There’s a competition heating up Alaska that celebrates fur, heaviness and curves. It’s Fat Bear Week, when all eyes are on the furry chonks to see which one will gain the most weight in the lead up to their hibernation.
The Alaskan brown bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve are hungry for salmon, especially wild salmon from the Brooks River.
A little more than 100 bears eat from the river. The competition is expected to be a success, with no harm to bears or their emotions, according the Rangers.
“A lot of people think that Fat Bear Week is almost like a shameful thing,” Keith Moore, Interpretive Park Ranger at the Katmai National Park and Preserve, spoke to Inside Edition Digital. “Like, ‘Oh man, you’re talking about the bears being fat.’ But it’s actually a celebration that recognizes this transformation that the bears are going through.”
“These bears have to put on as much fat as they can before they go into hibernation for the winter, where they’ll be living off of their fat reserves the whole time,”He concluded.
Katmai National Park & Preserve’s brown bears are hungry for salmon, especially wild caught from Brooks River.
This river is home to just over 100 bears, but the high water levels this year make it more difficult to catch salmon.
Also, serious competitors will be fishing for salmon from the falls.
“The ones that can really hold their ground in their territory are usually the ones that fish the falls because it is a highly coveted spot to try to get fish. So that was one of the interesting things was, yes, there were a lot of salmon, but the river itself presented some challenges by being a little bit higher this year,”Moore stated.
Otis, who had won numerous competitions in the past, was named 2021 Fat Bear Week Champion. Is he going to win another title, or will he be outdone by a younger bear.
“Otis is a very old bear, and so he has won a lot of competitions in the past, and I think he’s one of those fan favorites because he’s been there for a long time,”Moore stated. “Some bears, they use the river one year, and maybe they don’t use it the next year, they move on to different streams that hold salmon. So it’s not every year that we get to see some bears. But 480 Otis, he’s been one that we’ve had a pleasure of watching for most of his life.”
The public votes to decide the Fat Bear Week winner.
Officially, Fat Bear Week begins Oct. 5. You can see the bears gaining weight via bear cam. Votes can be cast at FatBearWeek.org.