Fat Bear Week, held every year of the past decade by the National Park Service and its nonprofit partners at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, is a showcase of adipose-laden Ursus arctos horribilis, as they prepare to semi-hibernate (go into torpor) for the long and cold Alaska winter.
The public is invited to vote on which salmon-stuffed bear is the fattest.
This year, the Fat Bear Week celebration and guessing game runs Oct. 2-8, when the public can choose the bear that they think has the most fat to make it through the winter.
The contest, designed as a March Madness-style bracket in which bears compete daily in head-to-head matchups for the Fat Bear title, is at fatbearweek.org. There are no prizes except bragging rights.
“Fat Bear Week satisfies your hunger for bears, salmon, and the other wonders of Katmai,” said park Superintendent Mark Sturm, adding “all with one bite.”
The event also represents how government expands to fill whatever container it is placed in. While the costs of running the contest are negligible compared to the $35 trillion national debt, programs like this exist all over the federal bureaucracy. They are programs that could easily be done through private sector groups.
Fat Bear Week started in 2014 as a way to show off Katmai’s bears and teach about the ecosystem that allows them to thrive. Nearly 1.4 million votes were cast for the bears in 2023 from over a hundred countries.
The junior division of Fat Bear Week voting took place on Sept. 26 and 27.
Check out the live cams on Explore.org. Fat Bear Week is a partnership of the National Park Service, Explore.org, and the Katmai Conservancy.
For more information about Katmai visit the park agency at www.nps.gov/katm and follow us on Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, X/Twitter, or Instagram.
We miss Otis. 😔
Oh no! What happened to Otis?? I love Otis!