Gordon asks the family to bear with him

ScotTISH wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan became so fond of a family of bears he was filming he introduced them to his own family.

The encounter with the bears in Minnesota was part of his latest project - The Bear Family And Me.

Black bears have a fearsome reputation, but in his time filming them Gordon became confident enough to introduce them to his wife Wendy and children Lola, eight, and five-year-old Harris.

Gordon, 38, who was brought up on Mull but now lives in Glasgow, said: "People always think I am insane to do things that I do - especially my wife.

"But, unlike human beings, animals behave in predictable ways. I have been doing this for 20 years so I can predict their pattern of behaviour.

"With the bear series, I discovered bears are greatly misunderstood. Once you learn about them and read the signs they're giving off, you can be perfectly safe."?

• The three-part series The Bear Family and Me begins tonight at 9pm on BBC2.