What could be more fun than watching brown bears fishing for salmon?
Now you can do so from the comfort of your living room, via two live high-definition webcams beside the Brooks River in Alaska’s Katmai National Park.
The purpose of the project is to reconnect people with nature, said Charlie Annenberg, founder of Explore.org, a nonprofit media organization that set the cameras up. “In one of the world’s largest, most natural cathedrals, the brown bear is the high sage,” Annenberg said.
Coastal brown bears, bigger cousins of the grizzlies, are found across northwestern North America and northern Eurasia. On the coasts, a generous diet of spawning salmon helps them reach sizes of 1,500 pounds.
One camera is installed by Brooks Falls, a stretch of low waterfalls. According to Annenberg, the bears there are mostly dominant males. “They all take positions on the field,” he said – “It’s the World Cup of bears.” Bears there can stand in rivers with their mouths open, waiting for dinner to jump inside.
The other camera is downstream, in shallow water. As many as 40 bears gather there to catch salmon with their claws.
The webcams are completely powered by solar and wind power, and will operate during daylight hours — which, in an Alaskan summertime, last for 17 hours. More cameras are coming soon: one downstream, where mothers and their young fish, and one giving a bird’s-eye view of the park and its volcanoes.
Video: Explore.org
