Fat Bear Week – Page 2

Bears Fat Bear Week Katmai National Park Science

Day 1 of Fat Bear Week voting pits an ex-champion against a young upstart

sudshr47 October 3, 2018

Welcome to Fat Bear Week at Mashable! Each fall, Katmai National Park holds a competition as Alaska’s brown bears finish fattening up for their long winter hibernation. This year, Mashable is getting in on the salmon-munching action. Check back with us all week as we follow the fat bear face-offs each day, and remember to get your votes in for each round. Happy fishing!

It borders on nearly inconceivable that any wild animal can grow so exceptionally plump over the course of just four months. But, it’s happening.

The voting for Fat Bear Week in Katmai National Park — where bears are blessed with a copious supply of sockeye salmon that allows them to fatten up tremendously before hibernating — has opened up, and there are two matches in play on Wednesday. Read more…

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Bears Fat Bear Week Katmai National Park Science

An appreciation of Holly, the fat bear mom who adopted and raised an abandoned cub

sudshr47 October 3, 2018

In July 2014, a stranded bear cub spent the night clinging to the upper reaches of a spruce tree along the banks of the Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska.

After spending at least 24 hours curled up amid the branches, the young, largely helpless bear likely succumbed to thirst and hunger, and crawled down. Read more…

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Bears Fat Bear Week Katmai National Park Science

Enormous Bear 747 may just take the cake as Fat Bear Week’s fattest bear

sudshr47 October 2, 2018

Over the course of just three hours in late June, ecologist Mike Fitz stood atop a bear viewing platform in Alaska’s Katmai National Park and watched Bear 747, a dominant male, consume 15 whole salmon.

“That’s about 67,000 calories,” Fitz, a former Katmai ranger, said over email. Read more…

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Bear Cam Bears Fat Bear Week Katmai National Park Science

Who’s the fattest of them all? Get to know the fat, hairy bears of Fat Bear Week 2018

sudshr47 October 2, 2018

By the fall of each year, the brown bears of Katmai National Park grow exceptionally fat. The largest males, in fact, can tip the scales at more than 1,000 pounds.

This year, 13 plump omnivores have made it into the official Fat Bear Week contest, after park rangers selected the bulkiest contenders. Read more…

More about Science, Bears, Katmai National Park, Fat Bear Week, and Bear Cam

Bear Cam Bears Fat Bear Week Katmai National Park Science

Fat Bear Week is here: Your complete guide to nature’s most exciting competition

sudshr47 October 1, 2018

Welcome to Fat Bear Week at Mashable! Each fall, Katmai National Park holds a competition as Alaska’s brown bears finish fattening up for their long winter hibernation. This year, Mashable is getting in on the salmon-munching action. Check back with us all week as we follow the fat bear face-offs each day, and remember to get your votes in for each round. Happy fishing!

For bears, getting fat is a matter of life and death.

It’s been about six months since the brown bears of Alaska’s Katmai National Park — the bears of bear cam fame — emerged from their well-dug winter dens.

They’ve been munching on copious amounts of 4,500-calorie salmon ever since, putting on hundreds of pounds while thousands of people watched the bears’ fishing antics on the explore.org webcams over the summer. Read more…

More about Science, Bears, Katmai National Park, Fat Bear Week, and Bear Cam