Tag: Bear

Watch bear cub’s ‘brilliant recovery’ after waterfall tumble

A brown bear cub fishing next to mom atop a waterfall in Alaska was caught on video slipping into the turbulence below and briefly disappearing.

A brown bear cub fishing next to mom atop a waterfall in Alaska was caught on video slipping into the turbulence below and disappearing underwater.

“Who else held their breath watching this?” Explore.org, which operates live bear cameras on the Brooks River,” asked followers via Twitter. Explore describe the cub’s recovery as “brilliant.”

The footage posted below shows the cub vanishing into swirling whitewater after losing its footing atop the falls. Mom looks concerned as her cub struggles and is approached by another large bear.

But as the cub frantically swims toward shallow water near the bank, mom arrives to greet and check on her offspring.

It was a valuable lesson for the cub, who is learning how to catch sockeye salmon migrating up the Brooks River. The mom, Bear 910, is among the many brown bears that appear frequently on Explore’s popular live camera feeds.

Katmai National Park’s bear cam is live to get you pumped up for Fat Bear Week

Get ready for Fat Bear Week with this live bear cam.

This fall, everyone’s favorite bear-based holiday returns. In preparation for Fat Bear Week, Explore.org’s bear cam is sharing a live video of bears at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. After hibernating through the winter, the park’s bears emerge and become more active in early July. Currently, Katmai bear cam viewers can watch brown bears searching for fish in the water at Brooks Falls.

As sockeye salmon migrate in June and July, the bears take advantage of the thriving waters to eat their fill of fish. As the live feed’s description explains, “the largest and most successful bears can catch and eat more than 30 salmon (over 120 pounds) per day!” Some sockeye salmon can contain 4,500 calories, making them the perfect food for bears looking to fatten up.

Since 2014, Katmai National Park and Preserve has celebrated this fattening process with the Fat Bear Week competition. The week begins in early fall and includes a “March-Madness style bracket” where people can vote online for the fattest bear. In 2021, seasoned champion 480 Otis earned his fourth Fat Bear Week win. Previous wins for Otis came in 2014, 2016, and 2017.

Keep an eye on the live cam for a glimpse of Fat Bear Week’s 2022 competitors and other local wildlife. Curious animal enthusiasts can also join Explore.org’s bear cam chat for live events every Tuesday with naturalist Mike Fitz and ranger Chris Kliesrath. Still hungry for more fat bear content? Make sure to follow Explore.org on Twitter for special bear updates and memes.

Learn more about Fat Bear Week here, and get the scoop on early 2022 Fat Bear Week frontrunner Bear Force One here. Happy bear-watching!

Watch: Fishing bear positions itself perfectly for ‘the catch’

Footage has surfaced showing a brown bear so perfectly positioned atop Brooks Falls that a salmon leaps directly into its mouth.

Brown bears at Brooks Falls in Alaska apparently have turned salmon fishing into an art form.

The accompanying slow-motion footage, captured by Michael Gallo, shows a bear so perfectly positioned that a salmon attempting to clear the falls leaps directly into its mouth.

Kodiak Island Expeditions, which was leading a tour of the falls on Saturday, described the event, simply, as “The catch.”

Brown bears on the Brooks River compete for the best fishing spots and the most dominant bears can consume more than 120 pounds of salmon per day.

ALSO: Massive sea creature startles family on Mexican beach; video

The public can observe the bears and their antics via live cameras operated by Explore.org and the National Park Service. The Brooks River is in Katmai National Park.

Watch: Bear slips down waterfall, salmon leaps over bear

Footage from Brooks Falls in Alaska shows a brown bear slipping down a waterfall and a salmon jumping over the bear’s head.

Last week we shared footage of a brown bear bellyflopping after leaping from a waterfall at Brooks Falls in Alaska.

This week a different bear lost its footing at the same location, in Katmai National Park, while trying to intercept sockeye salmon as they forged upriver toward spawning grounds.

As the bear slid down the waterfall, a salmon leaped over its head. The bear would be compelled to reposition itself and try again.

 

Both clips were tweeted by Explore.org, which operates live nature cameras on the Brooks River, where brown bears gorge on salmon and compete for prime fishing spots.

The accompanying footage shows that no matter where a bear might position itself, catching salmon can be difficult.

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However, some bears are prolific catchers and the more dominant bears may consume more than 30 salmon per day.

Considering that one sockeye salmon packs 4,500 calories, it’s no wonder that the largest brown bears in Katmai National Park will weigh upwards of 1,000 pounds come hibernation season.

“Survival depends on eating a year’s worth of food in six months,” the park states on its website.

BearCam viewers can watch the animals bulk up as the feeding season progresses. In the fall, the public can vote during Fat Bear Week, a March Madness-style competition that serves as “an annual celebration of [feeding] success.”

Last year’s winner was an older bear named Otis, a four-time Fat Bear Week champion.

Watch: Huge bear lands perfect bellyflop at waterfall

After plotting its move for several seconds, a brown bear on Alaska’s Brooks River leaped from the top of a waterfall and landed a perfect bellyflop.

After plotting its move for several seconds, a brown bear on Alaska’s Brooks River leaped from the top of a waterfall and performed a masterful bellyflop.

The accompanying footage, shared by the Department of the Interior, was captured recently by the popular Explore.org live bear camera at Brooks Falls.

“BearCam is back for the season,” the Department of Interior boasted via Instagram. “Watch Alaska brown bears fish (and jump) for salmon live at Katmai National Park. Every year, they congregate to feast on sockeye salmon in the Brooks River.”

The bears, which recently emerged from hibernation, are internationally famous, in large part because the BearCam allows followers to view their fishing prowess and amusing antics.

RELATED: Fat Bear Week appears to have an early frontrunner in ‘Bear Force One’

But the bears are also renowned because of Fat Bear Week, a fan-driven March Madness-style competition during the fall, which serves as “an annual celebration of [feeding] success.”

Last year’s winner was an older bear named Otis, a four-time Fat Bear Week champion.

Whoa! Fat Bear Week appears to already have a frontrunner

Fat Bear Week 2022 appears to already have a frontrunner in Bear 747, a.k.a. Bear Force One.

Let the Fat Bear Week hype begin….

Brown bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park have emerged from hibernation and will spend the summer fattening up on salmon along the Brooks River.

It’s a phenomenon enjoyed by millions, thanks to a live camera run by Explore.org, and it culminates each fall with a fan-friendly competition known as Fat Bear Week.

Typically, when bears first appear before the camera, they show signs of months spent sleeping in dens. They can lose 33% of their body weight during hibernation and need to start packing calories.

But when Bear 747, also known as Bear Force One, recently appeared looking surprisingly rotund, Explore.org tweeted a short video beneath the description: “Did 747 ‘BEARFORCE ONE’ even hibernate? What a beauty!”

Bear 747 is the 2020 champion of Fat Bear Week, but last year finished runner-up to four-time winner Otis.

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Being among the fattest bears in Katmai National Park & Preserve means being among the healthiest, given the harsh winters the animals must endure in their dens. (The bears must consume a year’s worth of food in six months.)

The park bills Fat Bear Week, a March Madness-style event that begins in late September, as “an annual celebration of success” but adds that all Brooks River bears are winners.

Last year a record 793,000 votes were cast during the seven-day competition.

–Image courtesy of Explore.org

Bear pops beach ball, leading to an ‘attack’ on woman in tent

A bear stepped on a beach ball outside a family’s tent and awakened an infant, leading to an unfortunate set of circumstances.

A bear stepped on and popped a beach ball outside the tent of a family camping in Colorado, leading to an unfortunate set of circumstances that prompted wildlife officials to search for the bear with the intention of euthanizing it.

A husband and wife and their 2-year-old daughter were sleeping at Monument Lake Resort, about 37 miles west of Trinidad, when around 2 a.m. Friday the woman heard a bear sniffing around the campground, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

When the bear popped the beach ball, the daughter woke up and began crying. When the woman went to comfort the child, she “likely” brushed the side of the tent.

“The bear reacted by swatting at the movement, tearing the tent fabric and scratching the victim on the head,” the CPW stated. “Then the bear wandered off.”

District Wildlife Manager Bob Holder responded to the scene Friday morning and interviewed the victim.

The woman sustained scratches to the head but was not seriously injured, and she didn’t seek medical attention.

Holder inspected the tent and found four tears in the fabric, along with mud and dirt at the base of the tent fabric.

“Because the bear made contact with a human, it is classified under CPW policy as an attack,” CPW stated. “If found, the bear will be euthanized.”

Also on FTW Outdoors: Bear follows hiker for nearly 4 minutes after sniffing her leg

Wildlife officials began searching for the bear with a team of dogs, and the local District Wildlife Manager set a trap in the campground in hopes of catching it. As of Saturday morning, it hadn’t been found.

“This is an unfortunate incident because the bear was not aggressively pursuing the victim,” said Mike Brown, CPW’s Area Wildlife Manager for the region.

“If the bear intended to harm the woman, the outcome would have been much worse. The evidence of the investigation illustrates that bears react to the environment they live in.”

Also on FTW Outdoors: Dead grizzly bear found on a Washington beach is a mystery

Because bears sometimes respond to movement in an occupied tent, Holder recommends that campers sleep away from the walls of the tent to avoid such tent movements.

The CPW recommends that people who recreate in wildlife areas be bear aware, and offers tips on how to do so.

Photo courtesy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

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Bear follows hiker for nearly 4 minutes after sniffing her leg

A woman was hiking in Whistler when a bear forced her to walk backwards down a paved trail as it followed close behind, video footage shows.

Jennifer Pierce was hiking in a forested area of Whistler, British Columbia, earlier this month when a bear forced her to walk backwards down the paved trail as it followed her from an uncomfortably close distance.

“Before I got my phone out, he came right up to me and sniffed my leg,” Pierce wrote on a Facebook post.

Pierce said it was “3 minutes, 50 seconds of walking backwards yelling for help and asking for Mr. fluffy bear to go away. All I could think was…this is going to hurt. Where is his Mum?”

Eventually the bear wandered off.

“That was too close for comfort,” Pierce says at the end of the video. “Bye bear.”

Local expert Michael Allen, who has studied black bears at Whistler since 1994, stated last year that he has counted a minimum of 48 black bears in Whistler. He said he’s never seen a grizzly bear, though he heard of sightings in Callaghan and Rainbow valleys.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Man pursued by bear forced to use bear spray (video)

The Resort Municipality of Whistler offers tips on its website about how to avoid a bear encounter, stating, “Bears and humans love the same habitats. There is a good chance you may encounter a bear in your backyard or on the trails in Whistler. Being aware and prepared can help prevent potentially dangerous situations for humans and bears.”

Idaho town on alert after rare grizzly bear sighting

Idaho is asking hunters and other backcountry users to exercise caution near the town of Salmon after a rare grizzly bear sighting.

Idaho is asking hunters and other backcountry users to exercise caution near the town of Salmon after a rare grizzly bear sighting.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game said in a news release that a bear photographed by a motion-sensor camera on May 14 has been identified as a grizzly bear.

Grizzly bears in Idaho are found mostly in northern Panhandle area and inside or near Yellowstone National Park in eastern Idaho. Salmon is in east-central Idaho, 170 miles from Yellowstone.

The bear was photographed in the North Fork area outside of Salmon.

ALSO: Wild horses chased by grizzly bear run for their lives; video 

The last known grizzly bear sighting in the area was in 2020, involving a young male grizzly.

Idaho’s spring black bear hunting season is underway and hunters near Salmon “should not assume any bear they see is a black bear,” the IDFG stated, cautioning that grizzly bears are a federally protected species.

It’s not known if the grizzly bear is still in the area, but all backcountry users are asked to carry bear spray.

The IDFG explained that young male grizzly bears sometimes roam extensively, venturing into areas where people are not accustomed to seeing them.

“These young male bears typically wander through an area, but do not remain there,” the agency stated.

–Grizzly bear image courtesy of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game

Watch: Man pursued by bear forced to use bear spray

A man taking photos of a bear in Prince Albert National Park suddenly became the focus of the bear, which began following him.

A wildlife photographer taking photos of a bear from long range in Prince Albert National Park suddenly became the focus of the bear, which began to pursue him and got a bit too close, forcing the man to use bear spray.

The video below shows the encounter.

Curtis Matwishyn, based out of the hamlet of Waskesiu Lake in Saskatchewan, was shooting photos of the bear with his long lens from 100 meters away.

“I was upwind of the bear and it definitely smelled me. It started to walk towards the trail so I also positioned myself further down the trail to get a photo as it crossed it,” Matwishyn wrote in his Facebook post. “It got to the trail then started walking towards me.”

When the bear closed to within 40 meters, Matwishyn put the camera down and started talking to the bear “so it knew I was a human.” He continued down the trail and veered off it to give the bear an easy path to pass him by.

“When it turned off the trail and started following me, I started shouting and waving my arms over my head to try to scare it off, but it was not phased by that,” he wrote.

He began videotaping as the bear continued to follow him, calmly saying “Hey bear, it’s okay…Hey bear, get out of here, I’m leaving…Whoa bear.”

The bear kept following as Matwishyn walked backward, pointing a can of bear spray in the animal’s direction, as seen in his Instagram and Facebook video posts.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Curtis Matwishyn (@cmatwishphoto)

“After about five minutes of the bear following but never directly charging me, I decided to discharge my spray and thankfully it worked as designed,” Matwishyn wrote.

The bear immediately turned and went away.

Many commenters on the Facebook post offered opinions (and criticisms) on what he did wrong, though others told him he did everything right. Even Matwishyn wished he had done one thing differently.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Three men sentenced to jail and fined for wading with bears

“In hindsight I likely should have discharged the bear spray earlier and likely will do so in the future, but there was also a strong wind and I needed to make sure I was upwind of the bear and spray,” he wrote. “Hopefully this encounter will help the bear learn to run from humans rather than approach them as continued behavior like this can lead to the destruction of a bear.

“Also for the people wondering, this was taken in a National Park in Canada so it is not legal to have a gun for protection, and I believe there are studies that show bear spray is actually a more effective deterrent than a gun.”

The encounter serves as a friendly reminder to always carry bear spray when you’re in their territory.

Photos courtesy of Curtis Matwishyn.