The shocking deaths that marked the conclusion of Bearcam 2015 brought to light the harsh reality of life for bears. Seldom do people see bears die. Whenever they do, it’s generally at another bear’s paws. Relatively few bear deaths in Katmai have been reported in the past 30 years. Two bears, a small cub and an adult male, died, providing an opportunity to study and learn from unusual situations that people seldom get to witness. The most common queries regarding these deaths are included below, along with the responses we currently have. What took place? Bearcam watchers got to see a mother bear (451) and her two springtime pups on Wednesday, October 21, 2015. When it walked, one of the cubs staggered. The cub fell apart.
Webcam viewers discovered a huge, brown, immobile object at the shoreline close to the cub’s death, a few hours after the deceased cub was recovered. In the days that followed, it stayed still. The position, size, and color of it led park staff to think it to be a dead bear. Given the likelihood of a disease outbreak or human-caused deaths, park personnel made the decision to go back to Brooks River, perform a comprehensive field necropsy, and submit samples to a laboratory for additional examination. It wasn’t until Wednesday, October 28, that biologists were able to visit Brooks Camp due to weather-related delays that they concluded the big brown item was, in fact, an adult bear. Wildlife technicians examined the bear thoroughly when they got there and determined that it was
Leave a Reply