Every year in October, the Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska hosts Fat Bear Week. Fat Bear week is an annual celebration and acknowledgment of the competitors' success in preparation for hibernation. Despite popular belief that bears sleep all winter, this isn’t true. Hibernation of bears is the lack of eating and drinking during the winter months. Bears must fatten up before the winter begins to survive when the abundance of resources they are used to in the summer won’t be available. Before winter, bears feast on berries, fish, grain, and small mammals. While bears in the south tend to hibernate for shorter periods due to cold weather, bears in the north, like the competitors in Katmai, can hibernate for up to eight months!
This Bear 747 was declared the winner! 747 was first identified in 2004 as a subadult male brown bear, currently putting him in his twenties. Since then, he has become the largest bear in Katmai park, with access to the best fishing locations. He is now a two-time Fat Bear Week champion, as he also won the competition in 2020. With all of this fame and privilege comes competition, however. 747 has multiple scars on his body and is often seen at the riverside with his ears torn up. While his size is enough to keep most competitors away, skirmishes over feeding and breeding opportunities can often cause fights between brown bears, or perhaps, in 747’s case, the other bears are jealous of his Fat Bear crown! To learn more about this year's Fat Bears, visit Katmai’s website at https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/fat-bear-week-2022.htm.