National Geographic has a lot of cool webcams.

September 3, 2007 12:30 PM

National Geographic has a lot of cool webcams. Pete's Pond in Africa is my favorite. (previously) It's up and running again for its third season till mid-December, the end of the dry season. Best viewing times are 4-8 PM EST and 12-4 AM EST. Lots of highlights can be found at youtube, of course. NG also provides the Seal Cam from Año Nuevo, California, Bald Eagle Cam from Maine, the Kakadu Cam from Australia and and the Polar Bear Cam from Canada. There are a lot of grizzly bears fishing right now on the Bear Cam from Alaska, but the Crane Cam from Nebraska is down right now. To view these cams you have to sit through a short commercial at first, but after that it's all live wildlife goodness. There are also very active forums where people share their screencaps and vicarious adventures.
posted by wsg (11 comments total)

I'm going to watch this until I see something die.
posted by stavrogin at 12:49 PM on September 3, 2007

That's a lot of bears.
posted by Lord_Pall at 1:21 PM on September 3, 2007

So, can mac users watch it? Windows Media Player for Mac doesn't seem to like it.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:52 PM on September 3, 2007

It's RealPlayer, for some godawful reason.
posted by Hargrimm at 1:59 PM on September 3, 2007

Thanks for posting this. The grizzlies are so fun to watch!
posted by emilyv at 2:06 PM on September 3, 2007

"I'm going to watch this until I see something die."

That could easily happen.
posted by wsg at 2:56 PM on September 3, 2007

LOLbears!!!
posted by trip and a half at 3:43 PM on September 3, 2007

I think it's a little amusing that the audio for the Polar Bear cam is the same crickets chirping as the Africa one. And Pete's Pond seems utterly deserted tonight, but I'll bookmark it and check back.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:49 PM on September 3, 2007

Hargrimm: "It's RealPlayer, for some godawful reason."

Yep. The old Pete's Pond link returns a warning that the video is pirated. I refuse to install RealVirus, and am saddened that Nat Geo chooses to use such a user-hostile service.
posted by caution live frogs at 9:00 PM on September 3, 2007

Not to rain on the bear parade here, but this is not 'live', not at any time of the day. According to posts on their forums, the salmon run ended during the last week of August, and the bears have headed off to other hunting grounds. The video you now see there, even the stuff marked 'live', is archived footage.

But anyway, very cool stuff ... thank you!
posted by woodblock100 at 11:05 PM on September 3, 2007

This post reminded me of the White Island Crater camera, the one that someone stuck a toy dino in front of. Fortunately, he's apparently still ok.
posted by knave at 9:24 AM on September 4, 2007