When Derek and Heather Reich unintentionally captured an old male grizzly bear in a leg-hold snare trap, they knew they had to make a change. The 20-plus-year-old male happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it endured undeserved stress because the intention was to capture females suitable for relocation.
“It was the most heartbreaking thing either one of us had ever seen,” Derek said. “Heather almost quit.”
In 2005, Heather was involved in grizzly bear management at the beginning of grizzly reintroduction to northwest Montana’s Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem. She didn’t want to induce that kind of stress on non-targeted bears, or any bears for that matter, so she decided to use culvert traps, which cause less physical and emotional stress on bears.
“If a bear is in a snare he has to be drugged, he’s not going to sit there and let you get him out,” Derek said. “If you use a culvert trap, all you do is open the door, no harm no foul; and the non-targeted bear runs away and is happy.”
Colleagues in the business didn’t think truly wild bears – ones not habituated to people or human food – would go near something as alien as a culvert trap. That’s where cameras really came in handy.
The implementation was hugely successful. The pair met their target every year and avoided drugging dozens of bears.
During a bear’s first visits to the trap, it might inspect it and shake it from the outside, causing the door to drop with a loud bang. And away runs the bear.
Heather came up with the idea of locking the door open with road-killed bait inside.
“We’d leave it locked open for a week or two and just watch the video every day,” Derek said. “We wanted them to be comfortable enough to walk in.” If the bear fit the profile for relocation, they’d set the trap.
“That’s wildlife biologist thinking. [As a photographer] I was always thinking, ‘what’s the best angle and the best light?’” Derek said. “Heather was always thinking ‘how is the bear going to be the most comfortable?’”
“It was a good team effort,” Heather said with a laugh. “Sometimes there were arguments.”
“I would always defer to Heather,” Derek said. “For both a happy marriage and a healthy bear!”
None of this would have been possible without the combination of Derek’s thoughtful camera work and Heather’s extreme care. While funding for this project ended in 2010, methods used with both culvert traps and remote cameras have had a lasting impact on the grizzly augmentation program. And it allowed the team to avoid capturing non-targeted bears.
Derek and Heather now live in Heber City, Utah, with their two Karelian bear dogs, Orca and Sputnik. Heather is a veterinary technician, and Derek works for Dan Rather Reports, for which his cinematography won him an Emmy last year.
Derek’s interest in bear conservation started in the late 90s, when he met Vital Ground founders Doug and Lynne Seus. Derek became the director of photography for Animal Planet’s “Growing Up Grizzly” films featuring Seus with Bart, Honey Bump, and Little Bart. His involvement with grizzly bears led him to meet and eventually marry Heather. Doug Seus was the best man at their wedding.
Derek has been a Vital Ground advisory member for over a decade and has contributed many images for Vital Ground projects.
“Derek has done an enormous amount of camera work for Vital Ground,” Seus said. “Derek still contributes his time and footage to and works with media to ensure responsible messages about bears.”
Vital Ground Executive Director Gary Wolfe said Derek and Heather’s work has provided tremendous benefits to Vital Ground. “When “Growing Up Grizzly II”aired on Animal Planet, the phone would ring off the hook with people wanting to join Vital Ground,” Wolfe said. “We obtained several hundred members as a result.”
This year Derek and Heather helped launch Vital Ground’s “Bears in the Modern World” video series, which features their remote camera work while working as trapping team for Fish, Wildlife & Parks – Derek the cameraman and Heather the biologist.
Derek continues to provide camera services for his “most valued nonprofit” and any other organizations doing “responsible conservation.” None more than Vital Ground.
“Vital Ground is the real deal,” he said. “It’s delightful for us to be associated with them.”