
The 2023 Fat Bear Week competition, which honors brown bears’ capacity to gain weight for their Alaskan hibernation cycle, is currently open for voting. They have to eat a ton of fish huge accomplish that, but fortunately, they are close to a robust sockeye salmon run.
When the salmon return to the Brooks River in late October to early June, “basically those fat stores have to keep them healthy during that time,” media ranger Naomi Boak of Katmai National Park and Preserve told NPR.
Boak remarked, “We have some of the biggest bears on the planet. The largest individuals, known as huge boars, can weigh between 1,000 and 1,400 pounds.
But it’s not just the guys, either. Brown bear females gain enormous amounts of weight while rearing cubs.
How Fat Bear Week works
Voters choose who advances from each battle among the 12 brown bears, who are organized into a bracket. Oct. 4–10 is the voting period. Voting is open from 12:00 ET until 9:00 ET.
You could spend years following the bears and really get to know their personalities, personalities, and soap dramas, according to Boak.
She continued, “We really appreciate that kids and teachers follow the bears. A Google form can be used by students to ask inquiries.
Which fat bear is your favorite?
The competition may appear straightforward, and certainly, we are aware that the participants—being bears—are delightfully oblivious. Just choose the largest bear, right?
However, many voters frequently award bonus points to any bear who underwent a spectacular transformation from a thin, undernourished animal in the spring to a portly lord of the river in October. And some bears simply win followers with their eccentricities and life experiences.
Fans of 128 Grazer, a model famed for her large blonde ears, are rooting for her to succeed this year. She recently became an empty-nester and has since been able to focus on herself after raising two pairs of cubs successfully.
Ranger Felicia Jimenez stated after the 2023 bracket was presented, “She has been putting in the work.” Early in the summer, she was pretty dainty, but now she is enormous.
Many of Grazer’s male competitors this summer, including 151 Walker, her first opponent in the tournament, gave her a wide berth because of her propensity for prematurely attacking big males to protect her children.
The 32 Chunk comes next. The bear, who has always been big, has changed from being playful and a little odd to battling for supremacy.
“This 18-year-old boar is a lightbulb-shaped, Leviathan of a bear,” Boak added.
Mike Fitz, a former park ranger who now serves on the board of the Katmai Conservancy, praised Chunk’s uniqueness and stated that he was “such a fun bear to watch.”
There are also steadfast competitors like the 747, 480 Otis, and 435 Holly, former champs. The cub who won Fat Bear Junior 2023, 806 Jr., is at the other end of the spectrum (literally).
How can the bears eat so much?
The chemical leptin, which alerts the body when it is full, is repressed once bears undergo hyperphagia in late summer, according to the Department of the Interior. “Bears can eat until it’s time to go to bed because of this.”
Hyperphagia, or “the extreme unsatisfied drive to consume food,” as one research publication describes it, is handled as a condition in people. As they are ready to go without food for months, bears develop the condition as a survival strategy.
One of our oldest bears and a four-time champion of Fat Bear Week, 480 Otis, set the record by devouring 42 fish in five and a half hours, according to Boak.
Young bears fatten up during the summer to finally attain adult size.
“Cubs are born at 1 pound, and by the end of their first year, they could be 70 pounds,” added Boak. “And they can finish the season at 200 pounds in their second year.”
The competition offers a peek into the wild
In comparison to Katmai, which spans more than 4 million acres, Brooks River is just about a mile and a half long, Fitz said on Sunday’s Weekend Edition of NPR. One of the biggest national parks is this one. It is significantly bigger than anything you’ll find in the 48 contiguous states.
Only a section of the park and preserve are accessible via trails and roads.
It is dotted with tall volcanoes and wide lakes. It boasts some of North America’s roughest shoreline, according to Fitz. It’s a truly unique place, I must say.