posted July 18, 2006 07:41 PM         

Bearcam offers real-time view of McNeil River
FISHING: Brown bears hunt for salmon all day on multi-agency webcam.

By KATIE PESZNECKER
Anchorage Daily News

Published: July 18, 2006
Last Modified: July 18, 2006 at 02:51 AM

Smile, bears: You're live on camera.

The National Geographic Society has turned a webcam on Alaska's McNeil River Falls, where nearly 50 salmon-grubbing brown bears gather at a time between late June and early September.

The 200-square-mile McNeil River State Game Sanctuary protects the world's largest concentration of brown bears, but it's a sight few can enjoy each year because access to bruin-viewing at the sanctuary is limited and decided by lottery.

Now, the so-called BearCam is available to anyone with a computer and the latest version of the free RealPlayer plugin. Showtime is 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.

From 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., an interpreter at Homer's Pratt Museum narrates and controls the solar-powered BearCam, which is hidden in a fake boulder.

Other times, it cycles through preset positions, showing the bears as they lumber over river rocks and trudge through rushing white water. Their heads drop low, eyes scanning the churning river for salmon as hopeful gulls swoop overhead.

National Geographic hosts the footage but the webcam's creation came from a team of agencies, including the Pratt Musuem, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaska Wildlife Alliance, Friends of McNeil River, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, the Alaska Conservation Foundation and the Giles and Elise G. Mead Foundation.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamgrizzlies/wildcam.html

posted July 27, 2006 01:57 PM         

I have just read and signed the online petition:

"Oppose Hunting of Brown Bears Near the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary, Alaska"

hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition
service, at:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mcneil66/

I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might
agree, too. If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider
signing yourself.

Best wishes,

Angela Hoppe