Podcast Episode - Carl Ramm and The Bears of Brooks Falls

Bears at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

Artist, naturalist, and bear manager Carl Ramm is a familiar figure to News from the Peak listeners. And this year he is back to tell us about what was probably his final year working at Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.

YOU CAN FIND THE PODCAST ON:

SPOTIFY (AND SPOTIFY FOR PODCASTERS), APPLE PODCASTS, GOOGLE PODCASTS, AND IHEART RADIO

The falls in Brooks Camp serve as the dining destination of the most famous bears in the U.S.—and probably in the world. Known by numbers and by names that range from homespun (Otis, Holly) to evocative (Grazer, Chunk, Nostril Bear), the Alaskan brown bears of Brooks Falls are featured in the annual Fat Bear Week competition (really, “competition”) and followed by Bear Cam viewers with the heady enthusiasm of K-pop fans and the analytic intensity of CIA agents reviewing Soviet-era news broadcasts. As we discuss in this latest podcast, the dedication of Bear Cam viewers even led earlier this year to the rescue of a hiker who was lost on nearby Dumpling Mountain.

Carl’s role in Brooks Camp has been to keep the bears out of the camp proper and away from the many tourists that come to see them fishing at the falls. That’s no small task, and as Carl explains in the podcast, doing it successfully requires a combination of high stakes improvisation and a willingness to trust your intuition. It helps to have a deep connection to animals and really all of nature that, as Carl’s brother, I can attest he has had his whole life.

Carl Ramm escorting a bear from Brooks Camp—probably for the last time.

Leaving Alaska

Carl is now leaving Alaska after nearly four decades, and that means his time at Brooks Falls has come to an end.

On the podcast, Carl tells us more about his final year at Brooks Falls, and I won’t spoil his stories by retelling them here—especially the one about his beloved Holly. But it’s a great story and one that I expect will stick with me for a long time to come.

You’ll also hear on the podcast our selections for the bear we hope to win Fat Bear Week. We encourage all of you to vote.

Finally, we want to thank Carl for having been such a great guest on News from the Peak. I hope we hear from him again as he starts his new journey.

Resources

Carl’s blog “Bear in Camp!”: https://bearincamp.blogspot.com/.

E-books on the bears of Brooks River: https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/photosmultimedia/ebooks.htm.