Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
I've seen some confusion recently about the subadult that's been around at the falls and by the oxbow, so I went through my video collection to put together "The Evolution of 719 Junior's Face" aka "The Subadult All Over the Cams is 719 Junior."
I included some screenshots from last year just to show what her face looks like after she sheds before she grows a new head poof in the fall. As you can see in the September 9, 2023 screenshots, when she sheds, she looks a LOT like older brother 208. (I kind of suspect they might have the same dad *cough 503 cough*) She gets darker, her forehead becomes more prominent, and her frowny looking brows stand out more. (And yes, I do have a looooong video of her almost aggressively chowing down on grass from September 17, 2023, which I recorded all of because she amused me and because I thought having as many looks at her face up close might come in handy some day.)
Meanwhile in 2024, as we all know, the bears' coloring can vary wildly from cam to cam, and our little friend (who actually isn't as small as she appears on camera when you actually see her next to other bears) is no different, so I don't really rely on coloring to ID bears. Instead I look for distinctive markings or habits or mannerisms. (One example is how 719 Junior has a tendency to stand so her hump sticks up more, like in the July 24, 2024 profile screenshot.)
The July 24, 2024 screenshots are pre-shed, where you can see her poofy head. She's holding her ears back there, so they don't stick up in all of their glory. As we go through August, she's started shedding, so her forehead and frowny brows are much more noticeable. I've also noticed that she still has the thicker darker fur on her front legs. You can see that in most of the 2024 screenshots. In recent days, she's started looking more like she's wearing dark pants. It's especially noticeable when you see her on the KRV cam. In the most recent video of her finding scraps in the riffles, you can see that she's shedding even more around her neck with more dark fur coming in. She's probably going to get darker as she finishes shedding and her new coat comes in.
I know lots of people are hoping to see 402 Junior. I am, too! But I'm pretty sure that the subadult we've been seeing on the cams so far is solely 719 Junior.
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Big news! 128 Grazer returned today with two spring cubs! And naturally, they arrived just as my internet connection became insaaaaanely slow, but I was so excited to see them that I had to hop on my phone's hotspot to get this video uploaded. 😂
Welcome back, 128 Grazer!
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Hooray! It's bear season again! At last!
If you follow my channel, odds are you already know that the bear cams will be going live tomorrow at 9am PDT/noon EDT. (YAY!) Like the last couple of years, I plan to record and upload various bear videos here, likely sticking to more of the lower river action, especially the subadults, younger bears, and single sows who might not get as much attention as the big boys at the falls.
As always, I try to keep my videos organized in playlists sorted by each bear. You can find them by clicking "View All" in the Katmai section on my main page. From there it should bring up all of the bear playlists. I try to keep them in numerical order, but YouTube makes it a gigantic pain to move playlists around, so some might not be in quite the right order yet.
I think that's all for my annual general housekeeping post. Bring on the bears! And the salmon. Especially the salmon.
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We'd all been hoping for one last glimpse of Brooks Falls today, but alas, the Dumpling Mountain cam never came on, which meant no falls cam either, so the 2023 bear season is officially over. The Brooks Falls cam on Explore now says off season and is running 2023 highlights. That means 344 is officially the last bear we saw on camera yesterday.
https://youtu.be/cUdxNRCdXg8?si=KLVE1...
(You can now go find yourself a nice site for a den, 344.)
Thanks to everyone who has visited my channel this season. Always fun to find that there are lots and lots of people out there who think bears are as awesome as I do. I was going to say that now I will probably hibernate for awhile, but I know I totally won't. I mean, in the winter time I watch pandas. And look on Instagram for photos and videos of our Katmai friends. And now I forgot how I was going to end this because I got distracted by one of the new highlight videos. Until next time!
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Uploaded a bunch of bear videos tonight, because it's awesome that it's late October and there are still a bunch of chonky floofy bears hanging around. I'll be taking a break from uploading videos for the next week or so, because I'm actually going to leave my house (WHAT?!?) and head east for a bit leaf peeping. And maybe see a bear or two. Who knows? I'll definitely be checking in, because you know I can't stay away when the cams are still running. I might even record a bit, because I can't help myself. But there likely won't be any new uploads on my channel while I'm gone, because I don't need to be subjecting hotel wifi to lots of bear videos.
Happy bear watching and here's to hoping that the weather at Katmai stays decent and the cams are still going strong when I get back next week!
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Story time!
So the other night my computer was acting very not like itself. I fixed it, but in the process of doing so, the plugin I use for Quicktime to record sound with my videos got switched off, which I didn't realize until late last night when one of my videos got flagged and blocked (in Russia!) for a song. I thought that was strange, because it's not like Chunk is jamming to pop music in the river. When I went through that video I realized that instead of the rushing sounds of the falls or no sound at all like in the past, my computer had switched to recording whatever was going on around me. COOL. So my apologies for yesterday's uploads, some of which include snippets from my Bravo TV watching habit in the background. Since YouTube doesn't let me replace uploads, I will probably just re-upload some of those videos today. And now back to the bears!
19 - 0
It's bearcam season again! And 909 has had the honor of being the first bear seen on camera this year, likely because 128 Grazer is busy trying to hide from 747. Like last year, I'm planning on recording and uploading as many bear videos as I can, likely mostly from the lower river area, because I am forever obsessed with the subadult bears and that's where they like to hang out. So if you love goofy subadults, too, well, this channel is for you.
I try to keep my videos organized into playlists for each bear. I'm pretty sure that I still need to re-title some of my videos from last year with the new numbers for the 300-series bears, but for the most part, those bears should be in their proper playlists even if the videos in the playlists don't have their new numbers ... yet. YouTube only shows a certain number of playlists on my main page, but clicking on "Katmai Brown Bears" should bring up a page with all of my playlists together in numerical order.
Happy bear season!
19 - 0
According to Explore, the bear cams are officially considered off-season, which means 821 was officially the last bear we saw on camera (not counting bear specks that were visible on the Dumpling Mountain cam for a couple of days afterward) this year. In retrospect, watching this video, it seems a little fitting, like Pepper was making one last round before turning off the lights and heading out. However, knowing Pepper and 903 and 22 and 907, they probably hung around a bit after this.
Thanks to Explore, as always, for giving us this opportunity to watch bears do their bear thing every summer. I'll miss the bears, I always do, but I know I'll likely be spending the winter going through my playlists and fixing the titles to give all of the subadults their new numbers. Plus I have to sort through my 205 playlist to really figure out which videos might be the real 205 and which ones are 208. And there's a chance I might upload some videos sitting on my external drive that got recorded but not uploaded.
Just in case you haven't seen the new bear numbers, you can find them in this Flickr album with lots of pictures: www.flickr.com/photos/katmainps/albums/72177720303…
Plus new pictures of the 200 series bears who were seen this year: www.flickr.com/photos/katmainps/albums/72177720303…
Nice to see all of the subadults with official numbers! And Mystery Bear/No Pants as well.
Thanks to everyone who has visited my channel this season. Already looking forward to next bear season!
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I made this channel forever ago to post completely random things, and then I didn't use it for years and years and years.
Fast forward to 2020 when I, like many other people, I'm sure, discovered the awesomeness that is the brown bear cams on explore.org. I'd come across Fat Bear Week before, but until 2020, I didn't know you could actually sit and watch those bears on a daily basis during the summer and fall and watch them get fat. I saw Holly and her adorable spring cub and I was hooked.
Over the last year between watching a zillion bear videos (starting with Holly and every single member of her family), reading the bear wiki, and lurking in the comments section on Explore, I've started learning to identify the bears. Or trying to! At first I was saving videos just for myself, but figured if I was organizing them and labeling them, I might as well share them publicly. So here I am. Another bear addict. Hello!