[TV static]
- NARRATOR: It was 30 years ago that the
"Texas Parks & Wildlife" television series,
originally known as "Made in Texas" got its start.
Bruce Biermann is one more than 30 producers,
photographers, writers and editors who have contributed
to the show since its first broadcast in 1985.
- My name is Bruce Biermann and I've been with the
television series for 24 years as a producer.
One of my favorite stories is called
"The Black Bears of Black Gap."
I was following two of our biologists as they did
a study of black bears out in West Texas.
One of the bears that they captured, I was able to be
there for that event, and when the bear was knocked out
and they were processing it, studying it.
I finally recorded enough and I put down the camera and I
said, "Can I touch the bear."
And they were like, "Yeah sure."
I never thought in my wildest dreams that I'd be able to
touch a black bear, let alone, because it was knocked out
I was able to get down and smell its breath
as it was breathing.
And it was snoring.
What a wonderful life experience.
The biologists in this story are a husband and wife,
and they are a hoot.
So I hope you enjoy this story, I really enjoyed producing it.
[airplane engine hums]
- Back in there, we're getting the best signal
but it's not, she must be in a cave or an over bank.
I'm Bonnie McKinney and I live on the Black Gap Wildlife
Management Area which is down along the Mexican border.
Momma bear has moved.
Maybe make a complete circle around.
Maybe she's right back in there.
We have a research project going on here at the Black Gap
Wildlife Management Area.
We have seven bears collared.
Got her.
- Yea, he's right down there.
- Yea, you can just swing back around there again.
A natural recovery by any wildlife species, very seldom
does it naturally recover without man helping it along.
And the bears have just literally decided to make
West Texas their home again and are actually moving back
into this country from Northern Mexico.
So it's up to us to kind of help them in any way that
we can, and we need to learn something about these bears.
Look over there, what's that on, wait, what's that on the ridge?
Stop. Stop.
Look.
- MAN: I think it's on top.
- BONNIE: Yea, she's right on the top.
That's where she's at.
- BILLY: Can you see her?
- BONNIE: No, but I can hear him.
We're studying home range, diet, habitats, mortalities,
and we also want to be able to provide management techniques
for private landowners that are now finding themselves
living with the black bear in West Texas.
[beeping radar]
Some of our colleagues and peers, they sort of look at
you and say "You don't really have black bears on Black Gap,
do you?"
Well, yeah.
We've got seven bears collared.
"Oh, come on, what do they eat?"
Well, they eat Spanish dagger, and sotol and yucca,
and they sort of shake their heads and say,
"It's just amazing. We can't believe that."
Well, come down and visit the study site
and we'll take you out.
[door slams shut]
- We'll get this gate open and set and we can catch a bear.
- Bonnie does a lot of different things.
She does a lot of cactus surveys and bird work.
Right now a lot of stuff that's taking Bonnie's time up
is this bear research program that's going on at Black Gap
Wildlife Area right now.
- Well, I'm the boss.
But, ah, he bosses.
- And sometimes there's little deals, you know, like
'you go do this' and she'll say, "I don't work for you."
- We get along.
- You know how marriage is.
- Well, we've lived in the gap for, almost 20 years.
And, it's kind of a joke.
When we moved to the gap, he said,
"Oh you'll love over there.
"There's lots of trees.
Lots of water."
Well, you couldn't get more desert than Black Gap, so...
Actually we met on the Black Gap.
- You can look around here and there's not a lot of women
in this country so you make opportunities where you can.
- I guess you could say he charmed me.
- I actually caught her stealing cactus, you know.
[laughs]
- You know, life sentence, I try to make
the best of it, here, so...
- It's not always peaches and cream, that's for sure, ah.
- He really didn't charm me, guys.
- Bonnie's a strong-willed person,
I'm set in my ways, and ah.
- It's really been a life sentence.
We love the solitude out here.
If we get in an argument we can certainly scream our heads
off and not worry about the neighbors hearing about us,
but ah.
- BILLY: It's actually about 85 miles to an area
where you can get a good selection of groceries
and things, and that's an hour and a half drive, one way.
And that's an extra 20 dollars added onto your food bill.
[tires on gravel]
- We also disagree on a lot of things.
But, being a husband and wife, we work it out.
- Yea, it can be crazy and different working
with your wife but it's really a good job.
- Bye!
- BONNIE: The bears move around until about 11 o'clock
when it gets real hot.
So we go check traps early in the morning.
Ok, this is the fun part of bear trapping.
Resetting the barrels.
The guys have refused to crawl in here on their tummies
and re-bait for me.
Ok, I'm going to use a commercial bait.
It's a strawberry-flavored bait.
Ouch.
A bear comes in here, he can't resist it.
They love sweet stuff.
They'll flip this little trigger when he tries
to get this bait bag and we catch a bear.
You see a bear out here in this country and they've been
gone so long and then to have them back, it's a pretty
incredible deal.
And it's also putting back a part of Texas that was gone.
That we thought was gone forever.
They're back.
- BILLY: Come on out and, and bring those drugs
as quick as you can.
We've got a bear in a tree up there in Alpine.
I need that stuff.
- BONNIE: Ah, 10-4, we're on our way.
[truck drives off]
- BONNIE: We just got a call from Alpine that there's a
bear in a tree in Alpine and, I've got the drug kit with me.
Bill is, in route and Don's gone up to pick up
the culvert trap.
So we are on the way.
- BILLY: 10-4.
I'll be on route right behind you.
[tires on road]
- BONNIE: She should stay up the tree.
Hopefully, and we'll dart her and probably get her down
with ropes.
Get out of the way.
How much do you have to mix it?
- BILLY: I've got it mixed right here.
Hold this right here.
- BONNIE: How big is that bear?
He's right there?
If he falls, do you want to put him in a tarp?
- HOMEOWNER: And I was up fooling around in the yard.
I looked up in this tree, and there was a bear in the tree.
So I go in and tell my wife and, she didn't believe me,
of course.
She had to come out and look.
[dart gun fires]
- BONNIE: Good shot.
- BONNIE: Well, he'll go down in a minute.
He's in a perfect tree cause when he falls, he'll just hit
those branches and it'll break his fall all the way down.
Ok, you all get back a little bit;
we're going to drop him down.
We're going to attempt to drop him down.
[tree branches break]
- BONNIE: That's a big bear.
Take that magnet off.
- BOY: This is cool.
Can I touch him?
- BONNIE: No, now you all need to stay back.
Bears are all wild animals and they're not...
Ok, I need tip of his nose, right on the tip,
right down the middle center of his back.
We need more tape!
[laughs]
We need to get that blood.
Ear tag him.
Ok.
- BILLY: We put the tracking collars on these bear
cause we want to determine their home ranges
and compare it to other studies in the United States.
And I expect us to find some pretty exciting
information out.
And without the tracking collars, we wouldn't know
as much about what's going on, especially about these
individual animals.
- BONNIE: Collar's plenty loose.
He's snoring.
[bear snoring]
- BONNIE: We have a wet towel.
- My daddy snores.
He does.
He goes snort, snort, snort.
- BONNIE: What do you guys think we should call this bear, huh?
Let's think of a really neat name.
- Black bear.
- BONNIE: No, come on.
- Big bear. Papa bear.
Blue.
- Do you have to give him something to wake him up?
- BONNIE: No, this is a drug that is really good for bears.
He'll wake up, he'll be really groggy, and...
- BILLY: He's not really a problem bear.
He really didn't do any damage or tear anything up.
It's just that we really moved him for his protection
and not for people's protection.
- BONNIE: He wasn't a problem bear or nuisance bear.
So there's no problem with him going anywhere, as far as,
he's not a problem.
But we'll monitor his movement.
A lot of times a relocated bear doesn't stay in the area
that you put him in.
So, we'll get out and do lots of ground telemetry
in the next couple of days with this big guy.
- BILLY: OK, what we got here is a rope tied to
our guillotine gate, so we can let this bear loose without
anybody being around it for safety reasons and also cause
he might come out a little better if he's,
there's not anybody standing around opening the gate.
[opens the lock]
- BILLY: All we got to do is turn him loose now.
[gate opens]
- BONNIE: Wonder if he'll stay in here.
We'll come up early in the morning and run telemetry
on him and see what he's doing.
He'll probably sleep most of the rest of the afternoon.
It's almost a comforting feeling to know that
black bears are out here in this country.
And they're moving around at night, they're feeding,
they're raising their young.
After being gone for so long, that they're actually
coming back.
- BILLY: It kind of sooths my soul, if you'll say,
that this animal has come back.
Basically he's done it on his own.
Hopefully we'll give him some help to go ahead
and finish his expansion into historic range.
But to me, it's just a good feeling and I really think
that a lot of people are going to get that same feeling that
we have this animal here and that maybe we're doing
something right on the wildlife management area
to have this animal here.