'Fat Bear Week' celebrates the best of the bears

Brut America

People can't get enough of Fat Bear Week, a week in the fall when bears get extra chunky before hibernation, and humans get to vote for their favorite...   This is Fat Bear Week, explained.

Transcript

00:00Yo, it's that time of year again. Fat Bear Week!

00:10The National Park Service hosts a vote to pick which one's the fattest.

00:14It's the chonkiest of chonks.

00:15They even have a live stream to watch the bears eat

00:17and sliders to see how much weight the bears put on.

00:30We even have a bracket so it's like March Madness but cooler.

00:38Fat Bear Week takes place in Katmai National Park in Alaska,

00:41known for its huge brown bear population.

00:44These bears are working day and night to get fat, fat, fat for the winner.

00:53Bears hibernate from late fall into early spring.

00:56They'll pretty much stick around until all of the salmon is gone.

01:00If there's no food source and nothing for them to eat,

01:10then it's time to build a den and take a nap for the winter.

01:17Bears aren't actually true hibernators.

01:19They go into a state called torpor,

01:21which is just a slowing of the heart rate and metabolism.

01:25So it would be very easy to wake a bear up if you came across their den.

01:30Bears actually give birth in the den in early spring.

01:39They will nurse and nurse their little cub until they're ready to emerge from their den.

01:52This year I'm really liking bear 32 aka chonk.

01:55It started in 2014 as a single day for Fat Bear Tuesday

01:59and is now a week-long event.

02:12I'd say the most positive outcome of Fat Bear Week

02:15is kind of showing the world this pristine ecosystem

02:18that still exists in Katmai National Park.

02:20We're in Bristol Bay.

02:22It's home to hundreds of thousands of sockeye salmon.

02:24It's the last wild sustainable sockeye salmon run in the entire world.

02:28Because of these salmon it allows these bears to get so fat and healthy and happy

02:33and it's really cool to see that that place still exists.

02:36It's great to bring people to this spot even though it's virtual.

02:40Give them a place to care about.

02:49Otis is an old dude so I'm gonna root for him for Fat Bear Week.

02:58you

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