Discovery Wishes Fans 'Bear-y Christmas' With 'Man vs. Bear' Marathon (Exclusive)

Discovery is sending some particularly warm and fuzzy wishes this holiday season, kicking off a "Bear-y Christmas" with a Man vs. Bear marathon this weekend. Catch up on the new competition series, which pits some of humanity's top athletes against three powerful grizzlies, in back-to-back episodes bringing you through Christmas and into the new year.

Don't miss the start of Bear-y Christmas, which begins Monday, Dec. 23 on Animal Planet from 2 to 4 p.m. ET and continues on Monday, Dec. 30 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET. On the Science Channel, you can catch up beginning Saturday, Dec. 28 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. ET and again on Friday, Jan. 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET. On Christmas Day, Man vs. Bear is airing all day long.

Man vs. Bear shows just how powerful a grizzly bear is, with human athletes competing to see how they stack up against the animals in a variety of challenges designed to emulate how a bear plays in the wild.

"It really changes how you view the wild," wildlife expert and Man vs. Bear host Casey Anderson explained to PopCulture.com ahead of the premiere. "I do believe when you walk away from this show, you're going to have a different view of the grizzly bear, and a much more real one.

Despite the bears being kept in a fun and playful environment, Anderson explained there were still plenty of layers of safety precautions to keep the the athletes separated from them, keeping everyone involved aware that a wild animal is still, well, wild.

"Even if you take all the safety precautions, it's still scary standing on the same ground as a 1,400-pound. grizzly bear," Anderson noted.

"The only tool we have is our brain, and that's the one thing you see is for [the athletes] to strategize," he continued of the humans' almost guaranteed failure against the bears. "Never to really win, but to last the longest or lose the least."

Even after Bear-y Christmas comes to a close, there's plenty more of new Man Vs. Bear episodes to come. The competition continues Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery, and on the Discovery GO app.

Photo credit: Discovery