Tag: Fat Bear Week

Katmai National Park’s bear cam is live to get you pumped up for Fat Bear Week

Get ready for Fat Bear Week with this live bear cam.

This fall, everyone’s favorite bear-based holiday returns. In preparation for Fat Bear Week, Explore.org’s bear cam is sharing a live video of bears at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve. After hibernating through the winter, the park’s bears emerge and become more active in early July. Currently, Katmai bear cam viewers can watch brown bears searching for fish in the water at Brooks Falls.

As sockeye salmon migrate in June and July, the bears take advantage of the thriving waters to eat their fill of fish. As the live feed’s description explains, “the largest and most successful bears can catch and eat more than 30 salmon (over 120 pounds) per day!” Some sockeye salmon can contain 4,500 calories, making them the perfect food for bears looking to fatten up.

Since 2014, Katmai National Park and Preserve has celebrated this fattening process with the Fat Bear Week competition. The week begins in early fall and includes a “March-Madness style bracket” where people can vote online for the fattest bear. In 2021, seasoned champion 480 Otis earned his fourth Fat Bear Week win. Previous wins for Otis came in 2014, 2016, and 2017.

Keep an eye on the live cam for a glimpse of Fat Bear Week’s 2022 competitors and other local wildlife. Curious animal enthusiasts can also join Explore.org’s bear cam chat for live events every Tuesday with naturalist Mike Fitz and ranger Chris Kliesrath. Still hungry for more fat bear content? Make sure to follow Explore.org on Twitter for special bear updates and memes.

Learn more about Fat Bear Week here, and get the scoop on early 2022 Fat Bear Week frontrunner Bear Force One here. Happy bear-watching!

Whoa! Fat Bear Week appears to already have a frontrunner

Fat Bear Week 2022 appears to already have a frontrunner in Bear 747, a.k.a. Bear Force One.

Let the Fat Bear Week hype begin….

Brown bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park have emerged from hibernation and will spend the summer fattening up on salmon along the Brooks River.

It’s a phenomenon enjoyed by millions, thanks to a live camera run by Explore.org, and it culminates each fall with a fan-friendly competition known as Fat Bear Week.

Typically, when bears first appear before the camera, they show signs of months spent sleeping in dens. They can lose 33% of their body weight during hibernation and need to start packing calories.

But when Bear 747, also known as Bear Force One, recently appeared looking surprisingly rotund, Explore.org tweeted a short video beneath the description: “Did 747 ‘BEARFORCE ONE’ even hibernate? What a beauty!”

Bear 747 is the 2020 champion of Fat Bear Week, but last year finished runner-up to four-time winner Otis.

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Being among the fattest bears in Katmai National Park & Preserve means being among the healthiest, given the harsh winters the animals must endure in their dens. (The bears must consume a year’s worth of food in six months.)

The park bills Fat Bear Week, a March Madness-style event that begins in late September, as “an annual celebration of success” but adds that all Brooks River bears are winners.

Last year a record 793,000 votes were cast during the seven-day competition.

–Image courtesy of Explore.org