Bear With Me

A winner has been declared in Katmai National Park and Preserve’s Fat Bear Week. I hear you asking, ’the fuck is Fat Bear week? It’s an annual online tournament-style competition where people vote for the brown bear from Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve that has packed on the most poundage to prep for winter hibernation.

The winner, at right, is the handsome gent, Backpack. His boring-ass government name is no. 89.

Why are fat bears important?

Mother bears need ample body fat to survive hibernation, but they also must feed, nurture, and protect their cubs. Single adult females get fat in preparation to give birth to cubs in mid winter and nurse them without eating until they exit the den in spring. Older bears get fat while trying to compete with younger bears for preferred fishing spots. Large adult male bears maintain their high rank in the hierarchy by challenging competitors. Cubs and subadult (teenage) bears grow proportionally more each year than even the biggest adults, while they learn the skills to survive.

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Katmai’s brown bears are fattest in late summer and early fall. It is the result of a summer-long effort to satisfy their profound hunger and prepare for winter hibernation. During hibernation, bears do not eat or drink and lose one-third of their body weight. Their winter survival depends on accumulating ample fat reserves before entering the den. 

To get fat, bears gorge on the richest and most accessible foods they can find. In Katmai National Park that often means salmon. (mmmmm, salmon) Dozens of bears gather at Brooks River to feast on salmon from late June until mid October. Perhaps no other river on Earth offers bears the chance to feed on salmon at one place for so long. (source) 

Backpack’s name comes from his habit, as a cub, of climbing onto his mother's back when the pair swam in the river. His mother, Holly, was the 2019 Fat Bear winner.

"After nearly two decades at Brooks River, Backpack's journey from an injured cub riding on his mother's back to a formidable adult male has made him one of the river's most recognizable bears," Fat Bear Week organizers said in a Sept. 29 news release. (source) 

Some brown bear facts:

• Brown bears once lived all over the damn place, including Morocco, Algeria and Mexico. Today they mostly hang in North America, Asia and Europe. They’re the national animal of Finland. In addition to Katmai National Park in Alaska, brown bears can be found in Yellowstone Park.

• They’re fast – they can outrun a horse! 

• Brown bears communicate by scratching and rubbing on trees to say “HEY, this is my place” and highlight their willingness to make whoopee. 

• Hibernation lasts from October/December to March/May. If I could hibernate? It’d definitely be December through April. 

• Amazing true fact — brown bear mums give birth in their sleep! Cubs born during hibernation make their way to the mother’s chest and nurse until she is ready to wake up. Imagine that! Too bad humans don’t have this option.

• The biggest threat to brown bears (any bears for that matter) is habitat loss caused/created by humans. It’s our reckless expansion into the bears’ homes with logging, mining, road construction, and other bullshit development. Our insanely selfish, entitled inability to share the damn planet is killing all that makes this planet heaven.

Cheers to all the fat bears and their cubs! May they have a peaceful, undisturbed hibernation.