Man Vs Bear (FIGHT!) | This is Earth

 Man VS Bear

Have you ever wanted a 1,400-pound bear to play against? Did you ever want to see someone else do it?

In either case, the latest series 'Man Vs Bear' from Discovery, which premiered on Dec. 4, maybe for you.

Yeah, that's quite an idea. But it isn't as terrifying as you would imagine. "My wife was like,' Are you serious? Are you really going to compete against a bear?' I'm like,' Yeah,'" says USA TODAY to Kyran Ashford, one of the competitors and a supervisor of the Southwest Airlines operations agent. His episode airs Jan. 1 at 9 p.m. EST / PST.

Here's the premise: At Bear Mountain, Utah, humans compete against grizzly bears in challenges that test strength, speed, and stamina. The grizzly bears in question – "the stars of the show," according to Joseph Boyle, Discovery's senior vice president of production and development – are Bart, the biggest and most powerful bear at 8 feet, 6 inches tall and 1,400 pounds; Honey Bump, the only female on the mountain and the bear with the strongest predatory instinct; and Tank, a bear known for his healthy appetite.

For a show called "Man Vs Bear," considering what the show's moniker means, there's not as much contact between them as you might expect. Yeah, competitors perform physical tasks, but "there is always a risk of being injured by a competitor, but not by a bear," says Boyle.

Doug and Lynne Seus have raised and taken care of all three bears on protected land for two decades. Boyle says that during filming, animal welfare security workers were available and ensured that people behaved properly on set.

Three players go up against the bears in four challenges each week, and the top two contestants move on to a final challenge where they (well, sort of) come face-to-face with Bart. The show will air a finale with the top three rivals in the season after seven episodes and 21 rivals, crowning an eventual champion.

Each challenge represents what bears do in the wild daily, from engaging in a game of "tug of war" to rolling giant logs.

On a 22-foot high table, contestants stand and compete in a tug of war with Bart. They wear a rope-attached harness across a small body of water from Bart, which has the other end of it; they receive one point, no matter how long they can remain on the platform. This challenge is motivated by the fact that grizzly bears have one of the animal kingdom's greatest jaw pressures (why they can easily rip apart carcasses or take whatever they want from other animals).

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