Tag: Brooks River

Huge relief as beloved bear Otis eats 100 lbs of salmon in 3 days

Otis the beloved Brooks River brown bear has finally started to put on weight, much to the relief of fans. His latest spree: 100 salmon in 3 days.

The most famous brown bear on Alaska’s Brooks River has many concerned because he’s old and has appeared gaunt and arthritic since his tardy emergence from hibernation.

But on Tuesday the folks at Explore.org, which maintains live-feed cameras on the Brooks River, happily reported that the bear, named Otis, “has eaten over 100 [pounds] of salmon in last 36 hours. He has been fishing nonstop!”

It’s wonderful news for his followers, of course, but also for a bear that is 27 years old (the upper end of a brown bear’s life cycle) and must compete with younger, more vigorous bears that battle for prime fishing spots on the river.

“Now I can tell he is better,” one follower commented. “The ribs and bones that were sticking out are smoothing out…. Keep on dear OTIS.”

Another comment: “He needs all the calories he can get. He has to catch up to 747 and the other big boys.”

That’s a reference to a true giant cataloged as Bear 747, aka Bear Force One.

Otis and 747 are perennial finalists in Fat Bear Week, a fan-driven competition held each fall as a celebration of the bears’ success after another feeding season.

But only Otis, a four-time Fat Bear Week champion, is referred to as the king, or King Otis.

To put Otis’ 36-hour feeding spree into perspective, the largest and most dominant bears on the river might consume as many as 100 pounds of salmon per day.

Watch: Momma bear to rescue after cub tumbles down waterfall

A live web-cam has captured dramatic footage showing a brown bear rushing to rescue her yearling cub after it tumbled over a waterfall in Alaska.

A live web-cam has captured dramatic footage showing a brown bear rushing to rescue her yearling cub after it tumbled over a waterfall in Alaska.

The footage, captured by Explore.org’s Bear Cam at Brooks Falls, shows the cub slip past mom at the top of the falls.

The footage continues with mom realizing that her cub was being swept downstream and charging across the water to end threats posed by nearby bears.

Comments beneath the post mostly pertained to the speed with which momma bear was able to reach her cub.

“For anyone who ever foolishly through they could outrun a bear…yeah…no,” one comment reads.

RELATED: Massive relief as ‘King Otis’ the brown bear is alive and well

Another: “Poor mom looks really stressed out from this one. All that huffing. And the way she keeps looking at the bear who just happened to be closest.”

Mom is cataloged as Bear 402. She’s one of dozens of brown bears that spend the summer feeding in the Brooks River in Katmai National Park.

Brooks Falls is one of the prime fishing spots and dominant bears position themselves atop or just below the falls to catch migrating sockeye salmon.

Explore.org has live-feed cameras positioned on the river so the public can watch the bears feed and interact.

Brown bears in Katmai National Park are among the largest bears on the planet, with some exceeding 1,000 pounds by season’s end. (Larger bears might eat as many as 40 salmon per day.)

The bears are the stars of Fat Bear Week, a fan-driven competition conducted each fall to determine which bear took the fullest advantage of feeding season.

The reigning champion is Bear 747, aka Bear Force One.

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.