Tag: brown bears

Surprise visitor appears on BearCam, reveals fishing expertise

Footage from a live BearCam on Alaska’s Brooks River shows a wolf fishing at twilight and catching a salmon.

Brown bears on Alaska’s Brooks River dominate the fishing holes during the sockeye salmon run, but that doesn’t mean they catch all the fish.

The accompanying footage, captured by a Bear Cam operated by Explore.org, shows a wolf searching for and ultimately catching a salmon at twilight. (Both clips are posted below.)

Explore.org described the footage on Twitter: “Close-up of a wolf in infrared on the river bank as it scans the water for fish. He hops into the water when he sees movement.”

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Another tweet: “If you’re wondering whether our wolf friend caught a fish – yes, yes he did!”

The Brooks River is in Katmai National Park. In the summer and fall, brown bears gather on the rover and at Brooks Falls to catch salmon as they navigate upriver to spawn in Brooks Lake.

Explore.org operates a series of live cameras on the river in conjunction with the National Park Service.

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.

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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.

Three men sentenced to jail and fined for wading with bears

Three men pleaded guilty to what an Alaskan judge described as “drunken capering” at the famous Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park.

Three men who left the safety of a viewing platform to wade into the river to photograph brown bears at the famous Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park in Alaska were sentenced to jail and each fined $3,000.

“These individuals behaved carelessly and put themselves at great risk,” Mark Sturm, superintendent of Katmai National Park and Preserve, stated in a press release. “Brown bears are fierce, territorial predators, especially when concentrated in order to feed on migrating salmon. Things could have easily ended very badly.”

Brooks Falls is located on the Brooks River and is a popular summer destination to view salmon leaping over the 6-foot falls as bears congregate and feed on them, sometimes catching the salmon in mid-air.

A viewing platform at the falls was built in 1982 to provide separation between people and bears, and visitors are instructed by the National Park Service to remain in designated viewing areas.

On Aug. 9, 2018, David Engelman, 56, of Sandia Park, New Mexico, and Ronald J. Engelman II, 54, and Steven Thomas, 30, both of King Salmon, Alaska, decided to leave the platform and wade into the river to get photos. David Engelman was seen on the livestream camera taking selfies of himself in front of the feeding brown bears.

The three pleaded guilty to their illegal actions and their punishment was announced Monday by the Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Alaska.

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David and Ronald Engelman each received a one-week prison sentence and one-year probation. Thomas was sentenced to 10 days in prison and one-year probation.

The $9,000 in fines were directed to be paid to the Katmai Conservancy, a nonprofit that will administer the funds to the park for law enforcement and other purposes.

Also, the three are prohibited from entering any national park for one year.

From the DOJ:

In imposing the sentences, Magistrate Judge Scoble stated concerns of deterring others, the economic impact of tourism to Katmai National Park if someone had been injured or a bear killed for injuring one of the men. The court also noted the dangerousness of their conduct as well as the impact on those who witnessed the actions of the defendants and had their experiences in the park ruined by their actions. Magistrate Judge Scoble characterized the defendants’ actions as “drunken capering, and a slap in the face to those who were there.”

“The conduct of these three individuals not only endangered other visitors and wildlife officers at Brooks Falls, they also potentially endangered the life of the bears.” said U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker for the District of Alaska. “We are committed to working with Alaska’s National Park Service to ensure everyone who visits our parks can have a safe experience in seeing these magnificent animals in their natural habitat.”

Photo of David Engelman wading in the river, and generic photos of the viewing platform and bears in the river at Brooks Falls courtesy of the National Park Service.

Videos show Katmai brown bears getting too close for comfort

Katmai National Park is known for its many brown bears, so tourists can expect bear encounters. But can one expect them to come this close?

Katmai National Park in Alaska is known for its many brown bears that are drawn to Brooks Falls where they enjoy a buffet of salmon, so tourists can expect to encounter a bear or two on the park’s walking trails.

Still, in these two videos, the brown bears appear to be too close for comfort for these tourists. Thankfully, in both cases, they did what they were supposed to do.

In the first case, tourists stand still as a huge brown bear—identified by one YouTube commenter as “747, the most dominant bear in the park”—saunters down a trail, appears to read a sign about bears, then turns around and walks off the way it came.

One tourist continues to say, “Hey Bear,” in a calm voice as it passes just feet away, as Cara Siciliano videos the encounter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pJGjLp6cnk

In the other video, Jared Sternberg was hiking to Brooks Falls “when I heard loud footsteps coming down the trail. I looked up and saw two bears running straight for us. We jumped off the path and the first bear ran past us, shortly followed by the second bear, who was chasing him. They completely ignored us, but it was still quite a rush.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4TvhSrmBTo&t=5s

Katmai National Park’s website details how to avoid close encounters in bear country: Be Alert, make noise, do not approach bears and steer clear of places with food that attract bears. It also says that if you encounter a bear, remain calm and do not run—one of several guidelines.

“You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to stand there,” another commenter wrote on YouTube, perhaps meaning they wouldn’t go in the first place.

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Sigh of relief as beloved brown bear Otis is alive and well

A Tuesday night sighting of Bear 480 Otis, one of the oldest (and fattest) brown bears residing in Alaska’s Katmai National Park & Preserve, was a moment worthy of celebration.

A Tuesday night sighting of Bear 480 Otis, one of the oldest and most popular brown bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park & Preserve, was a moment worthy of celebration.

“Otis is indeed in the house,” the park announced Wednesday on Facebook. “480 Otis is one of our oldest and probably most beloved bear. He has been missing in action. Last year he arrived at the Brooks River on June 23rd. The latest he has ever arrived is July 17th. We were concerned.”

The male brown bear, first identified in 2001 as a subadult or young adult, is believed to be 25 or 26 years old.

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Bear 480 Otis is a fixture at Brooks Falls and an occasional star on the park’s live bear cam. He was the inspiration for the 2008 Katmai National Park booster pin. Footage of Otis appears in the 2014 Disneynature Movie, “Bears.”

Otis is a past winner of the park’s annual Fat Bear Week competition, which celebrates “all the hard work that these bears do to survive and thrive and get through six months of starvation,” Naomi Boak, a park media ranger, told the Washington Post.

But as Bear 480 Otis ages, park employees and the bruin’s many fans become worried when he does not arrive at the river in the same timely manner as younger bears.

On Wednesday a bear-cam viewer who had not heard the good news commented, “Otis is a master fisher bear! The younger bears should watch and learn. Come back soon Otis, miss you already.”

The park concluded its Facebook announcement by stating, “Brown bears lead challenging lives and 26 is quite an achievement, especially for a male bear. So celebrate the return of Bear 480 Otis with us!”

–Image courtesy of NPS Photo/N. Boak