Online voting is open for Fat Bear Week at Alaska’s Katmai National Park, where 16 brown bears compete based on pre-hibernation weight gain. Last year’s winner, Chunk (Bear 32), hopes to defend his title; the final is scheduled for Tuesday, 29 September.
Bears have roughly six months to eat enough to sustain themselves through hibernation, when they neither eat nor drink and can lose around a third of their body weight. Mike Fitz, a resident naturalist at Explore.org, also highlighted healthy salmon populations as crucial to the bears’ survival.
Fitz said the winner is not necessarily the heaviest bear; he urged voters to consider each animal’s story, noting that a large adult male might be competing for access to prime fishing spots. Viewers can also see bears fishing and playing, alongside mothers’ struggles to feed cubs.
