The desert yeti: tracking the world's rarest bear

Nature · Published 22 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: For decades, the Gobi bear was dismissed as a myth. This documentary follows a scientific expedition to the Gobi Desert to track this elusive, small brown bear through a breathtaking landscape.

Once thought to be a legendary creature, the Gobi bear's existence was recently verified by Mongolian scientists when a specimen was captured on a camera trap near the Chinese border. These extremely shy animals are among the rarest on Earth, with an estimated population of no more than about 30 individuals remaining in the secluded Gobi Desert. The film accompanies a new research and preservation programme dedicated to studying these bears.

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