
Scanners have become standard technology that is deployed from the ground, the sky and satellites to measure vegetation growth.
FAT BEAR WEEK SOFTWARE
That figure is then processed using software that can model a three-dimensional object. Computers then use the speed of light to calculate the distance between the sensor and all the points. When light waves hit an object, they bounce off and return to the sensor. Lidar, which stands for “light detection and ranging,” emits beams of light to measure three-dimensional objects or areas. “I thought, ‘Wow, this just might work.’” “I got a laser return from the butt of Otis, one of the more famous brown bears up there,” Cusick said. He thought: Why not use the scanner to measure a bear’s surface volume instead? That’s the device traditional civil engineers use, but when Cusick wandered down to Brooks Falls and stood on a viewing platform 300 feet away from the bears, inspiration hit. A terrestrial lidar scanner, which uses lasers to determine distance and other measurements, was on hand to measure buildings. The idea came to Cusick, who works for the National Park Service in Alaska, in 2018, while he was working on mapping and surveying at Katmai. But there’s hope for achieving greater accuracy: GIS specialist Joel Cusick is pioneering a new technique for calculating the bears’ weight that has broader implications for noninvasive wildlife research. 5, but webcam viewers - almost 650,000 cast votes last year - and actual visitors - 15,000 came to Brooks Falls to see the bears in 2019 - are just guesstimating.

And starting today, thousands of viewers from around the world will tune in for Fat Bear Week to watch the bears gobble fish from the Brooks River, estimate how well they’re packing on the pounds, and then vote for the portliest in a single elimination bracket.īut just how fat are those fat bears? A winner will be crowned Oct. Brown bears are fattening up for winter hibernation in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve.
