Hi and welcome to our weekly Bear Cam blog. We will be publishing this blog every week with a review of the previous weeks Bear Cam highlights. Brought to you by your bear cam Mods, LaniH and GABear.
This week we got confirmation on the ID’s of two more sows seen with COY (Cubs of the Year or spring cubs). 813 (aka Nostril Bear) showed up with 2 little cubs, video can be seen here. 813 looked like she had a bent ear and according to Ranger Russ the Bear Monitor said the following:
“From what Tammy said from her observations it seemed like more than just her ear, she said it looked as though something had happened that might have affected that side of her face. She noticed something also off with her jaw.”
The second sow who has shown up with 3 coy was ID’d as 94. Her cubs are all pretty dark colored, unlike 482 Brett who has one very light, mocha colored cub in her family of 3.
94 and her three coy Snapshot by Bats
94’s coy were spotted on Thursday July 26 playing and wrestling on the closed trail, it was a cub cuteness overload 🙂 video can be seen here.
94’s coys playing Snapshot by MMT
813 Nostril Bear and coy Snapshot by Larinor
Here is the link to Ranger Jeanne’s Flickr page of 813 Nostril Bear, as she’s been absent for a couple years many viewers may not be familiar with her.
So our total cub count is currently 13 coy, plus 5 yearlings! Wow! We’ve had many great views of some of the coy at the Lower River area. But we’ve also seen both sows with yearlings and at least one with with coy visit the falls area this week.
402 and her 4 coy fished the Lower River area early in the week. Her cubs are so tiny, they tire easily from swimming and were caught on the cams hitching a piggy back ride on 402. It was great fun to watch and 402 was very patient with them climbing on her back. The amazing moment can be viewed here.
402 with her 4 coy on her back Snapshot by CamOp Araya
Later in the week, 402 brought the family to the falls. 402 is a bear who has commonly fished the falls with her previous litters of spring cubs. In the past she has sometimes treed them near the fish ladder while she fished. Sometimes they didn’t stay put and some have famously washed over the falls (all were okay!) trying to get to 402 fishing on the lip. This week, the cubs were left on the bank in front of the viewing platform, affording us some great views of them. Video of their visit to the falls can be seen here.
402 and her coy at the falls Snapshot by Camop Snick
451 and her yearlings were seen on the lower river near the bridge during a PBP by Mike Fitz, he noted that this was the first time he had seen 451 play with her cubs, and she had probably had a few good days of catching fish. Also cubs mirror their mothers when the mothers are relaxed or playful the cubs will be also. You can watch the entire interaction on the PBP found here.
451 playing with her cubs Snapshot by LaniH
451 and yearlings were also at the falls again this week pirating fish from subadults, they were even so bold as to try and pirate from 409 Beadnose as she was on the lip you can watch the interaction here.
451 and yearlings trying to pirate from 409 Beadnose Snapshot by Greenriver
The many, many sub adults at Brooks continue to entertain us. The ones who are frequenting the falls area have become quite bold – often challenging and begging from each other as well as from the adult bears! Sometimes their bold behavior gets them “charged” by adult bears who don’t like their personal space invaded.
subadult tries to beg from 409 Beadnose Snapshot by Bearz61
Sometimes, it’s the river itself that causes them trouble. We’ve even seen one of them wash over the lip of the falls since they are not heavy enough to withstand the current up there. Video of the subadult trying to fish the lip and then slipping off can be seen here.
subadult surfaces in the J after slipping off the lip snapshot by Swamplady
The sub adults in the Lower River area often appear more interesting in running and playing than fishing. We continue to observe sessions of play-fighting and also some high speed chases. We were amazed how quickly 3 sub adults at full speed could cover the approximately 300 yard distance between the spit and the Lower River viewing platform!
subadult chase on spit screen shot by LaniH
32 Chunk demonstrated how to not lose your place at the falls when the need to nap becomes overwhelming. He simply sidled up to a convenient pillow….errrr….rock for his head and settled in for a good sleep! Watch 32 taking his nap here.
32 Chunk napping in the river Snapshot by Krayonz
With the end of July comes the end of the majority of the salmon run. August is usually a time where we see significantly less bears along the river. Mike Fitz had this to say in the comments on Wednesday:
“It’s quite possible that many bears have begun to migrate away from Brooks River to forage and fish in other areas. Since the salmon run was so strong this year, they’ll likely be able to find salmon easily in other streams and creeks. Bear numbers at Brooks River usually peak in mid July, so since we’ve entered the end of the month we can expect to see fewer bears fishing at the falls.”
He also wrote a new blog about this topic, read it here.
Most of the time in August, we don’t see many bears. A few have remained some years. Last year a lot of bears stayed. Mike commented on this:
“Last August was not a “normal” August for sure. I had never seen multiple bears consistently fishing at Brooks Falls throughout August. That was unprecedented within my experience.”
We had another wolf sighting at the falls and many viewers were concerned at how skinny the wolves seem to be. Mike Fitz had this to say:
“Most wolves in Katmai that I’ve seen in mid summer look like this one. Like many of the bears, the wolves don’t have a thick fur coat right now. While wolves are large mammals, they appear much thinner without their lush winter fur. Most photographs of wolves seem to be from the fall, winter, and spring when they have thicker coats. I think this sometimes skews our perspective on their size toward the upper end. Katmai’s foxes right now also appear thin and lanky because they don’t have thick winter coats”
Video of the wolf seen at the falls can be viewed here.
Wolf at the falls Snapshot by LaniH
This week we learned the new numbers that were assigned to sub adult bears last fall, but did not make the Brooks Bears ebook. We also got copies of the NPS photographs of those bears. Our industrious chatters who maintain the Katmai Bear Cam wiki pages here have added pages for these new bears and their photos are included on their pages. You can access them from this page. One of the new subadults is easily recognizable by the scar he has on his right hip: bear 821.
Subadult 821 Snapshot by Bookmom
Now for our favorite moment from the week:
LaniH:
On Thursday July 26, 435 Holly and her yearlings visited the falls. 435 was near the fish ladder with her cubs but then walked over to the far pool. Her yearling cubs didn’t follow instead they walked out onto the lip and then proceeded to walk back and forth, stand up and get perilously close to the edge of the lip, all the while keeping an eye on Holly. They seemed so curious at what was up on top of the falls. Then the inevitable happened – her lighter cub slipped off the lip. Her sibling rushed down the fish ladder after her, but she was fine and seen on the island with Holly and sibling. Video of the cubs adventures on the lip can be seen here.
435 Holly’s yearling in the J after slipping off the lip Snapshot by LaniH
GABear:
My favorite view this week was watching 402 diving in the Jacuzzi. I’ve always been amazed seeing her do this. She’s the only bear I’ve witnessed regularly in my years of watching that actually dives – not just dipping her head and part of her body under the water briefly, but actually kicking her back legs and totally disappearing under the surface. And she swims under there, coming up in a different spot! It’s just interesting to me that a bear develops a technique that is pretty unique compared to the more common list of fishing behaviors. Video of 402 diving in the jacuzzi can be seen here.
402 surfacing after diving in the J while her cubs watch on shore photo by Resch
We had a live chat with Rangers Andrew and Russ about the History of Bear-Human Interactions view it here.
Rangers Russ and Andrew
Mike Fitz did another remote PBP watch it here.
Mike Fitz has a blog out about how much salmon will a bear eat read all about it here.
