Otis Special Report for November 2, 2023Just checking in a minute, after watching today’s adventure a few times. Full report will follow later. 🙂
Facts:
1:51 1:31 p.m. Katmai time: Otis appears on BF at the Near Platform path (near Riffles), and he looked his usual self — meandering. 😉
1:54 p.m. Katmai time: 811s (someone else’s ID; I suck at that), run up the Far Bank. They appeared to go into the woods.
About an 8 count later, 708 (without her JRs; again, someone else’s ID) appears from the area where 811 had been looking and follows in her footsteps, except t’s not clear whether she goes into the woods.
Immediately follow 708, Otis follows up the Far Bank. CamOps follow Otis and he clearly takes the path — running.
It was about 6 24 minutes from the time Otis appeared on the near path to the time he appeared running.
Otis is known to avoid other bears — moms, cubs, 151, 856… 747, he sometimes chatters with. 😉 We just saw him go around 708 + 3 on October 15 at the Riffles path AND the 910 Girl Gang on the Cut Bank this same date.
According to Bing, bears have millions of scent receptors and can “sniff out food, cubs, a mate, or danger up to two miles away.”
Ponderings:
Semi-responding to whether Otis may have done something nefarious with 708’s cubbies, I just can’t get there using any logic…
Surely if 708’s cubs were in danger, she’d have defended first — she stepped in front of her cubs on October 15, and Otis turned around. She’d have likely done the same, yeah?
It was a 6-minute 24-minute span from Otis on Riffles path to himself running… hardly time for him to meander, her to defend, something bad to happen, and then for Otis to give chase, in my mind.
If Otis went after her cubs and she left one with him, he would still be at the site of the cub if the purpose was… uh… protein… yeah? He wouldn’t be chasing her. Also, one of her two would be with her still, probably?
If any bear wanted to chase a cub, those millions of scent receptors would tell said bear which direction to go — 708 had no cubs with her. Why would Otis chase her? If it was food he was after, 811s would be the target.
Speculation, entirely:
I’m thinking something else was going on there and all three ran from/because that. Thinking 708 Jrs. may be treed (hopeful).
That’s what I’ve got.
P.S. It’s not that I don’t think Otis is capable of doing… things. He’s a bear; got that. It’s that pretty much all of these bears have *personality* ID markers. And nothing in Otis’ “profile,” if you will, suggests that he would attack cubs, plus the facts don’t feel like they play out to that sort of timeline. My opinion. 🙂
EDIT: My timestamps were off (I’m so sorry!), and I corrected, but I still stand by my musings. 🙂 Thank you @SheHikes (whom I can’t tag in an edit) for suggesting I check those!!
Bear cam images in this post are copyright National Park Service and/or Explore.org
I’m sure you know this but 708’s 2 cubs have been spotted and everyone looks fine and relaxed!
Yes! Thank you for making sure I knew though! 🙂
I’m glad your timestamps were off. The six minute gap convinced me, and now we’ve seen 708 and her 2 cubs, so it seems you were right. I agree that it doesn’t fit his personality to be so aggressive, but a 24 minute gap would have made me a little concerned. I do hope Otis is okay after his run. Maybe he’ll put in another appearance soon.
I don’t think 24 minutes is sufficient time either, honestly. 🙂 A momma bear would defend and cubs would run.
Was good to see we have confirmation they’re all well!
Do you know if the live feed timestamp accounts for daylight savings time? According to the Alaska Earthquake Center, there was a small earthquake in or around the park (“22 miles NE of Ukinrek Craters,” from their website) at 2:50pm AKDT, which would be 1:50pm AKST. If the timestamps on the video are in standard time instead of daylight savings time*, that means the earthquake probably hit just before the first bear+cub is seen running.
*Alternatively, if the video feeds use Hawaiian-Aleutian Time rather than Alaskan Time.
Hi Delaney! The live Bear cam feeds on Explore don’t have timestamps.
I take my time — which is currently Eastern Daylight — and subtract 4 hours. So if I say something happened at 2:01 Katmai time, for example, it was 6:01 in my time zone.
Does that help?