After days of uncertainty over the narrowly averted government shutdown, Fat Bear Week began as scheduled Wednesday at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska.
“Fat Bear Week is always a celebration of the success of the bears,” Naomi Boak, a media ranger at Katmai. “Not just the big boys, but the sows with cubs, the young teenage bears, the subadults.”
Only one, however, can be crowned Fat Bear Week champion.
Each year the bears fill up on fish, berries, nuts and more to gain weight and get ready for the cold winter. And boy can those bears can get pretty tubby. In celebration of their chub, the National Park Service has started a Fat Bear Week competition. The bears go head-to-head and fans get to vote on who they think has bulked up the most.
Fans can now vote for their favorite hefty bear in the annual Katmai National Park & Preserve contest celebrating Alaska's brown bears as they bulk up for winter survival.
With well-known bears like Chunk, Holly, and 747 back in the competition, it's anyone's guess who will be this year's victor.
Last year, over 1 million votes poured in from around the world. The crowned champion, 747, affectionately known as Bear Force One, tipped the scales at a hefty 1,400 pounds, securing over 37,900 votes.
The single elimination tournament features 12 bears who go head-to-head in an internet popularity contest to be crowned the champion.
People vote on the brown bear they “believe best exemplifies fatness,” according to Explore.org, who hosts the competition alongside Katmai National Park.
“As Brooks River’s world-famous bears make their final preparations for winter hibernation, the Katmai Conservancy, explore.org, and rangers at Katmai National Park and Preserve celebrate their success,” a press release from Katmai Conservancy and Explore.org reads.
That's a disadvantage to Fat Bear Week competitors like 435, aka Holly, aka "supermom" - who can expend significantly more energy protecting their cubs and producing milk.
Known to fans for being "the color of a lightly toasted marshmallow", as the contest puts it, Holly weighs somewhere in the ballpark of 800lb.
But, her smaller size didn't stop her from Winning Fat Bear week in 2019. That's because, according to Mr Fitz, size doesn't always matter.
"Fat Bear Week is about telling the diversity of the stories. It's not about who can win the bracket," Mr Fitz says.
And, it's about a "celebration of the work and success of brown bears".
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