A heart warming story it was although the ending certainly wasn't as happy. I remember reading the book and at the time thought that the fate of these bears was already written. This is an excerpt from Pilot Journal: The Bears of Kamchatca

www.planeandpilotmag.com/travel/journeys/the-bears-of-kamchatka.html?tmpl=component&print=...

The spring of 2003 arrived and so did Russell and Enns, who were excited to see Biscuit’s offsprings. The lake was still frozen and the snow had drifted deep around the cabin. “I wanted to see Biscuit come out of her den with her new cubs, but it didn’t happen that way,” recalls Russell.

Instead, there wasn’t a bear in sight. Last fall, after Russell and Enns left, poachers had used their cabin to kill the bears around Kambalnoye Lake. More than 40, including Biscuit and Brandy, were gone. A single gallbladder was left, nailed to the cabin wall.

“It was incredibly devastating.” Russell pauses before continuing. “It was an awful way to end our project.” Russell and Enns are still tormented by the thought that their work of acclimating the bears to humans might have enabled the poachers to easily walk right up to the bears and kill them.

Today, the couple is still grieving for their loss. But in December of last year, the poachers who were responsible for the genocide at Kambalnoye Lake were arrested, giving Russell and Enns some sort of closure to the tragic event.