By Lydia Browne
It is a rather ridiculous idea to think that a bear could become a widely known celebrity simply for being chubby. However, this is exactly what happens every year with Alaska’s “Fat Bear Week.”
This entertaining and eventful week has been a tradition since it was started as a single day celebration in 2014. The next year, due to its immense popularity, it was extended to an entire week.
The week centers around the brown bears living along Brooks River in Katmai National Park and Preserve. This river is reportedly part of a large salmon run—a place where salmon migrate against streams from the ocean to small creeks. Taking advantage of the large amount of fish in the river, these bears spend the summer “fattening up” in preparation for hibernation during the winter.
Fat Bear Week was created in honor of this yearly process, “celebrating the Brooks River brown bears at Katmai and its healthy and remarkable ecosystem,” according to the National Parks Service.
A competition between these “fat bears” is held during the week, determined by a bracket-style voting system. These brackets will be made available for the public to see on Monday, October 2. Between the 4th and 10th of October, you can submit your own vote on your favorite fat bear on fatbearweek.org. Finally, on Friday, October 10, the champion of Fat Bear Week will be announced. Even better, prior to this competition, a “Fat Bear Junior ”competition is held between the bear cubs on September 28 and 29.
The bears that are a part of this competition are tracked by numbers assigned to them, such as 747, who won in 2020 and 2022. This bear continues to be known as 747, because that number and his large size make one think of a 747 jet. However, many of the past champions have come to be known by nicknames as well as their numbers. 480 Otis won the competition in 2014, 2016, 2017, and again in 2021. 409 Beadnose won in 2015 and 2018. In 2019, 435 Holly was the winner.
This past year, during the 2022 competition, the competition was thrown into controversy after a spam campaign reportedly tried to mess up the voting process and influence who would win. Thankfully, the organizers said, “it is easy for us to tell which votes are fraudulent.” Despite the attempts to rig the vote, Bear 747 rose to victory fair and square.
The prize for the winning bear is simple: according to the National Parks Service, “Six months of restful solitude. But the real winners are all the healthy bears and all those who participate in the web’s favorite week of the year.”
Now is the time to put in your vote to decide the best of the fattest bears for Fat Bear Week 2023. Go vote for your favorite at fatbearweek.org.
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