THE BROWN BEAR WHO CAUGHT HIMSELF NAPPING

Not all the animals handed their cameras back. ‘With the brown bears in the Turkish mountains, we piggybacked on existing work by scientists and conservationists,’ says Gordon. ‘We had to design a collarcam to just latch on to the satellite collars they already used. ‘Bears are all-terrain vehicles. They swim, climb trees, hike up mountains. We needed a very robust camera but sometimes the bears ripped them straight off. In several cases we never got the collars back.’

One bear named Faroukh proved an exceptional camera star, during an eventful day. He began before midnight, foraging in the forest. Then he went for a spot of shut-eye in a cave. This surprised scientists, who assumed bears only used caves for hibernation. At dawn, he went into the meadows to drink. The camera captured how Faroukh lapped up moisture from the dew on the grass. Then he went in search of breakfast – on the road. To Gordon’s alarm, cars hurtled past, just missing the bear while he hunted for food in the rubbish flung from car windows.

Bears in Turkey are well-known for raiding rubbish tips. Some conservationists want to fence them off and keep the bears out, while others worry that would mean an invasion of hungry bears into the neighbouring woods.

Even now, forests are over-populated – as Faroukh discovered. He is confronted by another bear and a brief, vicious tussle ensues, in which Faroukh sees off his challenger.

Our hero returns to his lair, where the bearcam reveals that

The bears needed robust cameras

Night-vision cameras caught the bears foraging