Fat Bear Week!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! It’s fall, of course, which is the very best season, and we’re a month away from Halloween, which is the very best holiday. But it’s also Fat Bear Week, which is the best.
What is Fat Bear Week, you ask? Well, it’s a celebration of all the brown bears at Katmai National Park and their hard work eating salmon all summer to get as fat as possible before hibernation. Then for a week we humans get to vote for the bears we think are the fattest in a March Madness style bracket competition. And it’s really fun, especially if you love fat bears as much as I do.
As someone who is hooked on the bear cams, I tend to vote based on who my favorites are, whether they’re the actual fattest or not. So for me, that’s always my favorite, Holly (pictured above in the quick drawing I did on my iPad this afternoon), and her adorable and awesome and always entertaining yearling. I fell in love with both of them last year when I first started watching the bear cams. I mean, look at them, how can you not love them?
Holly’s cub shenanigans on the lower river #bearcam right now. pic.twitter.com/QV7KIUNyHR
— explore.org (@exploreorg) September 28, 2021
Alas, Holly was a first round matchup against fierce bear mom, Grazer, who not only got herself, but her two yearlings very, very fat, and at the time I’m writing this, with 39 minutes of voting time to go, Grazer has a commanding lead. But it’s okay! Grazer would be a worthy winner. If she wasn’t pitted against my favorite, Holly, I likely would have voted for her, and I’ll likely be pulling for her the rest of the way. Bring it home for all of the fat bear moms and cubs, Grazer.
If you want to get in on the Fat Bear Week action, you can find profiles of all the bears and vote over at fatbearweek.org. The competition runs through October 5th, so there’s lots of time to get in on the fun!
As for me, it’s time to get back to drawing more bears. And Christmas stuff, I suppose, since that’s rapidly approaching. But also bears. Bears are the best.
If you slept through your yoga class, this bear is here to help. pic.twitter.com/8IYq8taUN6
— explore.org (@exploreorg) September 4, 2021
(You totally should have made it into the competition, chonky 901.)
