It’s Fat Bear Week in Alaska and, for the first time, the bracket includes whole bear families.
Rangers at Katmai National Park and Preserve said they included entire hefty households to celebrate mother bears who must work extra hard to fatten not only themselves but also their cubs. The park also said a record number of bear families feasted on salmon at Brooks River this summer.
Fat Bear Week fans like Rebecca Mahan said they support the new additions.
“Moms obviously never get enough credit, so it’s kind of fun to see them getting more credit in the bear world,” she said.
Bear Family 132 features a mother bear and her three spring cubs. She has become one of the most experienced bears on the river.
Mahan is following Fat Bear Week all the way from Ireland. Each year, the bracket-style competition draws fans from all over the world who vote for their favorite beefy brown bear. Last year, more than 1.5 million people weighed in from more than 100 countries.
This year’s winner will be crowned next Tuesday. The chubby competitors are 11 solo adults, including defending champ Chunk, and five bear families that each compete as a team.
Park ranger Sarah Bruce said the families’ cubs are really cute and extremely fun to watch.
“The spring cubs are always my favorite bears,” Bruce said.
(Catch the cubs on the park’s livestreams.)
Meet some mamas
All of the bear families are known by a number — 132, 284, 610, 806, 901.
Bear 806 with her adopted cub and biological cub.
While all bears overcome challenges to get fat, Bruce said, Bear 806 and her cubs have an especially notable story.
“She adopted a 2-and-a-half-year-old cub,” Bruce said.
It’s rare for a bear to adopt cubs, according to the park. Bear 806 also has a cub who she birthed this spring.
“The blended family shows 806’s behavioral flexibility and willingness to extend her devotion beyond her biological cub,” the bear’s bio says.
As far as size, the blended bear family’s cubs aren’t little by any means. Cubs can weigh up to 200 pounds by the end of their second season. The adopted cub, nicknamed Biggie, looks like a fluffball. But his mom’s personality isn’t necessarily warm and fuzzy. Bear 806 killed and partly ate the offspring of another Fat Bear contestant, Bear 909, in July.
One of Bear 901’s cubs disappeared from Katmai National Park over the summer, park officials say. Her surviving cub is a chunky one.
Tiffany Weeks in Minnesota is rooting for another family: Number 132 and her three spring cubs.
“It’s hard to get fat when you’re taking care of other people,” Weeks said of mother bears. “132 has to split all of the fish that she catches with her triplets, and she has to nurse triplets in the prime of summer.”
The triplets are small, round and pudgy.
“Those cubs are fat little meatballs,” Weeks said.
Other adult competitors are mothers, but their cubs have grown up. Bear 910 adopted her sister’s cub and raised it alongside her own. She now lives alone “and has used the opportunity to fish where and when she wants,” the park says.
Mahan, the fan in Ireland, nicknamed her “Auntie Bear” and is cheering her on.
“It started because she looked really rotund,” Mahan said. “She’s an aunt and I love being an auntie. I am out fly fishing, and then I worked with adopted kiddos, so it was kind of a great parallel.”
Other heavyset hopefuls
Bear 910 isn’t the only one with a devoted fan base. The Katmai bears have become celebrities over the years, so much so that they broke the internet Tuesday, when voting opened. The contest saw the biggest first day turnout in history, according to the park, leading some to experience technical delays.
“Apparently the internet was not prepared to handle this much fat bear,” the park said on Facebook.
Weeks, from Minnesota, was thrilled to hear about the turnout.
“It just means more people are discovering this and it is, at the end of the day, a fundraiser for Katmai Conservancy, which supports the national park,” she said.
Along with the family, Weeks is also cheering on Number 151, a large male bear nicknamed Walker. His size and experience give him an advantage, according to his bio.
“I think some of these older bears, we could just miss our opportunity to vote for them and give them their well-deserved win if we don’t take it,” she said.
Rangers said a bear’s participation in Fat Bear Week requires photos in the spring, fall and a solid side profile, showing how big their bellies have gotten. Walker’s body is shaped like a lightbulb, Weeks said.
Some bears have names — Marshmallow, Studious, Chunk, Backpack, Walker, Bucky and Gully. Rangers say staff stopped giving bears nicknames about a decade ago to keep their wild identity.
Marshmallow, Bear 131, is one of a few Katmai bears with a nickname. Her online bio says she has never been observed with cubs.
If “Auntie Bear” is eliminated, Mahan said she’ll root for Marshmallow, a blond-eared, short-muzzled brown bear, whose fur turns grizzled brown by late summer.
“She’s a good looking bear,” Mahan said.