Forget the midterm elections. In Alaska, it's all about bears right now. Fat bears to be specific.
Wednesday marks the beginning of Fat Bear Week at Katmai National Park and Preserve. From October 5 –11, the public votes online for the bear who they think best exemplifies fatness in brown bears.
Twelve bears are matched against each other in a "March Madness" style competition and online visitors can vote for who is ultimately crowned the Fat Bear Week 2022 Champion.
According to the National Park Service, Fat Bear Week is a way to celebrate the resilience, adaptability and strength of the bears at the park.
"Over the course of the week, virtual visitors learn more about the lives and histories of individual bears while also gaining a greater understanding of Katmai's ecosystem through a series of live events hosted on explore.org," the agency explained.
Voter decide who is the fattest of the fat -- and bigger is better. Despite its name, there's no fat shaming in Fat Bear Week.
Some of the largest brown bears on Earth make their home at Brooks River in Katmai National Park, a wild region that is home to more brown bears than people. Brown bears get fat to survive and Fat Bear Week is an annual tournament celebrating their success in preparation for winter hibernation.
"During hibernation, bears do not eat or drink and can lose one-third of their body weight. Their winter survival depends on accumulating ample fat reserves before entering the den," according to explore.org. In late summer and fall, the biggest males often weigh more than 1,200 pounds. Female adult brown bears usually weigh about a third less than males.
For each match-up, voters choose the bear they believe best exemplifies fatness. The bear with the most votes advances to the next round, and the last bear standing is crowned champion.
Some of the bears are identified by numbers, but other veteran bears have names like "Chunk," "Grazer," "Holly," and "Walker."
"Otis" is by far the most decorated bear. He has won more Fat Bear titles than anyone. He was the inaugural Fat Bear Tuesday champion in 2014 and Fat Bear Week champion in 2016, 2017 and 2021. Despite being one of the older male bears at Brooks River, he's "an especially skilled angler" and once ate 42 salmon in one sitting.
Voters are encouraged to compare early and late summer photos of the bears to determine which transcends ordinarily large and enters the realm of extraordinarily fat. They're also asked to consider each bear's life history and the unique challenges it faces in order to survive.
Voting opens each day at 12 p.m. ET, and runs through October 11.
The first online fat bear tournament took place in October 2014. Rangers from Katmai hosted a one-day event called Fat Bear Tuesday on the park's Facebookpage. The event was so well received that rangers decided to expand the competition. The first Fat Bear Week took place in 2015.
Rangers choose the contenders based on their life histories and whether they have adequate early and late summer photographs to illustrate the bears' changes in body mass.
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