Nature Shorts: Drop Everything, it's Fat Bear Week

Today, in my morning browse of NPR, I read a wonderful article entitled, "Fat Bear Week Is Here. Take A Look At What To Expect And How You Can Celebrate."

What does this mean for you dear reader? Well everything, or at least it means you have the opportunity to vote on what brown bear you think is the fattest that lives at the Katmai National Park & Preserve in Alaska, a place where there are far more bears than people.

In a series of best-of-one matches somewhat resembling March Madness, visitors to the preserve's website can vote on the bear they think is the fattest. Why are these bears so fat? They're gearing up to hibernate in the winter months. The late summer and early fall are when bears are the fattest in preparation for the long winter months.

There is an astonishing amount of excellent content you should consider checking out. My favorite would have to be the biographies of different bears. There's a large bear whose number designation is 747 who was said to grow into his number designation which is shared a Boeing jet. There's also Otis, who has won three times in the past and I think of as the dynasty "team" or bear.

If that wasn't enough, there's even a Youtube live stream of the preserve.

Anyway, wishing a very happy fat bear week to all who celebrate.

747, a large, male brown bear. Photo from: https://explore.org/meet-the-bears#bear-747