Ports in the Storm

Thus far in my field observations I haven’t been able to observe personally any kind of mating behavior via the live webcams available at the Katmai National Park. However, Explore.org, the group responsible for hosting the live cameras, also provides a handful of highlight videos from this year and past years, which allows viewers to see footage of different activities they are less likely to stumble upon via the live feeds. I found one such video, a highlight video entitled “Bear 856 Pursues Female Bear 410 at Brooks Falls, Alaska”, which provided a small glimpse of some of the brown bear mating behavior . It’s a relatively short clip, less than two minutes in length, and shows the male bear 856 following female bear 410 as she walks around Brooks Falls. He walks into the frame from the right side, she makes her way toward the far bank, and begins to move more quickly downstream, almost running. He pursues her back upstream, around the small sandbar, back to the fall pool, up over the falls, toward the foreground and along the lip, before the clip ends. Their pace is never very fast, although at times she seems to scramble a bit and pick up her pace.

More on brown bear mating behavior to come…