It turns out they didn,t just come across the dying bear the day it was filmed: it was spotted at least two days earlier by Paul Nicklen. He must have had a satellite phone with him when he saw the bear but the only call he made was to his film crew he made no attempt to find a local conservation officer to euthanize the bear, which would have been the right thing to do.

https://www.thegwpf.com/the-truth-behind-the-starving-pola?/