Laura - the wild Andean/spectacled bear captured on film by Joe Pontecorvo. This photo was taken by Robyn Appleton and colleagues Javier and Jose.
An email to the Wildlife Media team from BEARTREK producer and director, Joe Pontecorvo by iPhone returning from Peru after successfully filming one of the world’s most elusive bears last month:
Hey Guys,
I know you have been waiting and I was really hoping to give you good news, but it has been a frustrating week of fruitless searching. But one hopeful report gave us one last chance to film a bear that everybody told us was impossible.
I have to say it was down to the wire and looking desperate. We even made plans to cut our losses and head home. Then Javier and Jose came back that night and reported finding a water hole with fresh bear scat, a lot of bear scat. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but I knew I had to go. First I gave Robyn the opportunity, if she wanted to collar a bear this could be her best chance. She passed and wanted me to film it instead, so we made plans to go. But feeling if I acted too hopeful then nothing would happen, I am Italian after all, turn door knobs three times, knock on wood, and if I had worry beads I would have used them. I knew from the moment the guys reported their findings I was going, but I remained skeptical, it was after all my last day, my last chance.
At 2:00am Jose and I headed to the water hole. We walked a loose stone creekbed in the dark for two hours. Sometimes getting lost and then finding our way again.
The setting was perfect, an excellent lookout cleared out just for us. It was a cloudy day, and our first visitor was a fox. That’s a good sign I thought. But it soon got hot, very hot. I got busy filming an array of colorful birds.
And then it happened…
A bear suddenly materialized out of the rising heat haze. I fumbled for the camera, turned the lens towards the bear as it began to drink from the waterhole.
It was Robyn’s star bear in a place it had never been seen before. It was Laura! I filmed as she drank, looked around, then approached us, and it was MAGIC!! But as I panned the camera towards her (just 3 meters away!) it bumped a branch and she spooked. She did not go far, but as we followed her up a steep hillside I knew that was really the best we were going to get. We followed her for the rest of the day until she lost us, but it was a good day. And we did it!!!
Joe
Producer/Director
BEARTREK
PS Watch a clip of Joe’s Andean bear footage here.
Two hundred and fifty people joined Chris Morgan and John Taylor of Wildlife Media last night in Chris’s home town of Bellingham at a party to celebrate this home grown project with big plans. Thank you to everyone for your outpouring of support and emotion – it was a night to remember complete with fun bear stories from Chris, the first Bellingham showing of the 20 minute BEARTREK preview film, and the best funk band in the northwest by Joel Ricci and Lucky Brown! We even had Chris’s motorcycle out on the dancefloor! This is the first of many parties to come! Tell your friends and watch this space. Watch the adventure unfold by subscribing to our listserv and checking out our BLOG.
