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.
It’s almost time!!! Fat Bear Week begins next Wednesday, October 3rd!! Tune in for a fun week of voting for your favorite Fat Bears, campaigning for them by creating Posters, and trying to convince viewers to vote for “your” favorite. The winner will be crowned on Fat Bear Tuesday, October 9th. Check out Katmai’s Facebook page here, and the explore.org Bear Cam comments here next week for details!
This past week saw the cubs take center stage providing us with lots of super fun views! We’ve also still seen an amazing amount of bear action around the Falls area. And the return of more bears to the area. Check out many of the week’s highlights here in Explore’s This Week at Brooks Falls video.
lots of bears still at the falls Snapshot by LaniH
One of the more asked about bears lately has been sow 451 and her 3 yearlings. When she was seen in the summer, both she and her cubs seemed thinner and more desperate for fish than many other bears. She was seen challenging bigger bears at the falls and stealing fish to feed herself and her cubs. Wherever the family went in August and September, the fishing must have been great because when she returned this week, she and the cubs were looking fat, healthy and relaxed!! They have been seen wrestling and playing together. The cubs also “ganged up” and chased off a curious sub adult once in the afternoon and then again later in the evening. Mom 451 was seen bringing up the rear of that chase and it didn’t take much effort to anthropomorphize and imagine her thinking “those cubs are going to run me ragged”. 🙂
451’s yearlings chasing subadult Snapshot by Bookmom
451 and yearlings chase subadult up spit road Snapshot by Cam Op Maisie
On Thursday evening there was a little meet and greet between 435 Holly and her two yearlings and 451 and her three yearlings. 435 Holly and her cubs had walked down valley road only to turn around as 451 and her yearlings were there. 451’s yearlings continued to follow 435 and her yearlings up spit road despite 435 hop charging them a few times. 451 calmly sat and watched until 435 bluff charged one of her cubs, then her and her cubs had a stand off for a bit with 435 and her cubs.
435 Holly and yearlings have stand off with 451 and her yearlings Snapshot by Cam Op Tink
402 and her 4 coy have been seen in the falls and riffles area, providing us some great views! We learned that at least one of her cubs is quite feisty when there was a very noisy “fight” between the cubs over a fish, seen on the riffles cam. The cubs learn early that their survival will depend on their ability to keep up and stand up for themselves in order to obtain food.
402 and coy at the falls Snapshot by LaniH
402’s coy fight over fish in the riffles Snapshot by BarbaraHoran
402 also gave another demonstration of her diving skills in the jacuzzi while the cubs waited on the bank in front of the falls platform.
One of sow 94’s cubs demonstrated that the floating bridge is indeed not bear proof by accessing the bridge a couple of times through a broken slat in the gate. The little cub is smart and after looking around and sticking its head through a couple rails on the bridge, it went right back out the way it came in.
94’s coy on the floating bridge Snapshot by Cam Op Scout
94’s coy on bridge again Snapshot by skybluesue
435 Holly’s yearlings also noticed the opening in the gate and made an attempt to squeeze in but discovered they were much too fat to do so.
435 Holly’s yearling attempts to get on bridge Snapshot by Cam Op Scout
435 Holly also provided us a nice view of her fat bear bod that she’s been working on despite having to yearling cubs to take care of.
435 Holly shows she could win fat bear Snapshot by Duska
480 Otis has made his usual fall trek down to the Lower River area. He’s been seen many days this week snorkeling around and successfully catching fish in the Lower River channel.
480 Otis snorkeling on the lower river Snapshot by CTBear
83 Wayne Brother showed up late Thursday evening, just walked right up and strolled into the jacuzzi displacing 503. 747 took it upon himself to remind 83 that he was still not among the most dominant by having words with him not once but three times.
83 Wayne Brother walks into the jacuzzi Snapshot by Bookmom
747 and 83 Wayne Brother have words Snapshot by Marie Valez
Male bear 115 showed up at the Falls this week. 115 is a large bear that is normally only seen in the fall. In close up views his winter coat is wavy looking.
bear 115 at the falls Snapshot by GreenRiver
We have seen 503 play fighting with many different sub adults this season, and also with 151 Walker, a fairly young adult male. But it was surprising to us to see him playing twice this week with 32 Chunk! 32 is just a few years older than 151, but he has been making some attempts to ascend the dominance ladder, so it was interesting that he would still be willing to play.
32 Chunk and 503 play fight in the jacuzzi Snapshot by Sandyk007
Sow 409 Beadnose, who is a serious Fat Bear contender this year, was seen fishing the lip of the Falls this week. She was also caught a couple of times hanging out in the shallow water near the Riffles platform. She seems to enjoy laying in the water there, perhaps to cool off. This was noted by Mike Fitz in his periscope broadcast where he was discussing and showing the spawning salmon in that area. 409 had other ideas of what he should be showing! Broadcast can be seen here (Click on “Sockeye salmon, Katmai National Park” on the left if the proper video doesn’t come up).
409 fishing on the lip Snapshot by larinor
409 Beadnose resting in the shallows near riffles platform Snapshot by Bearz61
132 and coy became the stars of the Katmai centennial chat with Mike Fitz and Ranger Andrew. The two bears showed up to hear all about how Katmai National park had been formed. Ranger Andrew and Mike had to quickly climb up on a deck of a cabin. We enjoyed seeing them laying watching the “show”, before they sauntered off in the direction of the NakNek lake.
132 and coy watching the live chat Snapshot by LaniH
132 and coy head out toward the beach Snapshot by LaniH
132 and coy have also been frequent visitors near the lower river platform and have given cam viewers some great viewing moments. 132’s coy also showed us how curious bears can be, the cute little coy investigated one of the boats in the cove. Then while 132 rested on the bridge ramp the little coy decided to try and chew the underwater cable.
132 uses her coy as a pillow Snapshot by Bookmom
132’s coy wants mom to play Snapshot by Blair55
132’s coy checks out one of the boats Snapshot by LaniH
132’s coy chews on the underwater cam cable Snapshot by LaniH
132’s coy was not the only bear to chew on the underwater cable this week, subadult 812 also chewed on it for a bit, luckily none of the bears have caused the cam to go down this year, unlike last year 🙂
812 chews on the underwater cam cable Snapshot by BetterthanwatchingWimbledon
We also got a closer view of 813 Nostril Bear and her two coy, they were seen on the closed trail and snorkeling above the bridge.
813 Nostril Bear and coy on closed trail Snapshot by Bookmom
482 Brett and her three coy were also seen quite a bit snorkeling along the lower river, she is easily recognizable due to her very light, almost white coy.
482 Brett and coy on the closed trail Snapshot by jerseybird
The Underwater Cam again gave us many great views of salmon in their spawning colors and of bears swimming around and diving to reach the dead salmon on the river bottom. 94 and her cubs went by in what looked like synchronized swimming form on Wednesday.
94’s coy swimming by UW cam Snapshot by LaniH
salmon in their spawning colors Snapshot by LaniH
We also saw some salmon on the underwater cam opening their mouths wide and in one instance it looked like one fish was trying to bite the tail of the other, maybe defending spawning ground. During Fridays text chat Explore fellow Mike Fitz was asked about this:
“I’ve seen several fish do this on the underwater cam. Since they are not spawning in that area, just staging, there isn’t a need for them to defend anything (like nesting sites or access to mates) from other nearby fish. In this context, I suspect the fish are stretching when they open their jaws wide.”
Salmon seen on UW cam with mouth wide open Snapshot by skybluesue
For this week’s “Caption This”, a snapshot by KathyW. Post your captions in the comments below the blog. Again lets try and keep it family friendly 🙂
Caption this
Ranger Andrew and Mike Fitz did a live chat on Katmai National Park and Preserve’s 100th Birthday. They had a surprising audience! You can view the chat here.
Ranger Russ has a new blog, As Autumn Arrives.
Katmai posted a webpage with some of your most frequently asked questions related to construction of the new bridge, which will be ramping up in the next several weeks
Mike Fitz has done several broadcasts via Periscope. These can be replayed by going to this link and choosing the broadcast from the left side. You can also view any live broadcasts when they occur at this same link. If you have the Periscope or Twitter app on a smart phone or tablet, you can create an account and follow @exploreorg and receive notifications when a broadcast starts
