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 weeks highlight video can be viewed here.
Fat Bear Week is in full swing!! Two days of competition are completed and a third has begun as we publish.
NPS Photo/M. Freels
On Wednesday, in a landslide victory, 775 Lefty defeated 480 Otis. 402 had a bit tighter race, but still easily defeated 854 Divot. On Thursday, 128 Grazer scored a win over 151 Walker. And 909 won against 482’s yearling cub. On Friday 775 Lefty defeated 32 Chunk, and 747 knocked 402 out of the running.
We’re posting a copy of the Bracket here that has the winners so far filled in and shows the match ups yet to come. You can go to the Katmai Facebook page to continue voting daily until the crowning of the 2019 Fat Bear on October 8.
There’s still time to start campaigning for your favorite Fat Bear in the upcoming matches!! Get started on those campaign posters! We’d love to see your posters in the comments on explore.org’s Bear Cam page and also please post them on this blog so everyone can enjoy them all in one place! (If you can’t post on the blog, email your posters to feedback@explore.org and they can add them.
775 Lefty, our first Fat Bear winner of the week, gave us a nice close up view.
775 Lefty Snapshot by LaniH
480 Otis, completely unaware of his defeat in our human world, has been in full view often this week. He’s spent a lot of time moving through the lower river area, pulling up fish after fish and slowly eating them.
480 Otis Snapshot by Bearz61
Otis also spent time in the Jacuzzi below the falls, catching a number of fish.
480 Otis in the jacuzzi Snapshot by merry_mermaid
And to make the Otis trifecta he also spent time in his office.
480 Otis working hard in his office Snapshot by LaniH
We can tell that the bears are starting to slow down their activity and are looking more lethargic. One minute they are actively fishing or eating, and the next minute they are asleep – in whatever spot they happen to be.
68 demonstrated this in the Lower River a few times. Once it looked like he just dozed off midway through eating his fish.
68 napping in the river Snapshot by GreenRiver
474 also had a nap in a rather unusual position when he slumped over the large boulder in the far pool at the falls.
474 napping Snapshot by CamOp Kathy
Bear 806 was seen this week in the Lower River on the closed trail.
806 seen on the closed trail Snapshot by Blair-55
274 Overflow who was absent this spring, showed up at the falls this past week.
274 Overflow Snapshot by CamOp 461Ocean
402 and her cubs were in view often this week. We saw them in the Lower River area near the spit road.
402 and one of her yearlings Snapshot by Tiny Julz <><
We also saw them at the falls, where 402 once again demonstrated her diving technique in the jacuzzi.
402 diving in the jacuzzi Snapshot by BonnieLee
708 Amelia and her cubs entertained us with views near the Lower River platform.
708 Amelia and coy resting near the platform Snapshot by jegrabau
719 and cubs were seen on the closed trail near the Lower River.
719 and coy Snapshot by Shel_
The closed trail got a little smaller when 719 took a chunk out of it!
171 with her coy and 273 with her coy had a meet and greet this week. The cubs were not quite sure what to do about each other being so close.
273 and coy meet 171 and coy Snapshot by CamOp Spish
171’s cub did a little bluff charge toward 273’s cubs before quickly retreating behind Mom.
One of 273’s cubs got more than it bargained for while playing around on the closed trail as it got knocked off the edge by a sibling.
273’s cub was seen eating clay from the river bottom. Known as geophagy and thought to possibly be a digestive aid, a viewer wondered how a young cub would know to do this. Mike Fitz provided this comment:
“It’s a combination of instinct and learning. Most bears are probably introduced to it when they observe their mothers eating clay. Some may stumble upon it more by chance and explore it out of curiosity. “
273’s coy eating clay Snapshot by KimBear17
We have seen plenty of play sessions between subadults this week from the falls to the lower river.
subadults playing on the closed trail Snapshot by CamOp Nan
subadults playing at the falls Snapshot by ColoradoCarol
Bearcam fans have also been treated to some bonus days of the lover river cams. We’re not sure how many more days we’ll have left, but we will sure enjoy them while they are live. They have provided us with some glorious fall views and gorgeous sunsets.
fall colors Snapshot by LaniH
Stunning sunset Snapshot by LaniH
Welcome to Fat Bear Week 2019
Brown Bear Tech Talk with Mike Fitz, Candice Rusch, and Joe Pifer.
Bearcam viewer Survey
Just how important is an individual animal? How might the famous bearcam bears influence conservation efforts? Mike Fitz talks about this survey here.
Please help us answer those questions and more by taking this survey.
Are You There Brown Bear
Mike Fitz has launched a Community Science Project where your snapshot can help monitor information about the bears you see on the cams.
This community science project will supplement the Brooks River bear monitoring program by recording observations of bears during and outside official monitoring sessions, essentially extending one aspect of the bear monitoring program through an entire summer and beyond as long as the webcams are functioning.
To participate: After taking a Snapshot, click on “Community Science” below the snapshot.
The 2019 Bears of Brooks River ebook is available for downloading here.
