The Reign of 856 | Memorable Moments in Bear Cam History

856 has been at the top of the hierarchy for almost 10 years.
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[@ExploreLiveNatureCams]

Bear 856 has a reputation among the bears at Brooks River in Katmai National Park. He routinely displaces other bears from preferred fishing locations and has fought mother bears protecting their cubs. (Earlier this summer, he tangled with bear 39, a mother bear with two young cubs. That family has not been seen at Brooks River since.) Although it can be difficult to empathize with bears such as 856 who express a high level of aggression, take a moment to consider what the behavior of a large, dominant adult bear such as 856 means for him, rather than through standards of human ethics and morals. Bears live and survive in habitats of limited resources-a fact that invites conflict between them. When his behavior is viewed through the lens of an adult male bear, we see that 856’s remarkable longevity as dominant bear has brought him reproductive success and consistent access to food in difficult and challenging environment.

[@felicia7195]

Love that you did a spotlight on 856. He is a magnificent bear by any standard

[@bearforceone689]

Well honestly Human morality is nothing to brag about, 856 treats Humans a lot better than Humans treat Humans (not to mention how Humans treat Bears) at least I understand why Bears do the things that they do and the Hierarchy system the Bears have works for the most part and keeps the Bears from suffering serious injuries - as far as how 856 treats Bears, he is complex to say the least, his 'Rhett & Scarlett' relationships with 402 over the years encapsules the good and the bad with him - he has killed at least one of her cubs and forced 402 to emancipate 503 as a yearling, we only have 503 now because of the kindness of Holly (score one for Bear morality) but then 856 recognizes 402 is the most dominant Sow on the river so she is his frequent Courting partner, and 402 seems to recognize the benefits of mating with the most dominant Boar - this season I thought 856's behavior was a little odd, the way he was so hyper aggressive the first few weeks taking his top spot back and then flipping mid-season back to the way he was last year, being submissive to 747 while retaining his dominance over the other Bears, he might be feeling the effects of old age and not dealing with it as well as Otis, Popeye and 747 are, but in any case 856 is indeed a remarkable Bear.

[@adriennelee26]

Really well said as usual. When I first started watching the cams and I heard about 856's fight with 39, I admit it made me ambivalent about him. But watching the bears, learning more, and reading their stories, I've come to really admire 856. I just hope he steers clear of the 910s 🙃!

[@beachbum200009]

I wondered what happened to 39 and if her cubs survived. 856 was spitting hunks of 39 out after the attack. Hope 39 healed up.

[@gcharocks]

I love when Mike narrates these.

[@AniFam]

So many competitions and fights! Thank you for sharing this video~👍

[@maggiehogland1891]

Awesome as always Mike! These little clips provide a clear picture of the bears we know and love. Thank you!

[@sienna.cd33]

I love him. He’s a beautiful bear, and he shows how to excel in the wild.

[@psycho4agY]

He’s gorgeous and so impressive!❤️❤️❤️

[@mels1811]

Wonderful Bears

[@mushdogful]

Bear 856--Lord of the Pools The ones that don't fear him are fools He's sometimes upsetting, But we keep forgetting That bears do not live by our rules.

[@shannonswiger8064]

That slaps.

[@mels4796]

thank you for another wonderful bear cam history

[@monicabolognini7962]

Love these cronacles from Brooks Falls ❣️🐻❤️ Bears are fantastic creatures , each with a very distinct personality. All my respect to this project and all the people involved , and of course to all the Bears 🐻😍

[@john-brady]

What a great presentation, heartwarming and somehow inspiring to an old geezer like me…

[@priscillabergeron1151]

Thank you Explore for all these wonderful videos. I have learned so much from watching, LOVE IT............

[@margaretthatcher6828]

Goooooo 856.

[@YellowRoseoftx]

Thank you for telling us about 856. He’s part of the family 😎

[@miditrax]

856 the Drama Bear! Thanks for this

[@lasteniarodriguez8680]

Have you seen 39 and her Cubs after the fight

[@mikefitz6837]

We haven't yet. We're still on the lookout.

[@jthitchens2672]

@@mikefitz6837 how about 94 and her 4 coy?

[@mikefitz6837]

@@jthitchens2672 94 returned to Brooks River last weekend after a brief August hiatus. She still has all four cubs too.

[@lynneyb2469]

Remember bear 856 and momma bear 39 with her cubs? whatever happened to momma and her cubs? She was injured so badly, and her and cubs never to be seen again. 💔

[@madisonmagnusen888]

Mike, are the cameras down for the season? Hope not. I do so enjoy the talks, thank you.

[@mikefitz6837]

Due to a hardware failure, the cams are down for this week but not for the season. We have a tech team schedule to go to Brooks Camp and we hope that the cams will be online again late this week.

[@protolexis]

Love the footage but I wish you guys had better cameras. Watching this on a big screen with all those blocky pixels is hard to look at.

[@wnut_oh7150]

No beary clears the falls like 856!

[@phoebeandkaylee7927]

Why do some have names and others numbers only 856 deserved to be named given his villain role he's played over the years and have to say not many bears play it better probably only other I've seen with 856s temperament is Van from the great bear stakeout documentary.

[@mikefitz6837]

All bears who are observed using Brooks River at least three times during an official bear monitoring session (during either the early summer or late summer/fall bear monitoring periods) are assigned an ID number. Previously ID'd bears keep their original number. But the National Park Service at Katmai has no official nicknaming process or procedure. Any existing nicknames for bears come about spontaneously among rangers (or used to anyway; rangers are shying away from assigning more nicknames to bears). Here's more info about the bear monitoring program at Brooks River. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mYm9ZqufgNeUmKs

[@joereeve2569]

Curious, what makes the rangers shy away from that?

[@mikefitz6837]

@@joereeve2569 It's a difference in opinion more than anything. Those with the most influence among the park staff currently don't think nicknaming wild bears is appropriate. They are concerned about anthropomorphizing the animals. I disagree that it will automatically lead to that. It could, but only if the bears were given inappropriate names that can stigmatize them (i.e. Killer, Fluffy). But I'm willing to respect the opinions of the rangers so I haven't pushed the issue or made an effort to apply new nicknames to bears we see at Brooks River.

[@joereeve2569]

@@mikefitz6837 Interesting! Thanks for the reply

[@mikemathis3936]

Dont count 747 out of the Brooks Falls dominance championship quite yet. I dont think he has said "uncle" to 846 yet🐻

[@bearforceone689]

747 is Top Bear now, he displaced 856 as Top Bear again about a month ago.

[@looselipssinkships6543]

Why is the live feed just highlights now

[@mikefitz6837]

There's a hardware problem in one of the radio repeaters that transmit the bear cam signal out of the Brooks River area. Explore.org has a couple of techs scheduled to go Katmai later this week. They'll be troubleshooting the issue.

[@looselipssinkships6543]

@@mikefitz6837 aww alright. We usually watch it going to bed and periodically throughout the day. Been a sad few days

[@richardhotchkiss2928]

I seen him in 2021, All bears stay away from him know not to mess around.