chunky cubby chasers
September 28, 2021 2:17 PM Subscribe
Welcome everyone, to Fat Bear Week 2021!
A celebration of hard working conservationists, beautiful natural spaces and the biggest and fattest bears possible, Fat Bear Week has been a staple of Katmai National Park since 2014.
Last year's champion, Bear 747, recently had his volume estimated using a long distance scanner, which put him in the region of 1416lbs! What a whopper!
Explore the Hall of Champions and meet the wee bears of this year's new Fat Bear Week Jr competition (won just days ago by Bear 132's spring cub, who now gets to join the adults in the main competition). Just take a look at that fat bear behind!
You can watch the competitors (and pick your fave) as they chow down on hundreds of pounds of salmon every day on explore.org's webcams. Voting opens tomorrow, so get ready to enjoy some real fuzzy fatties!
Previously: 2018, 2019, 2020.
A celebration of hard working conservationists, beautiful natural spaces and the biggest and fattest bears possible, Fat Bear Week has been a staple of Katmai National Park since 2014.
Last year's champion, Bear 747, recently had his volume estimated using a long distance scanner, which put him in the region of 1416lbs! What a whopper!
Explore the Hall of Champions and meet the wee bears of this year's new Fat Bear Week Jr competition (won just days ago by Bear 132's spring cub, who now gets to join the adults in the main competition). Just take a look at that fat bear behind!
You can watch the competitors (and pick your fave) as they chow down on hundreds of pounds of salmon every day on explore.org's webcams. Voting opens tomorrow, so get ready to enjoy some real fuzzy fatties!
Previously: 2018, 2019, 2020.
FAT BEAR WEEK FAT BEAR WEEK FAT BEAR WEEK
posted by sciatrix at 2:29 PM on September 28, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by sciatrix at 2:29 PM on September 28, 2021 [13 favorites]
Grazer's ears are back!
posted by praemunire at 3:30 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by praemunire at 3:30 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
.
posted by firstdaffodils at 3:35 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by firstdaffodils at 3:35 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Holly will always be my queen (heart eyes emoji)
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 3:52 PM on September 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 3:52 PM on September 28, 2021 [3 favorites]
From My Modern Met: Photographer Reveals the Secrets of Photographing Brown Bears in Alaska [Interview]. In the summertime, "as long as you stay still and don't do stupid things, you can easily shoot them at a very close distance like 30–60 feet.”
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:59 PM on September 28, 2021
posted by MonkeyToes at 3:59 PM on September 28, 2021
I really expected something completely different. Something involving Guerneville, CA in the summer and what have always from afar appeared to me as The Best Parties Ever.
These bears seem fun, too.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 4:25 PM on September 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
These bears seem fun, too.
posted by armoir from antproof case at 4:25 PM on September 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
I highly recommend getting coworkers in on a friendly bracket competition. It's refreshing to argue the relative chonk and cuteness of bears.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 5:04 PM on September 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 5:04 PM on September 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
Anyone else caught some of the early season cam events where there were like 18 or 20 bears all hanging out at the falls at once? That was so cool to see!
posted by wotsac at 5:15 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by wotsac at 5:15 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Over at Defector, Luis Paez-Pumar has declared himself for Walker, a bear of substantial chonk. And really, what better use of a sports blog is there that to focus on the highest competition we have to follow: bears getting fat and frolicking in the river?
I like the case put forth for Walker, but the Spring Cub is absolutely adorable. 747 caught my attention, but I don't know, I'm not seeing a lot of "frolick" in that absolute behemoth.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:16 PM on September 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
I like the case put forth for Walker, but the Spring Cub is absolutely adorable. 747 caught my attention, but I don't know, I'm not seeing a lot of "frolick" in that absolute behemoth.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:16 PM on September 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
Surely 747 leads in the "eponysterical" category.
posted by wordless reply at 6:03 PM on September 28, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by wordless reply at 6:03 PM on September 28, 2021 [7 favorites]
as long as you stay still and don't do stupid things, you can easily shoot them at a very close distance like 30–60 feet
Intentionally putting yourself 30 feet from a bear sounds like one of those "stupid things" you should avoid doing...
posted by solotoro at 6:16 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
Intentionally putting yourself 30 feet from a bear sounds like one of those "stupid things" you should avoid doing...
posted by solotoro at 6:16 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
My high school buddy started the very big Facebook group with the bracket (there's still time to enter and join tonight!). It was originally just a fun thing for 20 or so of us from our hometown and it's grown to over 10,000. The bracket is tons of fun; it's an honor system $10 donation to the charity of the winners' choice.
posted by rossination at 6:49 PM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by rossination at 6:49 PM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]
Why are fat bears important?(Emphasis mine)
Each winter, curled snug in their dens, brown bears endure a months-long famine. During hibernation, bears will 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. Katmai’s brown bears are at their fattest in late summer and early fall after a summer spent trying to satisfy their profound hunger.
Bears gorge on the richest, most easily obtainable foods they can find.
As an overweight hirsute creature preparing for the long dark depths of winter myself, I think I can safely say I have never identified so strongly with a mission statement.
posted by Mayor West at 7:09 PM on September 28, 2021 [11 favorites]
It's a true feat of survival and it calls to mind the humpback whale:
Mom and her baby will share the strongest of bonds for one year. Her newborn calf is 12-15 feet in length and weighs 1-2 tons. The calf will put tremendous demands on her body as she nurses the baby with up to 100 gallons of very thick, rich, yogurt like milk a day. She provides this to her baby while she has not eaten in months. Mom must prepare and strengthen her newborn for the long migration to Alaska so she will stay in the warm, predator free waters of Hawaii for an extended time to accomplish this.posted by sjswitzer at 8:02 PM on September 28, 2021 [4 favorites]
Yogurt-like milk, huh. I wonder --
posted by Countess Elena at 8:14 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Countess Elena at 8:14 PM on September 28, 2021 [1 favorite]
lemme stop ya right there
posted by ZaphodB at 9:11 PM on September 28, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by ZaphodB at 9:11 PM on September 28, 2021 [6 favorites]
I was at Katmai once. The really big bears would grab fish from smaller bears, eat only the brain (fattiest) and then toss the rest down stream. I’m Team 747 ride or die!
posted by kerf at 12:01 AM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by kerf at 12:01 AM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
Oh, sure, when the BEARS do it, it's cute.
posted by amarynth at 5:40 AM on September 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by amarynth at 5:40 AM on September 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
747 is the Alabama Crimson Tide of Fat Bear Week. Always tough to beat. Grazer, Otis and Holly are making a run, though.
posted by azpenguin at 6:43 AM on September 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by azpenguin at 6:43 AM on September 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
It's interesting to hear how other people pick for their brackets. Are you choosing based on the literal weight and size of the bear, i.e. the inarguable fattest of the bears? Or is your pick based on personality, gumption or nostalgia for a certain bear's big fuzzy ears? Are you more interested in the technical and cerebral aspects of the competition, the weigh-ins, the stats, the heft and volume of the bears? Or are you in it for the fighting spirit and character of these champions among mammals?
Personally I'm here for Holly and Beadnose. 747 is a huge bear but I'm in for the underdogs (or.. bears..).
posted by fight or flight at 7:11 AM on September 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
Personally I'm here for Holly and Beadnose. 747 is a huge bear but I'm in for the underdogs (or.. bears..).
posted by fight or flight at 7:11 AM on September 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
very thick, rich, yogurt like milk
*clears throat* according to Lactation: a comprehensive treatise. Vol III. Nutrition and biochemistry of milk/maintenance, the milk of the humpback whale has a total solids percentage of 48.4%, of which a full 33% of the liquid-inclusive total is fat content (Jenness 1974).
By contrast, cow's milk has a total solids percentage of 12.7%, of which 3.7% of the total is fat content; yogurt is just cultured cow's milk, but yogurt that has been strained to remove the whey (Greek yogurt) usually has a total solids percentage of about 18.7% and a correspondingly higher fat content (probably about 5%; Chandan 2017).
If we are comparing bear milk to whale and cow's milk, bear milk is rather more similar to whales: a wild sow grizzly bear produces milk with up to 40% solid content, of which about 22% is milk fat (Jenness 1974, which includes a wide range of U. arctos samples including several zoo-maintained subspecies). Not quite as extreme as the whale, but of course a grizzly bear eats a wider variety of things and often enjoys a more herbivorous diet than humpback whales.
posted by sciatrix at 7:33 AM on September 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
*clears throat* according to Lactation: a comprehensive treatise. Vol III. Nutrition and biochemistry of milk/maintenance, the milk of the humpback whale has a total solids percentage of 48.4%, of which a full 33% of the liquid-inclusive total is fat content (Jenness 1974).
By contrast, cow's milk has a total solids percentage of 12.7%, of which 3.7% of the total is fat content; yogurt is just cultured cow's milk, but yogurt that has been strained to remove the whey (Greek yogurt) usually has a total solids percentage of about 18.7% and a correspondingly higher fat content (probably about 5%; Chandan 2017).
If we are comparing bear milk to whale and cow's milk, bear milk is rather more similar to whales: a wild sow grizzly bear produces milk with up to 40% solid content, of which about 22% is milk fat (Jenness 1974, which includes a wide range of U. arctos samples including several zoo-maintained subspecies). Not quite as extreme as the whale, but of course a grizzly bear eats a wider variety of things and often enjoys a more herbivorous diet than humpback whales.
posted by sciatrix at 7:33 AM on September 29, 2021 [4 favorites]
What we really need is more information on what whale milk vs. bear milk would taste like. I'm imagining bear milk might have a better flavour profile with the range of foods they eat compared to a certain krilly aftertaste in whale milk.
posted by fight or flight at 7:40 AM on September 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by fight or flight at 7:40 AM on September 29, 2021 [3 favorites]
I mean, go talk to people who eat bear meat? They tend to have strong opinions on how bear meat tastes depending on what that bear has currently been eating; I would expect milks to be similar, surely. Or goat milk people, they might have good insight also.
posted by sciatrix at 7:53 AM on September 29, 2021
posted by sciatrix at 7:53 AM on September 29, 2021
I checked, goat milk people do taste like goat milk
posted by bigbigdog at 7:59 AM on September 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by bigbigdog at 7:59 AM on September 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
It's interesting to hear how other people pick for their brackets. Are you choosing based on the literal weight and size of the bear, i.e. the inarguable fattest of the bears? Or is your pick based on personality, gumption or nostalgia for a certain bear's big fuzzy ears?
For me it's all about the summer/fall transformation. Just HOW MUCH MORE FAT is this bear now? Bonus points for drastically different winter fur.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:19 AM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
For me it's all about the summer/fall transformation. Just HOW MUCH MORE FAT is this bear now? Bonus points for drastically different winter fur.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:19 AM on September 29, 2021 [1 favorite]
I checked, goat milk people do taste like goat milk
posted by bigbigdog at 10:59 AM on September 29
What do dog people taste like?
posted by cynical pinnacle at 12:28 PM on September 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by bigbigdog at 10:59 AM on September 29
What do dog people taste like?
posted by cynical pinnacle at 12:28 PM on September 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
chicken
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 3:12 PM on September 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 3:12 PM on September 29, 2021 [5 favorites]
For me it's all about the summer/fall transformation. Just HOW MUCH MORE FAT is this bear now?
"It's like, how much more fat could this bear get? The answer is none. None more fat."
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 4:39 AM on September 30, 2021 [6 favorites]
"It's like, how much more fat could this bear get? The answer is none. None more fat."
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 4:39 AM on September 30, 2021 [6 favorites]
Otis was so skinny when he finally showed up this year! You can see all his ribs in the before picture, but then he buckled down and got to napping and fishing like the true champion he is. Team Otis all the way this year, though my favorite bears of the season are 909 and her cub. I love how twitchy she is while fishing. We have the live stream on at work and my coworkers quickly dubbed her Teen Mom Bear, which we later learned was pretty accurate.
posted by deludingmyself at 7:20 AM on September 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by deludingmyself at 7:20 AM on September 30, 2021 [3 favorites]
I wish I as better at picking out who's who on the live cam (which, by the way, is incredibly soothing during this incredibly bad patch I'm going through this month and probably next). I could root for them all, but I'm always gonna have a special place in my heart for Holly because she was my first fat bear heartthrob. Though I have to adore Otis. How is anyone expected to choose????
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:14 PM on September 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by kitten kaboodle at 12:14 PM on September 30, 2021 [4 favorites]
kitten kaboodle, it may be too late in the season for this year, but my coworkers and I learned to ID more of them by checking in on the live comments once we'd decided a bear was distinctive enough that we might recognize them again. 409 was obvious even without her cub because she looks so distracted all the time, and she does this thing where she holds her left leg with her right paw while waiting for fish to jump over the lip. One day we saw another similar sized bear holding its right leg with its left paw, so we turned on the comments and learned that it was 409's sister, 410. Awww.
posted by deludingmyself at 7:38 PM on September 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by deludingmyself at 7:38 PM on September 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
How's everyone's brackets looking? I was disappointed to see Holly knocked out so early but Otis' staying power (even against last year's champion) is giving me hope!
posted by fight or flight at 2:24 PM on October 3, 2021
posted by fight or flight at 2:24 PM on October 3, 2021
I've called the left side of the bracket perfectly. Unforrunately, on the right side I had 747 going the distance...I mean c'mon, he's so chonky he doesn't even need a nickname, his number itself is appropriate for his size! But Otis was just too much bear to beat this year, I guess.
posted by solotoro at 8:47 PM on October 3, 2021
posted by solotoro at 8:47 PM on October 3, 2021
I was #TeamHolly on the left, very disappointed she was eliminated so early - c'mon! On the right #TeamOtis so I have hopes of ultimately prevailing.
posted by Preserver at 6:49 AM on October 4, 2021
posted by Preserver at 6:49 AM on October 4, 2021
Looks like Walker is our first finalist going into Fat Bear Tuesday tomorrow. Will Otis join him?
In other news, Fat Bear Week has official support from Wonder Woman.
I'd also like to commemorate Katmai National Park's twitter team, who are hitting it out of the park with their hilarious and educational commentary. I'm learning so many new words to describe these delightful pudgy eating machines.
posted by fight or flight at 8:44 AM on October 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
In other news, Fat Bear Week has official support from Wonder Woman.
I'd also like to commemorate Katmai National Park's twitter team, who are hitting it out of the park with their hilarious and educational commentary. I'm learning so many new words to describe these delightful pudgy eating machines.
posted by fight or flight at 8:44 AM on October 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
It's official, we have our champion for 2021! Say congratulations to the King of Chonk, 480 Otis!
To quote Zack Stenz on Twitter:
One last thing: from today through until Saturday, if you donate to Katmai's Otis Fund to help support their conservation and education efforts, explore.org will match the donation up to $10k!
posted by fight or flight at 3:11 AM on October 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
To quote Zack Stenz on Twitter:
An elderly bear with one remaining canine tooth who showed up nearly a month late with his ribs sticking out put in the work, rain or shine, using a minimum of movement & energy expenditure in his salmon fishing to bulk up with the best of them. A legend. An inspiration. Otis.Well done to everyone who had the big guy in their brackets!
One last thing: from today through until Saturday, if you donate to Katmai's Otis Fund to help support their conservation and education efforts, explore.org will match the donation up to $10k!
posted by fight or flight at 3:11 AM on October 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
747 and Walker were robbed. Otis? A previous three time winner relying on nostalgia and a feel good story? He's barely even chonk.
(I have more feelings about this than I thought...)
posted by Ghidorah at 8:21 PM on October 6, 2021
(I have more feelings about this than I thought...)
posted by Ghidorah at 8:21 PM on October 6, 2021
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posted by toastyk at 2:23 PM on September 28, 2021 [2 favorites]