Summary
A mother brown bear leads her two newborn cubs down from the Alaskan mountains to the coast, timing the year around the great salmon run that will feed them before winter. The film shows how the bears find food and energy, dodge dangers, and grow across one season. A warm, accessible entry point for talking about food, habitats, and animal families.
Viewer safety
The cubs are threatened by a male bear and a wolf, and one tense scene suggests a cub may have been harmed -- everyone comes through, but preview if your class worries easily.
Our rating is a quick teacher-to-teacher guide — preview before showing.
Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
"Bears" follows a mother and two cubs through their first year on the Alaskan coast.
- Why is the salmon run so important to the bear family?
- Where does the energy in a bear's body come from? Trace it back through the food chain.
- What dangers did the mother bear have to protect her cubs from?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: salmon run, food chain, energy, predator, cub.
Try it: Draw a short food chain that ends with a bear (start with the sun). Add arrows to show which way the energy moves.