Each fall, as bears fatten up for their winter hibernation, Alaska’s Katmai National Park hosts “Fat Bear Week,” where people vote for the park’s fattest bear.
Numbers in the News: Fat Bear Week
COURTESY OF KATMAI CONSERVANCY
2014
The year that Katmai National Park hosted its first Fat Bear Week
COURTESY OF KATMAI CONSERVANCY
800,000
The approximate number of votes cast to choose a winner in 2021
600 TO 900 POUNDS
The weight of a large male Katmai brown bear in the middle of the summer
MORE THAN 1,000 POUNDS
The weight of the same bear by late fall
NPS PHOTO/C. SPENCER
4
The number of times Otis, a 25-year-old male bear, has been voted “fattest bear”
THINK ABOUT IT: How might Fat Bear Week help encourage people to learn more about wildlife?
SOURCE: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
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