Hi and welcome to our weekly Bear Cam blog. This our last planned blog of the season. In it, we’ll be talking about favorite moments from this Bear Cam season. Brought to you by your bear cam Mods, LaniH and GABear.
In our blog last week we included a number of videos from favorite moments viewers had mentioned. Now you’ve voted on the top 5 mentioned choices and we’ll count down to the winner. First, we’d like to share this post from the Bear Cam Comments by long time viewer and chatter grandmaj. It reflects what many of us think.
“Oh my, how do you choose a favorite? Seeing each bear return after a long winter’s nap is always a joy. The continued journey of Holly, 503 & 719, along with that of Divot. A mom returning with cubs after the heart breaking loss of another. Injured bears coming back to fill well-healed tummies. So many little one’s running to and fro learning along the way. The overly protective mom’s with their little one’s learning bear life lessons. The eagles showing the gulls whose boss. The return of the wolf. The amazing colors of the sky, the snow falling gently to cover the ground in a robe of white. The beautiful colors of fall. Bears on dumpling for a bit of sweets. Bears playing, bears voicing their opinions, the sounds of folks on the platforms getting the thrill of a lifetime. Our rangers sharing their knowledge, old ones coming back to continue our education. A window into “their” world, not so unlike our own and yet so very different. How do you choose?”
To begin, here’s a list of some of the favorite moments submitted that did not make the top 5:
- Many viewers noticed that 503 seemed to “feed” other bears (or maybe allow them to easily steal from him?) including: 480 Otis, 719, and various unnumbered subadults.
480 Otis waiting for scraps from 503
- Seeing 128 Grazer and her cubs for the first time this season
- 128 Grazers smallest cub “charging” at 503
- Seeing 480 Otis return again this season
- Watching 32 Chunk beg from 755 Scare D Bear
32 Chunk begging from 755 Scare D Bear
- 503 and 719 sharing food on the rock above the falls
- Seeing subadult 610 play with other subadults for the first time
- 503’s success fishing in the Jacuzzi
503 catches salmon in the Jacuzzi
- 503 appearing to “rescue” 719 from the Grazers and from 708 and her cubs trying to steal fish
- Seeing 634 and/or 856 return much healthier in the fall
- 273’s emancipated subadult napping near the bridge
273’s emancipated subadult
- Seeing a Mom and cubs up a tree
- 128 “grazering” 503 all the way down the river
- 503 standing up to 83
- 32 Chunk sleeping in the water near the island
32 Chunk napping
- Cub up on the lip swatting at the jumping fish
- 402 falling off the lip
- 128’s smallest cub resting her head on Mom or siblings
128 yearlings napping
- Seeing 128 Grazer seem to “rule” the falls for a time
- Watching 32 Chunk cowboy walking around 480 Otis sleeping on the island
- Watching growling bears in the Jacuzzi
- Otis!
- Seeing 435 Holly with her cubs
435 Holly and cubs
- When 153 and her cubs took over the falls
- One viewer submitted in French what I translated as “being with friends”
- Seeing 410 show up this year
- Getting the great views of the bears on Dumpling Mountain
Bears on Dumpling Mountain
- Watching 503 always bouncing all around
- Seeing 480 Otis crossing the river at sunset
- 128 Grazer’s cub using the downed tree limb near the platform as a back scratcher
- The return of 451 with cubs
- 151 trying to get 503 to play
- 435 Holly chasing a sub adult
And now, what you’re all waiting for….. The results of the voting for #1 Favorite Bear Cam Moment of the 2017 Season!
Coming in at #5 is: 503 shakes up the wet t-shirt!
503 plays with a t-shirt
Beating out 503’s t-shirt dance by just a few percentage points for the #4 position is: Subadult “Lip Fisher” success fishing the lip!
Lip Fisher Subadult catches a salmon
In a back and forth race between 2nd and 3rd place, the altercation between 32 Chunk and 474 where 480 Otis appeared to intervene ended up with 18.5% of the vote and in 3rd place!
474 and 32 Chunk fight
And 480 Otis’ long, long snooze on the island (monitored by a hundred or so “nurses”) won the battle and came in 2nd place with 21.9% of the votes.
480 Otis napping on the island
And……in 1st place, taking a whopping 45.6% of the votes is……… (drum roll please….) …..
503 with his unique and amazingly choreographed Water Aerobics in the Jacuzzi!!!
503 water aerobics in the Jacuzzi
503 in the Jacuzzi
503 in the Jacuzzi
This week we had a special chat with Mike Fitz who was at the National Association of Interpretation Conference in Spokane, WA where he discussed the bear cams. The chat can be viewed here.
From GABear: I just want to say Thanks to Explore and Katmai Nat’l Park and Preserve for allowing us to have these wonderful views into a piece of the lives of these Brown Bears. Thanks to the Rangers, current and former, for continuing to help us learn about the bears and the place that they live. Thanks to all the viewers who love the bears, and the chatters who share knowledge, photos, videos and fun! See you after hibernation!
From LaniH: I want to thank Explore for asking GABear and I to do this blog every week. I’ve had so much fun putting this together for all of you. Thanks to GABear for helping me with the blog, I couldn’t have done it without her every week. Thanks so much to all of the chatters for their kind words about the blogs. I’ll see you next year when the bears return!
