The beloved Katmai Bear Cams are up and running. Beginning today, viewers can watch for brown bears returning to Brooks Falls and other popular areas of Katmai National Park & Preserve.
The Bear Cams are hosted in collaboration between Explore.com and the National Park Service. Eight cameras are positioned throughout the park, with one even showing an underwater view.
Katmai National Park is home to an estimated 2,000 Alaskan brown bears, which are the larger, coastal cousin of inland grizzly bears. As many as 100 bears may visit Brooks Camp at the height of bear activity in July.
Due to the remote location, Katmai averages about 35,000 visitors a year. The Katmai Bear Cams are an easy way to involve more fans of the park to participate in the fun of bear watching virtually.
Over the course of the summer, the bears will first be regaining mass they lost during their long hibernation. As the summer peaks and nears its end, bears will once again be rushing to pack on weight in order to survive the winter, resulting in the increasingly popular Fat Bear Week bracket challenge.
