Gone fishing.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s just a particularly fat bear.
As I write this, we are nearing the end of Fat Bear Week, a tournament honoring the fattest bears over at Katmai National Park.
Katmai, located at the tip of Alaska, accommodates thousands of brown bears and sockeye salmon. From June til October, the bears gorge on said salmon in preparation for winter hibernation, gaining considerable amounts of weight in the process. You can actually watch the bears fish over at explore.org through a 24-hour live stream; I highly recommend it. It is peak cinema.
Anyway, as they have for the last eight years, Katmai’s rangers select the bears that have packed on the most pounds and hold a single-elimination, bracket-style election*, letting the public decide who is most worthy of the prestigious title of fattest bear of the year.
Voting uninformed, however, is never a good idea. Luckily, every bear is presented with a name, photo, and a biography, a short description of their quirks and characteristics. I feel as if, over these past few days, I have truly gotten to know all of these bears on a deeply intimate, personal level. It’s whats on the inside that matters, too, not just what’s on the outside (which is a layer of fat).
Having successfully fulfilled my Fat Bear Week civic duty, I now feel it is my responsibility to share with you, lucky reader, my definitive top three ranking of the Fat Bears, in order of fatness.
In third place: 901
A relative newcomer, born in 2016, 901 has taken the world by storm. Her motives are altruistic, however, as the extra weight she’s put on may go towards rearing cubs this winter – bears without enough fat are unlikely to give birth. Yes, female bears give birth while they hibernate. I did not research the logistics.
Whatever the purpose, 901 has sized up significantly, going from a bony underling to an absolute monster. I bet if she stood on that rock now, it would simply crumble.
In second place: 435 Holly
A Fat Bear veteran, 435 Holly has been making the rounds since first being identified in 2001. Since then, she’s raised several rounds of cubs, even adopting another cub along with her own in 2014. Having been on her own since sending her most recent cub off this past spring, she’s had a little more time to work on herself, and the results have shown. And yet, she remains humble, head bowed, carrying herself with all the quiet humility of someone that has seen and felt it all.
Side note: the website describes her fur as a “lightly toasted marshmallow colored”, which also merits bonus points. Anything described as a “lightly toasted marshmallow colored” elicits feelings of warmth and hot chocolate and all things good, even fat bears.
In first place: 747!
Aptly named after the plane, 747 exemplifies fatness. Clocking in at a hefty 1400 pounds, he rules over Brooks Falls, Katmai’s most famous bear-watching spot, with an iron grip, having solidified his spot as the alpha male earlier this summer.
Beyond his sheer weight, however, 747 is even more deserving of the title because of his progression. He looks so forlorn in the first photo, all wet and dripping like that, almost like a sad puppy. Three months later, he’s not playing around. I’m a little intimidated just watching him barrel his way downstream from the comforts of my computer screen. If I were a fish, I’d be scared.
Ultimately, Fat Bear Week is just a warm-up for the real deal. Having just turned eighteen a month ago, I’ll be voting in the midterms this November. I’m trying my best to keep up with election news and candidate profiles, though admittedly, it’s getting harder and harder to find time to do so. What’s most important, however, is that I’m voting in the first place. Though my parents are both citizens, and despite my consistent nagging, they haven’t voted in any of the last presidential elections, much less the midterms.
I’m determined to break the cycle, starting with Fat Bear Week.
*If you’d like to read more about the tournament and view all candidates/winners (again: highly recommended), you can check it out here: https://explore.org/fat-bear-week.
Hello Evelyn! I have never heard of Fat Bear Week, but I loved learning about it in your blog. Not only did I gain insight into this competition, but I appreciated that you were sharing your interests. The fact that you also included the top three bears was my favorite part. 901 truly took me by surprise, especially the before and after pictures. Do the female bears gain weight so they can get pregnant or simply for hibernation? The second bear, Holly, sounds like a wonderful mother. I love the humility she carries despite the fact that she has experienced more than most of us ever will. The final bear, 747, who is also the winner is most definitely an alpha. In the first photo, he looks sad, almost as if he is nothing without his weight. 1400 pounds is an insane weight. If I were a fish I’d work on my speed. Overall your blog was fun and interactive. I appreciated that you also included a call to action at the end. It is so important that we all use our voices to vote now that we’re becoming adults. With that being said can you repeat, where we vote for Fat Bear Week and when it takes place? Overall great work!
Hi Evelyn, I’ve never heard of this Fat Bear competition, but it was very interesting to read about it. I’ve always thought that bears look kind of fat and this competition is a funny way of making fun of bears even though they are much stronger than humans. I honestly think that 901 should’ve taken first place as her transformation was crazy, imagine the number of fish she would’ve had to eat to gain that much size. However, I cannot assume that 901 is fat because she could just be very ripped. I think that 747 should be second place because he doesn’t look as big as 901. Also, 901 was already pretty big in his before picture, so his size isn’t that impressive considering the size he was at before. I think that 901’s transformation is more impressive than 747’s, however, I think that 747 would easily beat 901 in a fight. The way he stands aggressively in the second picture makes him seem like the alpha. I think that is amazing that Holly has had so many cubs and is still in third place in my opinion. Her transformation is also crazy as she looked like a wolf in the before picture and a rhinoceros in the after picture.
Hey Evelyn! First off, I am a fan of your blog’s design. It is quite slick. Second off, FAT BEARS! They are adorable!! I think your pictures were extremely necessary in understanding not only the character development within these bears, but the journey they have gone through. I would love to imagine a life where I get to take pictures of fat bears. Perhaps retirement. When I went to Alaska this summer, I was quite upset that I did not see any bears. Maybe because I was on a ship the whole time… Anyways, my point is, if I had seen a bear as fat as the ones in your blog, man that would have made my summer. Holly, in my opinion, is the cutest bear with her perky little ears and marshmallow-color, but 901 certainly deserves the credit she gets. Look at that bulk! Have you ever searched up what a Kodiak bear looks like? They are these insane menacing looking bears that live on Kodiak Island. I believe the heaviest one they have ever weighed was 2,200 pounds.
I quite like bears, they are very cuddly looking but not cuddly in reality. Looking at them hunt or play or nurture their family is very heartwarming though. When I saw this title was about fat bears, I knew I had to read it. I did not know there was a Fat Bear week or a tournament for fat bears though so that’s interesting. Maybe there is no such thing but the idea is very silly, I like it a lot. Thank you for the website! I will indeed check it out since I like watching bears. I have never seen a bear hunt in real time so this would be a nice experience. The Katmai rangers are very silly, but I love that idea a lot. I wonder if other places do it too? I hope more national parks would adopt that tournament. It seems like a good way to raise public attention to bears. It’s very cute that the bears have biographies. I like how the rangers are not treating them like just animals! I like how Holly is a warm toasted marshmallow, that is very cute. 747 is a really big bear, I think I would be scared too to be fair.