Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park, Alaska is home to the famous bear cam, a globally popular webcam operated by rangers where enthusiasts can watch the bears hunting for salmon 24/7.
For a few months each summer, you can watch the local bears’ antics every day, including various returning cast members. But few have the time or energy to glue their eyes to the screen all day, so here are some of the most memorable events from Brooks Falls over the years of webcam monitoring.
| 1 | 273 and her food mishaps (09/2015) |
Normally, a bear’s daily routine consists of catch salmon, eat salmon, rinse and repeat, but in September 2015, 273 and her cub Velcro experienced a few days where nothing seemed to go right. It started on September 20th when Velcro bit into a sign by Brooks River, thinking it was food. To his immense confusion, his teeth landed on hard metal.
Velcro then changed his mind, and tried to knock the sign over, thinking it was an enemy predator, while the amused 273 let him get on with it. 2 days later, Velcro was feeling confident enough to fish for salmon without his mother, but his bravery evaporated when the live fish started flapping around in front of him.
The confused Velcro stared at the fish for a while, wondering what to do. Then he used his mysterious bear language to call for motherly assistance, and 273 promptly showed him how to tear the fish apart into bite sized chunks. However, she was so distracted with Velcro that her own large portion dropped out of her mouth, vanishing into the fast flowing river.
Then the signpost came back to haunt the duo. 273 had listened to her cub and was convinced that signposts held some sort of nutrition. On September 23rd, she was filmed ripping a piece of paper off the sign and devouring it, while Velcro investigated the closed doors to a wooden bridge. Ranger Mike Fitz struggled to hold back laughter as he watched on.
| 2 | 775 Lefty re-evaluates his life |
Little did he know it, but July 15th 2019 was to be one of the most fateful days in 775 Lefty’s 14 year career as a bear. He was born in 2004, and soon gained a reputation among bear cam followers as an enthusiastic grizzly who gobbled down every salmon as though it was his last meal on death row.
Lefty was minding his own business in the deep waters of the falls by the central log, eating a rightfully caught salmon, when 747 mozied over (video). 747 is a well known beast of a bear, who won the 2020 fattest bear competition and was estimated by x-ray imaging to be 1407 pounds. Without a single blow landing, he pressed his body against 775 Lefty and forced him to give up his fish. No force was required – this was mafia style, protection racket intimidation tactics.
747 walked off, leaving Lefty starving. Later that day, 775 was captured in another video. This time he was staring into the leaping, jumping schools of salmon attempting to bypass the falls. Normally, he would be trying to catch them, but this time Lefty’s expression was forlorn. It was as though he was reconsidering his entire path in life, whether the struggle was all worth it. Yet another video from July 15th showed him standing in the fast-flowing shallow water, doing nothing, pondering deep questions.
| 3 | The official fat bear parade |
Like every year, September 24th 2015 marked the anniversary of Katmai National Park’s creation, the vast stretch of coastal wilderness where Brooks Falls lies. It started after the biggest volcanic eruption of the 20th century (Novarupta 1912) bathed the region in chocking ash and dust, creating the valley of Ten Thousand smokes. This put yet more pressure on the bears, who were already at risk from logging, mining and road construction. President Woodrow Wilson therefore created the park in 1918, measuring 1 million acres, before Jimmy Carter slapped on another 1.2 million acres in 1978 in order to ensure “a viable gene pool population of the Alaska brown bear“.
Despite officially being part of Alaska, Katmai National Park is as close to a bear-run kingdom as we’ll get, and in 2015, 32 Chunk 409, Beadnose and bear 410 celebrated in style. They took part in an official fat bear parade, as captured in this youtube video. They walked in perfect formation down Spit Road, located next to Brooks River downstream of the falls, surrounded by tall wild grass. For the sake of occasion, the bears kept their usual squabbles to the minimum. The parade lasted for 3 minutes and a fight never once broke out.
The most amazing part of the parade is that rangers didn’t even give them the idea, thus proving that bears are more intelligent than we think and have eyes and ears everywhere – it’s possible that they secretly control Wikipedia.
| 4 | Wayne Brother’s mysterious demise |
868 Wayne Brother was a rare bear to have been monitored his whole life by Brooks Falls rangers, as he was first identified in 2002 as the tiny young cub of his mother 434 Flo. On October 24th 2015, his life ended where it started, in mysterious fashion. The 800-900 pound bear seemed perfectly fine on October 11th when he was filmed strolling along the spit road casually. In retrospect, he looked lethargic, but nobody could have guessed at serious illness.
Yet 14 days later, a large brown blob was spotted on a lush Brooks River island covered with vegetation. Closer inspection revealed it to be 868 Wayne Brother. Rangers battled their way through the grizzly minefield and performed a medical examination. They found no evidence of physical trauma, no battle wounds, and at 13, he should have had many years of longevity left ahead of him.
Eyes turned to a small cub which had mysteriously died 3 days earlier. It was the offspring of 451, who had returned to mourn over the corpse, and the corpse tested positive for canine distemper, a disease which causes lethargy and seizures. Could the same fate have befallen 868 Wayne Brother? All tests came up negative, as did tests for rabies and parasites.
The only physical abnormality biologists noted was high levels of abdominal fluid. Despite samples being taken from the heart, lungs, liver, small intestine contents, blood and hair, no cause was ever established, but several bears like bear 94 and 435 Holly wandered over to the body as though to pay their respects.
| 5 | Bear mother brawl |
A battle with mysterious motives took place on June 25th 2016, when two of Brooks Falls most prominent mother bears were filmed trying to ascend a steep forest trail leading from the river.
Being the good mother she is, 409 Beadnose sent her cubs up a tall spruce tree to safety. The problem: 128 Grazer sent her cubs up the exact same tree. According to ranger Mike Fitz, “This is something I never witnessed before, cubs from two litters in the same tree“. For the next few minutes, Beadnose and Grazer stood around each other in suspense. Beadnose managed to climb higher by skirting around Grazer, but then a show of aggression scared her into the undergrowth.
Grazer took her chance, and one by one, her large blond cubs descended from the trees. The family dropped back onto the rocks of Brooks River, and in the background, one of the Beadnose’s cubs managed to escape. But suddenly, Grazer started to make sharp popping noises with her jaw. She dashed back up the trail, and when she noticed Beadnose’s second cub descending, she charged and sent the small bear scrambling back up, with no apparent motive.
Beadnose’s head can be seen floating in the thick bushes, watching on. She opts for a wise course: instead of direct confrontation, she waits patiently for Grazer to lose interest, which she does 90 seconds later. The stand off ends and Beadnose’s cub rejoins its family. The only possible motive was Grazer feeling unusually paranoid about her cubs’ safety.
| 6 | Two cub families play together (July 2020) |
The world of bears is an unpredictable one where anything that can happen will, despite the normal rules which are vaguely followed. 284 Elektra (born 2011) is a particularly unpredictable bear, sliding down river slopes for fun, balancing pumice on her nose, and breaking out dance moves on the beach.
In July 2020, rangers were amazed when she allowed the cubs of another prominent female bear, Holly 35, to play with her own cubs. Normally, a mother would roar and most likely maul the younglings, but instead, Elektra kept a watchful eye over 1 cub for over an hour on a gravelly island downstream of Brooks Falls.
Meanwhile, Holly relaxed with her head bobbing around looking for salmon. As longterm Katmai ranger Mike Fitz put it, “Holly appeared to have an almost casual disregard for the situation“. Interestingly, Holly shot to headlines in 2014 when she adopted an orphaned cub, another almost unheard of act. Perhaps she instinctively trusted other mother bears to be as generous as her?
The cubs chased each other back and forth playfully, and didn’t bat an eyelid when a floatplane landed on the water 4 minutes into the video, probably thinking it was a rare species of whale.
Finally, Elektra grew tired of babysitting and bluff charged the small sandy brown cub, sending it fleeing. The charge was clearly intended to scare rather than kill, which we can ascertain from the fact that the cub survived. Afterwards it ran frantically to a forested lakeshore, while Holly’s head casually bobbed towards it.
| 7 | Otter gets its revenge (June 2017) |
June had been an uneventful month for 634 Popeye so far. He had relaxed on a green luscious island, washed his feet in the river while looking around aimlessly. Most importantly, it was early season, and he mostly had Brooks Falls to himself. Except for one uninvited intruder.
On June 22nd, the Brooks Falls bear cam captured a 30 second video of a dark, large mass dropping over the falls and into the deep pools below, while 634 Popeye watched on. It wasn’t a salmon, it wasn’t a bear – it was an otter. Specifically, it was a sea otter (Enhydra lutris), a species common to the Alaskan coast which are normally too fast and furry for grizzlies to snack on.
Popeye didn’t care though, and having registered the otter’s subtle movement, he quickly disappeared off camera in pursuit. Quite what happened next is a mystery. When he returned, rangers were uncertain whether Popeye had succeeded, but their questions were answered 5 minutes later when a queasy looking Popeye vomited in plain sight of everyone. It was a black furry mass, which was visibly different to the vomit when bears gorge on too much salmon.
People say that the otter had unleashed vengeance from beyond the grave. The otter had been seen multiple times in June 2017 and was just as entitled to use Brooks Falls as 634 Popeye. It’s possibly that a faint chuckling sound came from the vomit.
| 8 | 32 Chunk/ScareD relationship (2017) |
Brooks Falls was once the site of a great bear bromance, albeit with many twists and turns on the way. The stars were 32 Chunk, runner up in the 2020 fattest bear competition (defeated by 747), and ScareD Bear, who was named in his fearful younger years when he constantly fled from tougher bears.
On July 11th 2017, ScareD, 273, and 700 Marge were filmed milling around in the deep pools directly below the falls for about 8 minutes, when they suddenly exited stage left.
Seconds later, 32 Chunk charged in from the right, taking control with sheer aggression. 8 days later, 32 Chunk and Scare D were filmed having a heated argument, not outright fighting, but standing close to each other with edgy undertones. Eventually, the duo separated without resolving their differences.
Three weeks past without serious interactions. Apparently, 32 Chunk knew how to control bear turf, but not how to fish in it, as in this August 5th video, he was seen climbing up the waterfall and begging for fish. ScareD didn’t even react, and 32 continued to beg on August 6th to no avail.
Was ScareD taunting him? Possibly, but 4 days later, ScareD decided that 32 Chunk had learned his lesson, as the rarest sighting in the bear kingdom was filmed: the pair were play fighting! They stood on their hind legs and locked paws, pushing each other back into the water, but without any aggression.
13 days later, 32 Chunk followed ScareD up the waterfall, and watched him from the higher forest trail for 2 minutes, as though uncertain about their friendship status.
| 9 | Huge fight between 32 Chunk and 474 |
With the bountiful schools of salmon forcing multiple bears to converge at one time, it’s said that the Brooks Falls bears are among the most cooperative in the world. They communicate using growls, they have a rudimentary hierarchy. If a newer, less solitary species of brown bear evolved, it would probably happen at Brooks Falls.
But with the bear cam operating 24/7 during the summer months, many brutal battles have been observed as well, and one took place on September 9th 2017. The contestants were 32 Chunk again, and 474, a bear who mainly shows up during fall.
About 10 bears were scanning the river for fish when 32 Chunk began to invade 474’s space aggressively. Instead of backing down, 474 immediately pushed forward. The two titans stood on their hindlegs, biting and wrestling with all their might while other bears watched on. It was 32 Chunk who weakened first, and after turning around to flee, 474 managed to sink his mighty jaws into 32 Chunk’s shoulders.
474 refused to left go, his jaws firmly in place. It’s amazing that a fountain of blood wasn’t shooting up. After wriggling free, the two bears stared for a while, before 474 felt satisfied that he’d made his point. He wandered off, leaving 32 Chunk looking chastened.
Rangers were shocked that despite the brutal blows, 32 Chunk appeared to have no visible wounds. They expected to have witnessed a real time case of a bear being scarred, the types of scars that later distinguish them. Ranger Mike Fitz declared that 474 was more dominant in the hierarchy than 32 Chunk.
| 10 | Mystery of 469 Digger (2013-2020) |
469 Digger is a less known Brooks Falls bear, but easily recognisable by a diamond-shaped patch of blond fur below his left shoulder, which people originally thought was scar tissue.
His age is unknown, as he was already a fully grown adult when identified in 2001, perhaps making him one of the oldest surviving bears at Brooks Falls. But does he survive? That was a question for a while in 2013, when Digger limped into Brooks Falls on July 10th with a badly swollen left hind foot and leg. It was so crippled that his speed was reduced to 5mph and the other 3 legs acted as crutches. He couldn’t put his weight on the leg even while stationary. He had likely been in a duel with a fellow bear somewhere in the deeper Alaskan wilderness.
Within 2 weeks, Digger regained some mobility, but rangers’ fears strengthened in 2014 when the KNP&P monitoring program came up empty. He still appeared in the official “bears of Brooks River” handbook, and there was a single unconfirmed sighting, but it was feared that a fishless Digger had starved to death in his winter hibernation den. Not so! On June 19th 2015, the first confirmed photograph of Digger was taken for 2 years, blond patches evident, walking properly. He was standing by a riverside forest trail, plotting his next move.
The mystery lives on, with no official photos for years, but a strongly suspected photo of the now elderly Digger was taken in October 2020, with the diamond-shaped blond patch in plain vision.
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