Brown Bears fishing at Brooks Falls, Katmai National Park and Preserve
Photograph courtesy of the National Park Service (NPS)/N. Boak
Just when you think you have seen and heard it all . . .
In the online October 3, 2020 New York Times, reporter Johnny Diaz described Fat Bear Week at the Katmai National Park and Preserve, in southwestern Alaska. This event showcases the biggest of the Park’s brown bears; it began in 2014 as Fat Bear Tuesday. Was this a clever play on Mardi Gras, perhaps?
In past years this competition was hosted on the park’s Facebook page. In an effort to enable those without a Facebook account to participate, this year the voting platform moved to a website hosted by park partner, Explore.org, to help reach a broader audience who can vote. Along with the contest, this website offers many bear cams and still photographs of bears and the other wonders in the Park.
Before discussing the contest, here is some background about Katmai National Park and Preserve. It is southwest of Anchorage and encompasses 4.1 million acres.
What is so noteworthy about this place is that it is large in absolute size - - but small in comparison to the rest of Alaska. If you look at the following map, it contains millions of acres, But this vast landscape is only a tiny sliver of the state!
The Park has an estimated population of 2,200 brown bears. According to Amber Kraft, the Park’s Interpretation and Education Program Manager, all grizzly bears are brown bears, but not all brown bears are grizzly bears. Grizzly bears and brown bears are the same species (Ursus (U.) arctos), but grizzly bears are currently considered to be a separate subspecies (U. a. horribilis).
Even though grizzlies are considered to be a subspecies of brown bear, the difference between a grizzly bear and a brown bear is fairly arbitrary. In North America, brown bears are generally considered to be those of the species that have access to coastal food resources such as salmon. Grizzly bears live further inland and typically do not have access to marine-derived food resources.
Besides habitat and diet, there are physical and (arguably) temperamental differences between brown and grizzly bears. Large male brown bears in Katmai can routinely weigh over 1000 pounds (454 kg) in the fall. In contrast, grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park weigh far less on average. There have been no documented cases of grizzly bears in Yellowstone weighing over 900 pounds (408 kg). Additionally, grizzly bears seem to react to humans at greater distances than brown bears.
From a visit to the Park’s website and reading Diaz’s article, it is evident that Fat Bear Week has many fans. In fact, Kraft said, “Going into Fat Bear Tuesday some 406,056 votes have been cast in 2020!” According to the Times’ article, Kimberly Daggerhart of Asheville, North Carolina so loves the bears and the contest that she dresses up for Halloween as her favorite bear.
And speaking of Mr. Diaz’s writing . . . Before coming to the Times, he wrote for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. There must be something in the water in Florida newsrooms. The following observation by Diaz, that the bears that do not advance to the finals, “can, well, go back to eating,” is a comment that reminded me of his former colleagues Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry.
The Katmai staff use all of this congenial hoopla and fun to make important points about the brown bear’s life cycle - - and the value of the park itself. According to Kraft, the contest, “engages the public in learning about the phenomenon of hyperphagia, where brown bears gorge themselves from summer into the fall to prepare for winter hibernation.” Bears must consume enough calories so they can survive winter while hibernating. Bears getting ready to hibernate can eat at such a pace that they put on four pounds per day.
The Park’s website states, “Adult males need to grow large to dominate the best fishing spots and secure mating opportunities. Female bears need to gain weight for their own survival as well as to support the birth and growth of cubs.”
Bears are opportunistic, omnivorous eaters. They seek rich, easily obtainable foods. The Park’s website goes on to say that, “In Katmai National Park, that most often means salmon. Dozens of bears gather at Brooks River to feast on salmon from late June until mid-October. Perhaps no other river on Earth offers bears the chance to feed on salmon for so long.”
An unnamed brown bear catches a salmon; human anglers are jealous - - but are staying far away.
Photograph courtesy of NPS/N. Boak
The Park’s bears can get so fat because of the richness of Katmai National Park and Bristol Bay, Alaska. Learning about the fat bears on the Park’s website will pull readers into the appealing and unique character of the park and bay; Bristol Bay, for example, is home to the largest, healthiest runs of sockeye salmon remaining on the planet.
Fat Bear Week is possible through a partnership between Katmai National Park and Preserve, explore.org and the Katmai Conservancy.
Since 2012 audiences around the world have been able to enjoy the bears of Brooks River live streamed on explore.org’s Bear Cams. This experience is available at https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls
The Katmai Conservancy is the official nonprofit fundraising partner of Katmai National Park and Preserve. The conservancy supports Katmai's unique ecosystems, scenic character, and associated natural and cultural resources by promoting greater public interest, appreciation, and support through education, interpretation, and research. Membership, donations, or online purchases directly support Katmai's research, education, and visitor service priorities.
The contest website includes before and after bear photographs, showing the 12 bears Park staff consider the largest in the spring and then in September. The bears are grouped in brackets, an ursine version of the NCAA’s basketball “March Madness.
Unlike March Madness where teams advance after winning a game, bears advance based on people voting. Mike Fitz, the Park’s Resident Naturalist, offers contest participants the following voting advice:
Overall fatness and body size are only two of many factors you can use to determine who you vote for. You can consider a bear’s annual overall growth like that experienced by cubs and subadult bears. Both subadult bears and cubs grow proportionally more each year then even the biggest adults. Perhaps you want to weigh your vote toward bears with extenuating circumstances such as a mother’s cost of raising cubs or the additional challenges older bears face as they age. A mother bear's ability to gain weight is made more difficult because she must provide for herself and the welfare of her cubs. In short Fat Bear Week is a subjective competition and there is no one correct set of criteria your vote should be based on.
The finalists in this year’s contest are Bear 32, nicknamed “Chunk,” and Bear 747, who has no nickname but, as the following photos show, is the bear equivalent of a Boeing 747.
The top photograph shows Chunk on July 5, 2020. The bottom photograph shows Chunk in September.
Top photograph courtesy of NPS/T. Carmack; Bottom photograph courtesy of NPS/N. Boak
Park staff first identified Chunk, a male bear in 2007 as an independent, and chunky-looking, two and half year-old. He has become one of the largest adults at Brooks River, where bears gather to hunt salmon, with an estimated weight of over 1,100 pounds.
With his size and strength, Chunk is in the top tier of the bear hierarchy. This allows him greater access to mating opportunities and fishing spots. Like most large bears, Chunk is not hesitant to displace others from the resources he wants.
However, his behavior can also be enigmatic. In recent years he’s shown a tendency to wait patiently to scavenge leftover salmon and even play with other bears. These are two uncommon behaviors for a dominant bear to display.
The top photograph shows Bear 747 on June 30, 2020. The bottom shows him in September, 2020
Top photograph courtesy of NPS/N. Boak. Bottom photograph courtesy of NPS.
When 747 was first identified in 2004, he was relatively young, only a few years old and unable to compete with larger bears for the most preferred fishing locations. Since then, he has grown to become one of the most dominant bears during salmon runs - - - and a skilled and efficient angler. Only rival males of comparable size, of which there are very few, can challenge him for the best fishing spots.
Although dominant bears can maintain their rank in the hierarchy through aggression, 747 typically keeps his status by sheer size alone. Most bears recognize they cannot compete with him physically and they back away when he approaches. He was estimated to weigh more than 1,400 pounds in September 2019. He looks to be at least that big this year.
By the time you read this, it may be too late to vote. But you can still visit Katmai’s website and see if Chunk or “747” won. Perhaps more importantly, you can go on to tour the park via website, photo galleries and the bear cams - - to see an amazing place on the West Coast.
