# Hercules: the grizzly bear who became family

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lives-less-ordinary-162239/hercules-the-grizzly-bear-who-became-family
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/lives-less-ordinary-162239/hercules-the-grizzly-bear-who-became-family.md
Podcast: [Lives Less Ordinary](https://stenobird.com/podcast/lives-less-ordinary-162239)
Published: 2026-03-09T01:30:00+00:00
Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0n4w728
Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss-low/proto/http/vpid/p0n4vw8p.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lives-less-ordinary-162239/episodes/hercules-the-grizzly-bear-who-became-family
Duration seconds: 2411

## Resource

Maggie Robin raised a bear cub who grew into an extraordinary companion. When Maggie Robin and her wrestler husband Andy brought home a bear cub in 1970s Scotland, their friends thought they were mad. But the couple raised him as one of the family. Named Hercules, the tiny cub grew into a towering but gentle bear who slept by the fire, played in the garden and travelled everywhere with them. Attitudes towards keeping wild animals have changed since then, but at the time, Hercules was something of a celebrity and even appeared on film, on chat shows across the world, and met the then Prime Minister. To Maggie though, ‘Herc’ was simply family. Then one day, while filming in the Highlands, Hercules slipped his leash and vanished into the wild, sparking a nationwide search. Archive clips came from Hercules The Bear, A Love Story courtesy of Friel Kean Films. Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Edgar Maddicott Lives Less Ordinary is a podcast from the BBC World Service that brings you the most incredible true stories from around the world. Each episode a guest shares their most dramatic, moving, personal story. Listen for unbelievable twists, mysteries uncovered, and inspiring journeys - spanning the entire human experience. Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected. Got a story to tell? Send an email to liveslessordinary@bbc.co.uk or message us via WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784 You can read our privacy notice here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5YD3hBqmw26B8WMHt6GkQxG/lives-less-ordinary-privacy-notice

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lives-less-ordinary-162239/episodes/hercules-the-grizzly-bear-who-became-family/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/lives-less-ordinary-162239/hercules-the-grizzly-bear-who-became-family.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.