The Katmai Bears are Back

 No, it's not a local sports team. :)

Some of Alaska’s most famous bears are back on camera. 

The Katmai National Park and Preserve webcams are rolling this season in higher definition and with more angles than in previous summers.

And the brown bears that feed on salmon have started lumbering into view.

The Brooks Falls camera on Tuesday showed a closeup of a bear panning its head back and forth at the foot of the falls as foamy white river water flowed past, with more than 1,000 viewers watching online.

The remote park on the eastern end of the Alaska Peninsula draws visitors to its campground and viewing platforms to watch the bears as they feed on salmon and prepare for the long winter. Bears can gain over 2 pounds of fat each day in summer and fall.

For those who won’t make it out to Katmai’s bear-watching platforms in person, the bear cams come in handy.

The Katmai bears have become even more well-known thanks to the annual Fat Bear Week competition. Last year’s competition — a bracket-style online tournament in which fans vote for their favorite hulking contenders — was said to be fattest of all Fat Bear Weeks. The bears gorged all summer, and Bear 747 reigned supreme.

Upgrades to the cameras were supposed to happen last year, but the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily upended those plans, said Candice Rusch, director of new media at Explore.org, which works with the park to livestream the bears.

There’s a new camera installed at Brooks Falls, and the picture quality should be “significantly improved,” Rusch said.

They also replaced and upgraded an underwater salmon camera; got the Dumpling Mountain camera back up and running; and upgraded the camera microphones, so the audio quality should be better.

“Basically, everything out there is higher picture quality for one reason or another,” Rusch said.

Plus, the park is also getting back to normal operations after a somewhat shuttered pandemic summer last year.

And it’s going to be busy, said Amber Kraft, interpretation and education program manager at Katmai.

“Our campground reservations are completely full, July all the way to the end of the season, and the same with the lodge reservations,” Kraft said. “So we do expect it to be a very busy, very popular summer here.”

The Katmai Bear Cams are Back On-Line

The brown bear cams at Katmai National Park and Preserve have returned from hibernation.

Eight solar- and wind-powered cameras, operated by volunteers from Explore.org, began streaming live footage from Brooks Camp on the solstice and will continue through the last run of salmon this fall. The multi-camera feed will stream 24/7 from the park, about 290 air miles southwest of Anchorage.

Frothing At The Mouth

The local birdcage liner/fishwrapper is filled with some of the most ugly and vicious headlines this morning, screaming about "ceremonial president", "banana republic" and "imaginary and corrupt narrative".

I won't dignify their petulant tantrums by providing either their name or links to the articles. At least the name "Palin" isn't on the front page, this week.

Yes, they're still name-calling and sticking out their tongues at her. Frankly, the former Governor has been largely irrelevant for several years, but that hasn't stopped the local Progressive Left from driving the "We hate her filthy, stinking guts!" campaign into the ground.


So, because it's sickened me to the point of nausea, let's wash our eyes and ears out with the bear cam from the Katmai National Park:

http://explore.org/live-cams/player/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls

Too Busy Squabbling

These two bears are squabbling so much that the salmon are going right past them:

Small Plane Crashes While Bear Viewing; Passengers Escape

From the Anchorage Daily News:

A small plane carrying a pilot and five passengers crashed on takeoff from a remote beach in Katmai National Park and Preserve Sunday night and ended up in the surf, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

No one was injured, said Clint Johnson, the head of the NTSB's Anchorage office.

The plane, a wheel-equipped Cessna 206 operated by K-Bay Air of Homer, was taking off from Kamishak Bay sometime between 5 and 5:30 p.m. Sunday when it crashed, said Johnson.

Investigators are still trying to learn how the people got out of the plane, he said.

Katmai Bears are On the Air

Grizzlies in the Katmai National Park, Alaska, have been fascinating the few visitors who can afford a rather spendy visit each year.

Explore.org has a live webcam at the Brooks Falls, so you can watch the bears fishing for salmon, in their natural habitat.

Enjoy!

New Webcams: Katmai Bears, Alaska

From today's Anchorage Daily News:

A new video initiative is bringing the famed brown bears of Alaska's Katmai National Park directly to your computer or smartphone.

Without having to go there, you can watch as mature bears compete for salmon and cubs tumble over each other as they play. Started Tuesday, a live Web stream allows the public to log on and see the brown bears in their daily activities in their natural habitat.

The project is a partnership with explore.org, which set up four high-definition cameras in Katmai, spokesman Jason Damata told the Associated Press. Three of them are at existing viewing stands where bear fans come to watch the animals.

Click on the link in the quoted text above, to see the salmon swimming upstream, and perhaps catch a few bears while they catch their dinner.