Why Do Katmai's Bears Get So Fat? | Fat Bear Week 2022

IT’S FAT BEAR WEEK EVERYONE! This is the week when Katmai National Park, and thousands of us around the world, celebrate the spectacle that is very fat bears. Festivities include Katmai National Park’s live cams (check them out here: www.explore.or..., where you can watch bears catching salmon in real time, and educational opportunities like naturalist talks. But the real draw of Fat Bear Week is the bracket. Each year, rangers devise a bracket that pits fat bears against one another (virtually, of course) as they battle it out for the title of Katmai's Fattest Bear. You can actually use the link below to participate by voting on the bear you think should win. Be sure to leave a comment below with your winner, for trash talking purposes.
explore.org/fa...
But, why are these bears so fat?
We all know bears hibernate, and need to put on as much weight for the winter as possible. But I wanted to look at these fat bears in the context of the Katmai ecosystem at large and see how these fat bears reflect the deep interconnectedness of the Bristol Bay Watershed. This video is an exploration of those connections, and how fat bears fit into a truly wild and incredibly biodiverse ecosystem.
Enjoy!