Online Exhibits

Watch brown bears live on the Pratt's BearCam! ONLINE

Transport yourself to remote Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park, a favorite spot of Alaska's brown bears. From the Pratt Museum we control this live camera at a remote bear sanctuary across Cook Inlet from Homer. Join Pratt staff and a ranger from Lake Clark National Park as we encounter the bears of Brooks Camp. We'll be back LIVE in Summer 2008!

Thanks to new partnerships 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 Brooks Camp is featured on National Geographic's new webpage: WildCam Grizzlies. Check out the great video, blogs, and commentary highlighting McNeil River bears.

This project is 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. For more information on the Pratt's pioneering use of remote video technology in its exhibits, see our Remote Wildlife Cameras page.

Gull Island Remote Camera ONLINE

Still frames of gulls viewed by remote cameraPratt Museum's Gull Island remote video camera brings you "eyeball to eyeball" with Alaskan seabirds. Gulls, kittywakes, horned puffins, red-faced cormorants and murres are some of the birds commonly seen. Museum visitors can watch these animals in their natural habitat without disturbing them by controlling the camera from the comfort of the Museum. The action is live and the images are sharp and colorful. It's almost like being there.

CormorantGreat technology and Alaskan wildlife combined with interesting exhibits and programming makes this much more than just another technological curiosity. Since the Pratt first pioneered this mix in 1998, it's proven to be a fabulous tool for scientific research and education. And it's fun. So far, it only happens during the summer, when most critters are active, there's plenty of daylight, and the weather isn't too nasty.

 

 

 

Kachemak Bay: An Exploration of People and Place

Salmon can labelKachemak Bay is a place of magical wonder. As the first phase of the Museum's Master Exhibit Plan, the visitor is taken on a journey beyond the Museum walls to the historic and contemporary life around Kachemak Bay. Through means of community-based videos, photo essays, computer interactives, and remote video technology, these new exhibits and programs promote education and spark passionate interest in where we live.

 

Sperm Whale Project

Hanging the sperm whale skeleton in Homer High SchoolIn 1988, the carcass of a sperm whale washed ashore on East Chugach Island about 40 miles south of Homer, Alaska. Using the salvaged skeletal remains as an inspirational focus, the Pratt Museum developed a unique community-based marine science education program in close partnership with Homer High School. This online exhibit highlights what happened to that 41-foot whale skeleton: research, documentation, preservation, articulation, exhibition, and interpretation.

 

Darkened Waters

Pool of oil and measuring toolOn March 24, 1989, the supertanker T/V Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, spilling an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil into the pristine waters of Prince William Sound, Alaska. In hours, the incident became the largest spill ever in the United States and ultimately perhaps the most destructive accidental spill in the world. Transported by winds and currents, the oil spread rapidly through the western part of Prince William Sound, with portions then moving into the Gulf of Alaska, and down the Peninsula past Kodiak Island.