by - Fat Bear Week – a week celebrating the fattest bears in Katmai National Park – is finally here.
- Twelve bears are nominated for the title of fattest bear and you can vote for your favorite.
- The list includes a giant male bear, “747”, who took the crown in 2020.
Fat Bear Week—a March Madness-style vote for the fattest bear in Alaska’s Katmai National Park—is upon us again.
On Monday, the park announced on Twitter that Fat Bear Week, a “time where flab is great and fat is appropriate,” will begin Oct. 5.
The park on Monday also released the official bracket for Fat Bear Week, consisting of 12 bears that will compete for the top spot.
To learn more about Katmai’s Fat Bears before you vote for the Fattest Bear, visit their profile pages, where they are listed by fetching IDs like “32 Chunk” and “128 Grazer.” Visitors to the park’s Fat Bear Week website can vote once each day from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
On this year’s list is “747,” who was the 2020 Fat Bear Champion. According to the park, this bear’s impressive weight is “enough to intimidate most bears into giving up their space,” giving him the “better access to fishing sites and mating opportunities”.
Voting for Fat Bear Week begins tomorrow, October 5th at 9am. Pacific. This contest was started in 2014 to raise awareness of the beautiful bears of Katmai National Park in Alaska.
This is my shot of the 747, aka Bear Force One. He was the champion of 2020.https://t.co/1IhDoTIxgN pic.twitter.com/8dJ4GLY6Bg
— BlueJayWay.eth – 1/15 Puffin Editions (@BluejaywayEth) October 4, 2022
Not to be overlooked is “480 Otis,” Katmai’s 2021 Fat Bear Champion, who was also the Biggest Bear in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
A round of applause to all the bears, especially this year’s champion 480 Otis, the stalwart patriarch of the mighty! 96,064 of you voted yesterday to make this a successful finale, befitting the festive fun of #FatBearWeek. Thank you to everyone who participated and supported the wonder that is Katmai. pic.twitter.com/nDRk0T63BW
— Katmai National Park (@KatmaiNPS) October 6, 2021
The Fat Bear Week team will be narrowed down to two contenders by October 11, after which a champion will be announced.
Meanwhile, those who simply want to observe the bears of Katmai National Park can do so via the Brooks Falls Bear Cam, a network of solar-powered cameras that shows the bears eating salmon and hanging out in the shallows.
