Season of the Spirit Bear - Part 1

The first part of a wildlife documentary I produced for Animal Planet, about the highly endangered Sloth Bears of Sri Lanka. The fragile state of their population mirrors that of the island's indigenous Veddha tribe, who are also facing extinction in the face of modernity.

This documentary is a brief window into the world of the bears during the fruiting season of a highly prized delicacy that they will search high and low for - and feast on with relish.

As soon as the season is over, the bears disappear once more into the depths of the forest - leading their mysterious and little-known lives...

For more info about this show and other work, visit: http://www.firewalkeronline.com/

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• sloth
• bear
• charith
• pelpola
• sri lanka
• wasgamuwa
• leopard
• veddha
• palu
• tree
• forest
• tribe
• honey
• animal planet

[TheMrSash]

Hey, great work. Awesome. Thanks

[neofelisman]

Thanks for watching!

[kennathwalpita2009]

great documentary....well done..one also should read Dr Spitle's ' White Wadda", and other novels he wrote expressing daily life of these 'Wadda People', Based on his own experience among 'wadda' clan, How their daily life style is dominated by this Black bear factor..and how their generations engage with it...one must read it for sure they are wonderful novels that you cannot stop reading once start it.

[neofelisman]

Thanks for that - yes I have read some of R. L. Spittel's other books, but not this particular one - will check it out. Would love the opportunity to work wiht and film the Veddhas again...

[bfromduarte]

Great documentary about the wildlife of Sri Lanka and the Veddas.

Well done.

[neofelisman]

Thanks a lot - glad you enjoyed it!

[wannakuwatta69]

... (contd) scholars have done some research. we learn it for Anthropology. But not proved yet. The story is amusing. Veddas and these half man nittawos have always been fighting. one day veddas got together and encircled nittawo and killed them to extinction. (end)

[wannakuwatta69]

great one. I have been lucky enough to shake hands with the earlier vedda chief - tisahamy. He was a true king. Have heard of the legend about nittawo. it's about a kind of half human half animal species that is thought to have lived in Sri Lanka some thousand's of years ago. (contd)

[bailaman]

Thanks for sharing your brilliant work!