KATMAI NATIONAL PARK, Alaska – Katmai National Park’s bear cams have become very popular over the past several years, with the annual Fat Bear Week competition bringing explore.org a whole lot of attention. While it might not have the best chance of showing you a bear, the underwater salmon camera has a chance of showing you an incredibly unique shot of bears, live. This compilation video highlights some of the best views from the camera.
Katmai National Park is home to brown bears, rather than grizzly bears. While they are, technically, the same species, a brown bear is often larger, and has access to marine-derived food resources, like salmon.
Some of these bears can eat dozens of sockeye salmon in one day, each fish containing about 4,000 calories. If they just ate 12 fish, that would be 48,000 calories per day, but they can eat a lot more than that. For comparison, the average human man needs about 2,500 calories per day. These brown bears eat mostly salmon with some sedge grasses and berries, and in the late summer, the chemical that tells their body that their full is suppressed. This allows them to eat and eat and eat, right up until they need to sleep.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, one bear was once spotted eating 40 salmon in one sitting, or around 160,000 calories.