Wild Video Camera Locations

About Wild Video Cameras Camera Locations Photo Galleries How to Set Up Remote Video

 

Gull Island
1998 to present, April through mid-September

Gull Island hosts a small but active and productive seabird rookery. It's located in Kachemak Bay, on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, about 140 air-miles south of Anchorage. This is where the Pratt Museum's remote video experiment got its start. In fact, The Gull Island SeeBird Program is the product of nine years of experimenting with remote video installations!

The new technology proved to be a way to include students in real science, gathering field data and connecting with scientists. Students used the cameras to collect information on nesting behavior of seabirds in conjunction with research conducted by U.S.G.S. Biological Resources Division.

Installation & Viewing
Gull IslandIn early 1998, videographer and inventor, Daniel Zatz, assembled an experimental solar-powered remote camera and microwave transmission system under contract with the Pratt Museum. Visitors selected and controlled cameras, manipulating their direction and zooming for astonishingly close views of seabirds. They were able to observe courting, nest building, and chick rearing with an intimacy never be fore possible. This set the basic pattern for all museum remote video installations.

When visitors at the Museum moved a joystick or pushed camera selection buttons, computer-generated digital signals were sent from the Museum to the remote site to control the cameras. In response, analog video and audio microwave signals were sent from the site to the Museum's television monitors. Four remote cameras sent live images and audio across eight miles of water to the museum. A great advantage of Gull Island is it's close proximity to the Pratt Museum. The island is approximately 8 miles away. Control and video/audio signal transmission is done by line of sight with no need for relays.

 

Map of Gull Island relating to Homer

 

Funding & Partnerships
Daniel Zatz installing a remote cameraThroughout the summers of 1998-2001, several versions of the prototype video camera system were successfully tested on the island camera in collaboration with SeeMore Wildlife Systems, Inc. (Daniel Zatz), U.S.G.S., and Seldovia Native Association.

During the winter of 2001-2002, a completely new system was assembled for the museum by local contractor, Alaska Industrial Security, LLC. The new SeeBirdCam is owned and operated by the museum and was successfully tested on the island during the summer of 2002. Funding for the new camera project was supplied by a generous grant from the Nation Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with supplemental support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Toyota USA Foundation.

The Seldovia Native Association, Inc. (SNA) owns Gull Island and is the Pratt Museum's partner in the Kachemak Bay Discovery program. As a part of the SNA stewardship program, access to Gull Island is restricted. Remote video camera installation and U.S.G.S. seabird research is authorized by SNA through special permits.

The first four years of this project were supported entirely by a generous grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The project continues in the 2006-2007 seasons through a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Conservation Program.

 

East Amatuli Island
1999, late-April through mid-September

Camera on East Amatuli IslandEast Amatuli is a major seabird colony located just outside the mouth of Cook Inlet. It's a particularly remote and harsh location. Two cameras were placed on the cliffs to test their usefulness as a seabird research tool.

Installation & Viewing
In 1999 the Pratt Museum collaborated with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska National Maritime Wildlife Refuge seabird scientists to install remotely operated cameras on East Amatuli Island. This was a much bigger challenge for technical services provider SeeMore Wildlife Systems, Inc. The site is 65 air miles away from Homer in the Barren Islands, a remote group in the Gulf of Alaska. It's one of the world's largest seabird colonies and a summer feeding ground for humpback whales. In order to transmit 65 miles, a microwave relay package was installed on a mountain between Homer and the Barren Islands.

Funding
The project was underwritten by a grant from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council for a one-year period.

 

McNeil River State Brown Bear Sanctuary
1999-2001 & 2004-2007,(bears have left the falls until next summer)

Bears at McNeil RiverThe Sanctuary is located approximately 100 miles southwest of the Pratt Museum, across Cook Inlet, on the Alaska Peninsula. Only 250 people a season are allowed to visit this world renown bear viewing area. Remote video cameras permitted thousands to watch the sanctuary's bears live and at close range.

Installation & Viewing
This may have been the most challenging installation so far. The Pratt Museum, SeeMore Wildlife Systems, Inc., and the Alaska Department of Fish & Game collaborated to install a bear resistant camera housing on the McNeil River Falls bear viewing pad in June 1999. The site is about 100 air miles from Homer, requiring two relays for signal transmission, one high on Augustine Volcano in Cook Inlet and another on the bluff above Homer. A brown bear education center was developed at the museum. The camera control and viewing screen were placed among exhibits with information about the bears and the McNeil Sanctuary. During the summers of 1999, 2000, and 2001 visitors watched bears at McNeil falls live, from the comfort of the Pratt Museum's lower gallery.

Grizzly BearIn 1999, images were transmitted first to the Internet, limiting their quality when projected for viewing at the Pratt Museum. For the years 2000 and 2001, an additional relay was added to the bluffs above Homer, allowing high quality images to be received directly at the museum. McNeil bears were projected on a large screen while users controlled pan, tilt, and zoom through a computer touch screen. These live images were also streamed to the Internet.

Thanks to new partnerships in 2006 with National Geographic and Lake Clark National Park & Preserve, the Pratt Museum's BearCam can again be seen online by audiences outside the Museum's walls. The Pratt's BearCam at McNeil falls is featured on National Geographic's new webpage: WildCam Grizzlies. Check out the great video, blogs, and commentary highlighting McNeil River bears.

Funding
This pioneering project was underwritten through 2001 by a major grant from the Toyota USA Foundation with supplemental support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Chenik Institute. The project in 2006-2007 was made possible by generous contributions from the National Park Service, The Giles and Elise G. Mead Foundation, Alaska Conservation Foundation, Alaska Wildlife Alliance, and Friends of McNeil River. Technical service providers include SeeMore Wildlife Systems, Real Networks, and Alaska Communications Systems.

McNeil River Brown BearsMore About Brown Bears
Alaska's Brown Bears
McNeil River State Brown Bear Sanctuary
Friends of McNeil River