It wouldn’t be Bearfest without a presentation on the livestream cameras that bring Anan’s bears to the world. After all, the four-day festival is in honor of the bears.

On Aug. 7, nine or so guests gathered in the Nolan Center classroom to watch a presentation on the bear cameras. 

Four of the Teaching Through Technology (T3) students who received summer internships with the year-old Friends of Anan nonprofit gave the presentation. Their internships include public outreach efforts to explain and promote the livestream cameras and Anan’s bears.

The livestream of bears going after a fresh salmon meal will be online at friendsofanan.org into September.

Natalia Ashton, Andrei Bardin-Siekawitch, Ander Edens and Anika Herman took turns giving an overview of the bear cams project, which is now in its third year online. The presentation included photos taken by students, some of their most memorable moments — like Bardin-Siekawitch coming face to face with a brown bear named Scuba Sue — and concluded with ways the public can get involved. 

Viewers can take part in games like Bear Bingo, where they can take screenshots from the livestream of bear behavior to fill a bingo card for a chance to win a free T-shirt. Some of the bingo squares include: bear butt with a tapeworm, mama bear protecting cubs, bear stealing fish and more. The first 25 winners qualify for a free shirt, and the first three had already been claimed as of the Bearfest weekend.

In addition to the games, anyone can volunteer to help run the four cameras that broadcast the livestream. Herman informed the audience that explore.org, the international nonprofit that hosts the videos, set up a system where volunteers can sign up to run the cameras for two-hour increments. The volunteer on duty can pan and zoom all four cameras, selecting the view for anyone watching the cams.

To sign up as a bear cam volunteer, go to explore.org/volunteer.

For future Friends of Anan and T3 student projects, they have pushed the installation of an underwater salmon camera to next year — after attempts failed the past two seasons — and say they hope to install a second Starlink to provide a more reliable internet connection for the video feed from the Anan Wildlife Observatory.

“There’s always something for the next year,” Herman said after the presentation.