I Like Them Chunky: Celebration of Fat Bear Week

Photos Curtesy of explore.org

In this corner we have Chunk, a massive adult male brown bear who uses his considerably colossal size to dominate the best fishing spots. In the other corner stands Grazer, a whopping enormous female bear with blond ears, who other bears avoid because of her dominant reputation. The anticipation is palpable as the audience eagerly waits for the results of Fat Bear Week!

In the greatest match up the world has ever seen, the first week of October has thousands of people logging on to their computers and voting for the biggest, the beefy the fattest bear in all of Katmai National Park and Preserve.

Throughout the season explore.org, in cooperation with the National Park Service, maintains live cameras in Katmai, concentrating on the area of Brooks River and Brooks Falls. This area sees a sizable amount of bears as they flop, float, and scoop the protein rich Sockeye salmon headed upstream to spawn. Researchers identify bears by using a combination of photos, records, and observation to determine unique physical characteristics and behaviors. Park staff assigns an identification number to bears and, over time, they might give them a nickname. While bears eat a variety of plants and animals, it is the salmon rich waters of Brooks River where bears gravitate to in order to pack on the pounds needed before hibernation. By the end of the season in late October, the most successful bears can reach 1,200 pounds.

Fat Bear Week is a celebration of these amazing bears, who are intelligent, adaptable and resilient. Their success for the winter depends not only on their hunting and fishing skills and knowledge passed down from the mothers, but also on the delicate balance of the ecosystem in Katmai preserve. People can help ensure the health and sustainability of the environment by getting to know the bears of Katmai and understanding how every species is intricately intertwined in a complex web of interdependence.

While the bears get no reward for clocking in as the most chunky, the true prize is for the observer, who gets to watch the sheer commanding strength of these marvelous creatures as they take part in the last of the great salmon runs.

To watch live bear cameras and other amazing wildlife videos, please visit: explore.org