb

it. So, you do short intervals and he works much better that way. We don't do it in

hours and hours unless you are just hanging out and playing with them.

MARK: Here Billy.

DAWN: It's okay honey.

MARK: Good boy.

COMM: Part of Billy's daily routine is being taught the skills that he'll need to succeed

on the big screen.

MARK: On your side. On your side. Good side. Oh did you see what a good bear. What a good

boy! Yeah.

COMM: He's taking to some things better than others.

MARK: Come. C'mon let's go. C'mon bill. Okay.

COMM: And being so young it's not unusual for him to throw the occasional temper tantrum.

MARK: That's good. Billy come.

COMM: And Mark has to know when enough is enough.

MARK: Yeah. Forget it, I'll walk away from you. Yeah. I'll walk away.

MARK: Let's go. C'mon Billy.

COMM: For Billy to be able to work around film crews, he needs to get used to the

sights and sounds of everyday modern life. So, today they are taking him out for a drink.

MARK: C'mon. Billy, let's go.

DAWN: Let's go.

MARK: Here. Good boy.

MARK: It's important for Billy to come out and explore new places. So, what we did is

came to the Rendezvous Pub in Langley, brought him in and he gets to sniff around, he smells new

things, he gets to see everything that's different.

MARK: C'mon, c'mon.

MARK: Most people are in awe. When they see the bear, they haven't ever seen a grizzly

close up and walking down the street or coming into a pub. Some people are afraid but they're

naturally, they're people that are afraid of animals to begin with.

WOMAN: When I saw Billy walk in, I was like oh my goodness! What is he gonna drink first?

You know what is he gonna do? But he was great. He was awesome. He was probably more

well behaved than most of the patrons that come in here!

MARK: Good Billy. Yeah. Thank you. Okay, here you go.

WOMAN: A little licky though, a little kiss and a little bit too much leg for some of the

girls but otherwise he was awesome.

MARK: Good boy. Yeah. Is that good stuff? Oh Yes. Yes. That's a good bear.

DAWN: Thank you very much.

MARK: Yeah. That tongue goes anywhere doesn't it?

WOMAN: Well, when he first came in I didn't feel any fear. I was a little bit uneasy but

not, not fearful. I think he was gonna do his own thing, mind his own business, he ended

up giving me a couple of licks which is fine.

COMM: But being a bear and a minor Billy's drinks are strictly non alcoholic.

DAWN: Yes, because we don't want a drunk bear. That would be quite entertaining.

BILL ZERVAS: He was really good, one of our better customers. He doesn't know how to

tip yet but still a pretty good customer.

COMM: After drinks, it's through to the games room.

MARK: I really enjoy taking Billy to new places and just having him out about and watching

him learn and soak things in and you know, it takes him a little while to get used to things.

MARK: Here Billy. Here you go. Good boy. Oh what a nice shot hon. Good boy Billy.

DAWN: Yeah. Number seven, let's put you in the corner part in there. Almost.

COMM: With his thirst and his curiosity satisfied, it's time for this grizzly to hit the road

again.

MARK: Billy let's go. Let's go. C'mon.

COMM: Another man, who knows all about looking after wild animals of all ages, is Carl Bovard.

He owns and runs Single Vision, a non profit animal sanctuary which is based in his back

garden in Melrose, Florida.