The old expression “don’t poke the bear” is played out in the newest episode of Ultimate Ninja Challenge on Discovery, as the contestants come face to face with a bunch of black bears including a fierce mama bear and her cubs.
The ninjas know better than to invite a confrontation as nature has the animals in full preparedness for the coming hibernation.
The bears are quite active, as its time for finding the dens for their hibernation and they are rooting around the area in the last minute for safe places to hole up and to find food to eat ahead of their long-dormant snooze in the cold.
But with all that on their minds, that doesn’t stop bears from potentially fighting back the humans who are placed smack dab in the middle of their habitat.
In our exclusive clip, we see Guy taking a nap with his bow and arrow as Danielle, Guy, and JD sit by the fire.
Bear noises alert them and they head out into the woods to survey the bear action moving all around them.
Danielle says: “I heard some bears last night, they are pretty close. We are in bear country…there’s bear poop everywhere and obviously bears are moving through here consistently and I am keeping my eyes peeled and watching my back as best I can.”
As Guy heads into the woods with a crossbow, Danielle has her eyes on the cubs and they look for the mother. The black bears are scouring the area for all available food sources. “There’s a bear cub and her mom forty feet from us,” says Danielle.
Guy says: “You know the last thing you want to do is get between a mother and her cub.”
We learn 70 percent of human deaths from bear attacks are directly related to mother bears attacking when people get to close to the cubs.
Not to mention that British Columbia has one of the highest populations of black bears in the world with their numbers being somewhere between 120 and 150 thousand animals according to the Canadian Ministry of Environment.
In coastal British Columbia where our contestant ninjas are, they claim “most all black bear dens are in or under large-diameter trees, snags, logs or stumps, and may be up to 25 meters above the ground.”
Discovery Channel’s series Ultimate Ninja Challenge is a regionally based survival reality show that has placed nine warriors grouped into threesomes and dropped into the following remote British Columbia locations:
Tantalus Glacier initially got Guy Higgins, Peter Leung, and Justine Kish. Madeley Wetlands had our moss finders Dan Shrigley, Danielle Martin, JD (Josh) Caputo. Guy replaced Dan in that trio. And Dione Lake has Josh Tyler, Rob Verhelst, and Sean Tremblay trying to make it in the frigid cold.
Ultimate Ninja Challenge airs Sunday at 10 pm ET/PT on Discovery.