twelve22

It's that time of year again! The bear cams are back, which means another summer of me telling myself that I won't obsessively record as many bear videos as I can even though I know I totally will. Like always I'll probably focus mostly on sows, subadults, and family groups and all of that sweet, sweet lower river action. Last year that meant I was extremely busy (it was non-stop play time in the lower river, which is awesome!) and might have maybe burned myself out a little, but it was fun to watch it all.

I try to keep my videos organized in playlists by the bears' numbers, which you can always find by clicking on "view all" in my Katmai Brown Bears section, which should bring up all of the playlists in mostly numerical order. (I would really, really love YouTube to make doing this easier but they do not, so organizing my playlists tends to be something that happens during the offseason.)

Here's to another bear cam season!

(Shout out to one of my favorite little guys, 694, for being the first bear clearly seen on camera.)

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1 month ago | [YT] | 102

twelve22

Just in case you haven't seen the big news, Ranger Sarah uploaded Ranger Tammy's photos of the newly numbered bears (with numbers!) for 2024 and 2025. You can find the photo gallery here: flic.kr/s/aHBqjCTQHK

I will be working on updating my playlists and videos with the new numbers. This might be a gradual project, since I kind of have a lot of videos of subadults. (Understatement of the year here.) In the meantime:

606 - 806 Junior/806M
609 - 909 Junior/909F
620 - 910 Junior/910F
632 - 132F
662 - 504F
663 - 504M
673 - 273M
682 - 482M
694 - 94M Small

3 months ago | [YT] | 72

twelve22

And ... we're back! With the return of the bear cams, much like the bears my YouTube channel has emerged from hibernation. I have spent the offseason binge watching Masterchef Australia, but now I ready to switch to my favorite summertime show, the bears.

I originally started recording videos of the bears in 2021, mostly because I'd discovered the cams the previous year and had completely fallen in love with all of the cubs and various younger bears and wanted to kind of keep tabs on my favorites as they grew up. Somehow all of those adorable little chonky cubs are now officially adult bears. As always I plan to record and post videos mostly of the younger bears and the lower river action. This season could potentially get a little wild as there could be a ton of new subadults around, which delights me, but as someone who likes documenting subadults, frightens me a little. Really, really hoping for a fun subadult summer though. And hoping to see 519 again! Along with my many, many other favorite bears.

I try to keep my videos as organized as I can. If you're looking for a specific bear, I try to keep my videos in playlists. On the main page of my channel if you click on "view all" above the Katmai Brown Bears section, it should bring up a window (I think it's a pop-up now) where you can scroll down and see all of my playlists in mostly numerical order. (While writing this, I noticed a couple of the numbers are out of order and I will probably be fixing that soon, because otherwise it will drive me nuts.) I haven't made individual playlists for all of the potential new subadults, because ... life happened? But that will be something I'll work on this summer.

I think that's it for now. Happy bear watching, everyone!

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1 year ago | [YT] | 131

twelve22

It's a little earlier than any of us wanted (but honestly, are we ever ready for the cams to turn off?), but earlier today the generator at Brooks Camp was turned off, which put an end to our bear viewing for 2024. It's been a different sort of season with a lot of regulars missing, along with some sad moments, including the losses of 128 Grazer's smaller cub and the beautiful 402. At the same time it's also felt like a transitional sort of season as we saw a lot more of the next generation of bears. As someone who has been borderline obsessed with recording and uploading videos of the subadults and younger adult bears for the last few years, this has been pretty fun for me to see. I've loved seeing more people get a chance to know bears like 208, 307, 308, 384, 428, and 429. If you need more of them this offseason, just know that I have been obsessed with every single one of them since they were cubs, so I have playlists full of many many videos these bears here on my channel. lol

I originally stumbled across the bear cams in 2020. The very first bears I saw were 128 Grazer with then spring cubs 428 and 429 on the lip. I watched in awe as little 428 and 429 stood up there with mom for so long. Not long afterward I discovered the lower river cams and saw 435 Holly with the blonde fluff ball full of personality that we now know as 335. It was love. I was hooked. It's been hard this year to not see my original favorite bear, 435 Holly, but I often found comfort looking at the lower river cams (forever my favorite views) and seeing her offspring, 89 Backpack and 719 (and even 26 a few times!) as well as her grandcubs, 208 and 519, all over the place, often hanging out and fishing in 435 Holly's favorite spots. It's been a joy to watch 519 figure out the whole independent subadult thing. (She crushed it.) I always hope to see 435 Holly again, but even if I don't, I know she lives on through her offspring all over the river.

Every summer I tell myself that I won't get super sucked into wanting to record hours and hours of videos of bears, because I'll be honest, it's a little time consuming! But every summer I know I'm going to do it anyway, especially when my many favorite bears start showing up and I end up wanting to record every single thing they do. But I love documenting these guys. I just know that if I want to get anything done, it won't be happening between June and October/November. lol

Thank you to everyone who checked out my channel this year. I know bear people are awesome people. I'm glad there are so many people out there who love the bears as much as I do. And thank you, as always, to Explore, because without them we wouldn't be able to spend our summers watching bears get really fat. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself now that I'm not spending my evenings making/uploading bear videos, but I'll probably be around the chat on Explore, and if you follow the panda cams, you can probably find me there, too.

Since the lower river cameras are my favorite, I leave you with the last ten minutes of Kat's River View cam this year. Seems kind of right to end with 602 snoozing in the river.

1 year ago | [YT] | 37

twelve22

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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2 years ago | [YT] | 98

twelve22

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!

2 years ago | [YT] | 61

twelve22

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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2 years ago | [YT] | 61

twelve22

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!

2 years ago | [YT] | 15

twelve22

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!

2 years ago | [YT] | 58

twelve22

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!

2 years ago | [YT] | 18