 Nikolayenko walked more than a year through the remote river valleys and coastal plains of Kamchatka, where approximately 15,000 brown bears are under increasing threat from foreign hunters and poachers.He documented an average of 800 bear contacts each year.For over 20 years, Nikolayenko followed an enormous male he named Dobrynya, forming such an easy bond that the bear would often curl up to sleep just a few feet from him.