Gorging on bearcam: the livestream of big beasts eating that draws millions

Ahead of Fat Bear Week, avid fans are glued to the spectacle of brown bears devouring salmon at Brooks Falls in Alaska One of this summer’s biggest onscreen hits has had big beasts, great escapes and choppy waters, but it’s not Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey – it’s a livestream of Alaskan brown bears catching salmon. The Brooks Falls bearcam at Katmai national park in the US was watched 7.3m times between 22 June and 4 August – up 70% from the same period last year and more than double the views it attracted in 2024. The cameras, run by the wildlife network Explore.org, show brown bears gathering at Brooks Falls waterfall to catch sockeye salmon as they make their way upstream. More than a dozen bears at a time can be spotted prowling around the rocky waters and chomping on the fish. Candice Rusch, Explore.org’s director of new media, said the surge in viewers appeared to be driven by the bears returning to the falls in large numbers after a less concentrated season last year. “Last year was a really high salmon run, which meant there was salmon all over the river and the bears didn’t need to congregate at the falls the way they’re doing right now,” she said. “This year we’ve just