As Tom and Mark are watching a mother bear play with its cub the mother gets shot by a swamp hunter. Tom issues as citation to the hunter and takes the cub. Ben appears to be jealous of the cub and when the hunter's boy steals the cub Mark assumes Ben chased it off. They discover that the boy stole the cub because living in the swamp he had no friends or pets. In an on the spot judgement, Tom tells the boy that the terms of his probation are to take good care of the cub, and the boy's father goes along with it.

Mark befriends shoeless Jenny Maddox at school. However, when Tom drops her off at her father's dock in the airboat, he discovers that Jenny's father is the alligator poacher he has been looking for. Before he goes back to arrest him, Jenny's father saves Mark from an alligator. Tom thanks him for saving Mark but still has to run him in, although he offers to help him in any way he can.

Developer Philip Garrett wants to clear cut and burn the brush to build a housing development on 60 acres of land adjacent to the game reserve. Concerned about all the animals that will die in the fire, Mark and Boomhauer hatch a scheme to get Mr. Garrett to the woods to see the animals and hopefully decide not to raze the land. They 'borrow' Garrett's wife's dog Hollyhock and tell him the dog liked it there when Mark walked him there and probably returned. But the dog escapes from Boomhauer's buggy and when they find it it is being pursued by wild bear Gertrude, protecting her three cubs (Eeny, Meeny, and Miney). Tom rescues Hollyhock and Mr. Garrett decides to leave most of the land as it is and just use a small area for cattle.

Professor Hugo brings his performing bear Victor to the Wedloe home. He has bought a bungalow in a retirement community and wants to release Victor into the wild. Hugo is unable to adapt to the wild, loses a lot of weight and makes enemies with the native wildlife. Tom and Ellen visit Hugo at his home and discover that he is lonely without Victor. The two are reunited and Victor is placed in a zoo and Hugo is made his zookeeper.