It’s Fat Bear Week in Alaska and, for the first time, the bracket includes whole bear families.
Read more UAF project aims to reduce US dependence on imported critical minerals
Rangers at Kamtai National Park and Preserve say they included entire hefty households to celebrate mother bears who work extra hard throughout the summer — fattening up not only themselves, but also their smaller cubs, to survive winter hibernation.
Fans like Rebecca Mahan say they like the new additions.
“Moms obviously never get enough credit, so it’s kind of fun to see them getting more credit in the bear world,” she said.
Mahan is following Fat Bear Week all the way from Ireland. Each year, the bracket-style competition draws fans from all over the world who vote for their favorite beefy brown bear. Last year, more than 1.5 million people weighed in from more than 100 countries.
This year’s winner will be crowned next Tuesday. The chubby competitors are 11 solo adults, including defending champ Chunk, and five bear families, who compete as a team, and Park ranger Sarah Bruce said the families’ chubby cubs are really cute and extremely fun to watch. (Catch them on the park’s livestreams.)
A record number of cubs were observed on Brooks River this year, where they bulk up on massive sockeye salmon runs.
“The spring cubs are always my favorite bears,” Bruce said.
Meet some mamas
All of the bear families are known by a number – 132, 284, 610, 806, 901.
While all bears overcome challenges to get fat, Bruce said Bear 806 and her cubs have an especially notable story.
“She adopted a 2-and-a-half-year-old cub,” Bruce said.
It’s very rare for a bear to adopt cubs, according to the National Park Service. Bear 806 also has a cub who she birthed this spring.
“The blended family shows 806’s behavioral flexibility and willingness to extend her devotion beyond her biological cub,” the park says.
As far as size, the blended bear family’s cubs aren’t little by any means. Cubs can weigh up to 200 pounds by the end of their second season. The adopted cub, nicknamed Biggie, looks like a fluffball but his mom’s personality isn’t necessarily warm and fuzzy. Bear 806 killed and partly ate the offspring of another Fat Bear contestant, Bear 909, in July.
Tiffany Weeks in Minnesota is rooting for another family: Number 132 and her three spring cubs.
“It’s hard to get fat when you’re taking care of other people,” Weeks said of mother bears. “132 has to split all of the fish that she catches her triplets, and she has to nurse triplets in the prime of summer.” The triplets are small, round and pudgy.
Read more One woman’s donation is bringing a new library to downtown Anchorage
“Those cubs are fat little meatballs,” Weeks said.
Other adult competitors are mothers, but their cubs have grown up. Bear 910 who adopted her sister’s cub and raised it alongside her own. She now lives alone “and has used the opportunity to fish where and when she wants,” the park says.
Mahan, the fan in Ireland, nicknamed her “Auntie Bear” and is cheering her on.
“It started because she looked really rotund,” Mahan said. “She’s an aunt and I love being an auntie. I am out fly fishing, and then I worked with adopted kiddos, so it was kind of a great parallel.”
Other heavyset hopefuls
The Katmai bears have become celebrities, so much so that they broke the internet Tuesday, the first day of voting. The contest saw the biggest first day turnout in history, according to the park, leading some to experience technological delays.
“Apparently the internet was not prepared to handle this much fat bear,” Katmai National Park and Preserve said on Facebook.
Weeks, from Minnesota, was thrilled to hear about the turnout.
“It just means more people are discovering this, and it is at the end of the day a fundraiser for Katmai Conservancy, which supports the national park,” she said.
Along with the family, Weeks is also cheering on number 151, Walker, a large male bear whose size and experience gives him an advantage, according to his biography.
Weeks said Walker winning would be a lifetime achievement for the older bear.
“I think some of these older bears, we could just miss our opportunity to vote for them and give them their well-deserved win if we don’t take it,” she said.
Rangers say a bears’ participation in Fat Bear Week requires photos in the spring, fall and a solid side profile, showing how big their bellies are. Walker’s body is shaped like a lightbulb, Weeks said.
Some bears have names – Marshmallow, Studious, Chunk, Backpack, Walker, Bucky and Gully. Rangers say staff stopped giving bears nicknames about a decade ago to keep their wild identity.
If “Auntie Bear” is eliminated, Mahan said she’ll root for Marshmallow, a blond-eared, short muzzled brown bear, whose fur turns grizzled brown by late summer.
Read more Mixed signals for housing costs across Alaska
“She’s a good looking bear,” she said.