bear cam is back!
747 is at the falls. he looks huge already.
i bought this:
[Katmai Fat Bear with Salmon Plush — Katmai Conservancy]
(Katmai Fat Bear with Salmon Plush — Katmai Conservancy)
it is bigger than i thought. it came in time for opening day at the cam (6/20).
That toy is cute!
I’m glad this thread was revived.
i’m seeing salmon jumping into the falls. so far i’ve only seen 747 at the falls.
I see plenty of jumping salmon, but no grizzlies so far. You bears are missing out! Wake up and come catch some fish!
I also saw some people wading into the river, far downstream when the the camera was turned that way. Seems pretty foolhardy to me.
ETA: hey, there’s a bear! Finally. And he just caught a fish!
today grazer’s cubs had humans holding their breath. grazer brought them to the falls and the wee cubs kept going over the falls. finally the cubs are in a tree near the falls. i’m not sure that is better.
wild morning.
No sign of Otis, yet. Maybe he’s summering in Cabo this year.
Otis was already old last year, and missing a lot of teeth. His end can’t be far off in the future, and may have already happened. Sad if true, but he’s had a good long run and he’s probably brought of joy to far more people than any other bear.
grazer and chunk had a fight on saturday. one of grazer’s cubs fell off the falls and chunk went after the cub, grazer went after chunk. mike fitz and the rangers on the scene had a live chat on the situation.
the cub is recovering. poor cub was badly hurt. grazer and his sibling are sticking with him and grazer has them in a protected area. the rangers are hopefully that the cub will recover. he is mobile and moving around. saturday and sunday were tough days for the cub.
the forest service will not intervene unless it is a human caused thing. they did intervene when one bear had rope or net tangled around their neck. they don’t intervene when a poor cub gets quills in their nose or paws.
the cub is doing well and recovering, grazer is a really good bear mum, hopefully the cubs will be more careful in the future. these 2 this year are close call twins. they have been swinging at the tops of trees and falling off the falls. they are lucky that they have grazer as a mum. she will protect them furiously.
There are about a dozen bears right now.
Someone is not happy with the reception on his flat screen back in the den.
there was an update on the cub on last night’s chat. the cub has been named “tiny” by the cam message board.
tiny is more mobile, walking on back legs. there are puncture wounds on the cubs shoulders and tiny isn’t putting weight on his front legs. tiny is tracking after mum and sibling, doesn’t like to stay hidden or left behind. the rangers are optimistic that tiny will recover.
another cub had a paw full of porcupine quills, and is starting to put a bit of weight on the paw as the quills work out.
there is a bear with a snare around his neck, the rangers are trying to help the bear if they can find him. divot had a snare on her neck years ago that the rangers were able to remove. they are hoping to do the same with this bear.
Report is that tiny didn’t make it. Tiny went over the falls again. Grazer went in to get him, he wasn’t showing a response. She got him into the shallows, then had to go to the other cub. The current carried tiny away.
A sad day on the cam.
I’ve never seen this before, I just clicked on the cam and there are so many bears! I counted 16 and one immediately caught a fish. So cool!
Later this season, they’ll probably reprise the Fat Bear Contest. They select the biggest bruins and chart them, then you email your fave and the winning bear gets a month in Cabo 
.
Last week, my wife and I were watching for a spell and we counted 23 bears and the fish were plentiful. The usual favorite is Otis, who hasn’t shown up this year, yet. He may have passed on; he was very old and was missing many teeth — but that didn’t stop him from showing up last year, plopping right down in his “office” and snagging 43 (46?) fish in an afternoon. What a tub!
If your wife is a soft-hearted type, prepare to engage your comforting mode because you’ll need it if/when one of the cubs meets a sad end; it happens.
Grazer wins this year. The voting was delayed this year due to a bear death.
an amazing amount of fish this year. the bears are spread all over the water ways. i don’t know how the bears aren’t just stepping on them.
not many are at the falls as the fish are everywhere.
grazer is back with her very adorable cub from last year. “biggie” is a girl and is doing very well catching fish.
today was a glorious morning on the river watch cam. misty pre dawn with a shadowy bear fishing in the river with ducks going by. fishing bear is joined by 2 bears playing in the water. just so gorgeous. the mist gives it the blurry outer world look. watching dawn approach with soft colours… amazing.
Posting this nice article about the late, great Otis 480:
holly wasn’t seen this year.
fat bear voting has started.
Fat Bear Week 2025 | VOTE
this year chunk came back to the area badly injured. due to the very plentiful salmon run this year he was able to fatten up and work around his broken jaw to get quite huge.