at Bear Week is a competition between bears in Katmai National Park, Alaska, where people vote on some of the largest brown bears all preparing for hibernation. Voting is from Sept. 22-30 between 12-9 p.m. eastern standard time. People can vote on the bears by clicking on their pictures. More information is on their website.
Hibernation causes bears to eat and drink as much as they can and store fat because they won’t eat or drink for many months. The bears will ultimately lose one third of their body weight. Therefore, getting the biggest is important to keep these bears healthy.
Junior Ipsitha Karnam said, “[I love fat bear week] because they are super cool. They’re chunky, they’re super cute and I love them.”
Most of the bears only have numbers to identify them. There are of course Chunk and Grazer who have their own names. Chunk has a broken jaw, but it is healing. He got in a fight with another brown bear to receive the scar.
Grazer was brought into the reserve as a cub in 2005, and now has been raising her third litter of bear cubs. Grazer also won two Fat Bear competitions and was the first mother to win the title.
Although unnamed, bear number 609 won Fat Bear Junior in 2022 which gives her a chance at winning as an adult.
Karnam said, “I feel like hibernation [is important] especially in context of what’s happening in the world with global warming and everything. The bears don’t have the resources that they need to live and stay awake through the winters.”
Fat Bear Week started in 2015 to get people excited about learning hibernation. In 2014, there was “Fat Bear Tuesday” which created the week long competition. Famous winner, number 404, or Otis, won 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021 but is believed to be dead and that is why he’s not in the competition. He was believed to be 30 years old, and bears usually live around 15 to 25 years in the wild.
“Fat Bear Week might look like a fun online contest, but it actually raises awareness about something serious: hibernation. As climate change warms Alaska, bears’ feeding and denning patterns are shifting. Locals are seeing how later hibernation or food shortages can push bears closer to communities. Highlighting just how much weight they need to gain to survive the winter gets people thinking about how fragile that cycle is in a warming world,” said Karnam.
409, a.k.a. Beadnose, won 2015 and 2018 which is similar to Grazer winning 2023 and 2024. Fat bear 747 won 2020 and 2022. He was nicknamed “Bear Force One” and “Colbert” based on comedian and “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert’s single deaf ear. Workers and viewers are worried about his health because 747 has not been seen. Even though Chunk has not won fat bear week, he has become a fan favorite by many voters.
Karnam explained how her brother set up his own version of March madness since he loves watching the bears. She enjoys participating with him.
Karnam said, “I go watch the live camera once or twice a day with my brother.”
People can watch the video cameras live to help with their voting decision.
