The Anan Wildlife Observatory bear cameras are online for a third summer, with the hard work of students participating in the Teaching Through Technology program.
Wrangell T3 students returned earlier this month from their third year of field work to set up the cameras to livestream the black and brown bears of Anan Creek. With support from the international nonprofit explore.org, which hosts the livestream, and the U.S. Forest Service Wrangell Ranger District, the T3 students designed and installed the camera systems that provide four different views of the creek.
The cams at Anan are the only student-run cameras of all of the sites hosted on explore.org, which shares a variety of wildlife livestreams.
Around 390,000 viewers tuned to the Anan cams throughout the first season, but that number more than doubled in its second year with 890,000 total viewers.
The livestream is available at friendsofanan.org.
Anan is among Wrangell’s top visitor attractions.
The first year, the students designed and installed the system from scratch, with two cameras. They then added two more cameras the second year to add more views of the bears. This year, the students focused on making things look more professional after cleaning up wire debris and other damage caused by winter storms.
There are four cameras streaming at Anan currently, with plans to add a fifth at the top of the waterfall in the future.
