Alaska’s fat bear live stream is unfiltered and can be brutal.
On July 27, one of the largest and most dominant bears in Katmai National Park and Preserve’s Brooks River attacked a cub while terrifying witnesses across the web. The cub appeared to be seriously injured, and although it seemed to recover slightly over the next few days, the young animal’s current condition is unknown. This is a moment that clearly shows the full extent of the wildness of the bear’s natural world.
“We get to see the bears’ moments of joy,” Mike Fitts, a former Katmai National Park ranger who is now resident naturalist for the live bear cam site explore.org, said in an online live chat. “But the webcam is live and the footage is uncensored. We also get to see the bears face hardship, hunger, injury, pain and even death.”
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These bears, who live in a remote part of the Alaska Peninsula, are broadcast around the world by radio transmitter to tourists who arrive in small floatplanes. Katmai’s bears gained Internet fame during the park’s annual “Fat Bear Week” contest, an event that celebrates the success of animals that persevere in a harsh environment. Bears must devour salmon all summer to build up fat to survive the long winter hunger of hibernation, so a fat bear is a healthy bear.
In July, bears congregate in the park’s Brooks River to prey on large runs of salmon, forcing the normally solitary animals into close packs, which is where the attack happened.
Glazer, the famous mama bear and winner of last year’s “Fat Bear Week,” was fishing above the falls with her two spring cubs (born this year). The strong current made this a somewhat dangerous endeavor. Eventually, the two cubs fell over the falls, and one of them passed close to “Chunk,” the male bear #32 who was in top form and monopolizing the best fishing spots. For unknown reasons, Chunk chased and attacked the cub (see screenshot below). He caught the little bear in his mouth.
But the drama didn’t end there, as Glaser sprinted to protect the cub.
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In this screenshot from the livestream, the cub appears to be in Chunk’s mouth as Glazer (left) aggressively tries to intimidate him.
Credit: NPS / explore.org
Glazer was a particularly aggressive bear, having previously attacked bears that approached his cubs and attacked bears that tried to steal his fish. His fearless aggression toward a dominant bear hundreds of pounds larger than him likely saved the cub from a fatal injury. Glazer repeatedly fended off Chunk.
“She’s brave and protective.”
“She kept fighting back,” Naomi Bourque, bear manager for the Katmai Conservancy, a parks advocacy group, said in a live chat. “She was brave and she was defensive.”
You can watch the showdown below, which will run from 12:20 to 14:30.
The cub appeared to be seriously injured after the attack — it was whimpering, licking its paws, and barely moving — but it managed to hang on afterward, though rangers haven’t seen it recently. “Bear cubs are tough,” Fitts told Mashable in an email.
“We don’t know if the cub will recover or the extent of its injuries, but there is every reason to be hopeful,” Fitts added. “The cub is adapting to its injuries; rangers saw it walking on its hind legs just a few days after the attack. Glaser continues to care for this and the other cub.”
“The Cubs are tough.”
We may never know why Chunk seized this opportunity to attack the cub. Before the cub fell, Chunk had shown no interest in Grazer’s family, instead focusing on catching a 4,500-calorie sockeye salmon. Livestreams have shown that large males have killed bears before. It may have simply been an instinctive reaction. As in other cases of bear cub killing, Chunk may have been trying to bring Grazer, who may not have a cub, back into rutting, a form of sexual selection (although this doesn’t make sense given Chunk’s previous lack of interest in the family group). Chunk may have felt he was competing with Grazer’s family for food. Or it may be for reasons we humans cannot understand or imagine.
Katmai’s bears will continue to fight for survival in BearCam, a dynamic look into a nearly untouched territory. It’s a beautiful yet ruthless world.
“National parks like Katmai exist to protect and preserve wild landscapes and ecological processes,” Fitts says. “This includes spectacular sights like bears fishing at Brooks Falls as well as the harsh realities of nature.”
