The Fat Bear Week finals are here. Which fat bear will reign supreme?
It's the happiest time of the year — Fat Bear Week! This year's event takes place from Sept. 23-30, and Mashable will be following all the ursine activity. Katmai National Park and Preserve’s brown bears (also known as grizzly bears) spent the summer gorging on 4,500-calorie salmon, and they've transformed into rotund giants, some weighing more than 1,000 pounds. So, the Alaskan park is once again hosting its beloved annual competition to crown the fattest of the fat bears.
Welcome to Fat Bear Week at Mashable! Each fall, Katmai National Park holds a competition as Alaska’s brown bears finish fattening up for their long winter hibernation. This year, Mashable is getting in on the salmon-munching action. Check back with us all week as we follow the fat bear face-offs each day, and remember to get your votes in for each round. Happy fishing!
After six days of strong competition, the Fat Bear Week finals have arrived.
Katmai National Park, where these wild bears live and hibernate, amusingly calls the pinnacle of the week-long contest "Fat Bear Tuesday."
This year's Tuesday match features two profoundly fat bears, both of whom clearly exploited a Brooks River that teemed with 2018's exceptional and long run of 4,500-calorie salmon.
The showdown features Bear 409, known as "Beadnose," a former Fat Bear Week Champion who delighted the internet last week after Katmai posted images of her dramatic summertime fattening. In years past, Bear 409 has successfully raised cubs. But this year, the cub-less bear didn't need to sacrifice any fish to her largely helpless offspring.
Her competitor, Bear 747 -- who really has no need for a nickname -- is the fattest bear Katmai ecologist Mike Fitz has ever seen.
"He seems to be more hippopotamus than bear at times," Katmai ranger Andrew Lavalle noted last week.
Voting opened at 10 a.m. ET on the Katmai Facebook page, and the winner will be announced at 7 p.m. ET.
To vote, simply click on the images of the bear you choose as the 2018 champion, and then "Like" that image. Your "Like" is your official vote.
To help you place an informed vote, see the ursine comparisons below.
Here are other images of each bear, to clear up any uncertainties as to which bear has fattened up the most this summer.
Whoever becomes the crowned champion, each of these bears -- all 13 in the competition -- have shown to be well-prepared for the long, unrelenting, Alaskan winter.
They won't eat for six months, and during that time will lower their metabolisms in profound ways.
In their coma-like state, the bears gradually consume their ample fat stores, and awake each spring in remarkably good health. But when they emerge from their dens, both bears 409 and 747 will be quite skinny.
They'll likely return to Katmai Brook's river and start fishing, obsessively, once again.
Topics Animals
Mark was the science editor at Mashable. After working as a ranger with the National Park Service, he started a reporting career after seeing the extraordinary value in educating people about the happenings on Earth, and beyond.
He's descended 2,500 feet into the ocean depths in search of the sixgill shark, ventured into the halls of top R&D laboratories, and interviewed some of the most fascinating scientists in the world.
