Fat Bear Week is officially here! The March Madness-style tournament, which has been held annually by Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve since 2014, allows bear fans to vote on which Alaskan brown bears had the greatest success in preparation for winter hibernation.
According to the Fat Bear Week website, park rangers create a bracket for the event, pitting individual bears against each other with before and after photos. The first shows them emerging from hibernation last spring, while the second finds them looking chunky after a summer of fattening up on wild salmon. The public then votes to see who will advance each round. People are encouraged to vote using any criteria they see fit, and in the end, only one bear will reign supreme.
Voting kicked off at noon today, Wednesday Oct. 4 for the 2023 bracket, which features 12 chubby contestants, and concludes on Tuesday, Oct. 10. The National Park Service said that more than 1 million votes were cast for the 2022 contest. Though, this year's Fat Bear Week was nearly derailed before it started due to a looming government shutdown, which would have shuttered most national parks.
But fun and games aside, the contest also has an educational message.
"For bears, fat equals survival," reads the website. "Each winter, bears enter the den where they will not eat or drink until they emerge in spring. During this time, they may lose up to one-third of their body weight as they rely solely on their fat reserves. Survival depends on eating a year's worth of food in six months."
The bears are drawn to Katmai due to the large number of salmon readily available from about late June through September. The wild region is home to more brown bears than people, as well as the largest and healthiest runs of sockeye salmon left on the planet.
An early contender is "747 bear," otherwise known as "Bear Force One" who won the tournament in both 2020 and 2022. The large adult male is more than 20 years old and is one of the largest bears on Earth; once estimated to weigh as much as 1,400 pounds. One of his biggest rivals is said to be 32 Chunk, another adult male of growing dominance who became one of the largest and most dominant bears along the Brooks River this year.
You can participate in Fat Bear Week by clicking here.
