Salmon Chomping Champ Wins 2023’s Fat Bear Week

NAVA TABATA

3 years ago

This Tuesday, the winner of 2023’s Fat Bear Week was declared. Fat bear week is an annual online competition run by Katmai National Park and Preserve. Lasting over seven days, it pits 12 brown bears against each other in a bracket to determine, as the name suggests, the fattest bear of them all.

Brown bears have to eat thousands of pounds of food in summer and fall to prepare for their winter hibernation. This is because during hibernation, their bodies slow down and they rely on their stored fat for energy. They can lose a third of their weight during this period, making it even more crucial that they gain lots of fat before settling in to sleep through the winter.

The event celebrates the brown bear’s preparation for hibernation, as well as the environment at Katmai. The area is filled with millions of sockeye salmon, a crucial source of food for the bears and other creatures that call it home.

This year’s winner is 128 Grazer, who has been living in Katmai since 2005. Aside from her recognizable blonde ears and long snout, her distinctive personality was what made her stand out for many voters. She’s one of the most fantastic fishers. Like many other bears in Katmai National Park, Grazer fishes for salmon in the Brooks River. She uses a wide variety of techniques to get her catches, including chasing, scavenging, and overnight fishing.

Not only that, but Grazer has built up a reputation of being a very fierce mother. While this year she’s alone, in past years she’s raised two sets of cubs. She would preemptively attack even larger and more dominant bears to defend her cubs. Bigger male bears like 151 Walker have been spotted avoiding her even now.

Disappointed that you didn’t get a chance to vote this year? Fear not, Fat Bear Week will return in 2024 with another group of un-bear-ably cute contestants.

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