![]() ![]() It’s difficult to know what kind of impacts the heat and weather patterns of this summer will have on future runs of salmon. The question is pointed toward the future. Right now, there are enough salmon to go around. The last few documented salmon runs have shown high numbers - two years ago it reached a record-breaking 62.3 million and 2021 broke that record again with almost 65 million sockeye. Is there enough salmon? What’s the impact on available resources? This is an exciting, new, non-invasive way to collect information on the bear’s volume - especially because weighing bears is not an option. When the bears were standing at the top of the falls or in the river wafting to catch a fish, they were still enough that this technology worked well. ![]() As an experiment, it was used on bears at Katmai’s Brooks Camp! This was a challenge as the animals had to stay still and not move long enough to complete a scan. Terrestrial Lidar scanning technology is used almost exclusively in civil engineering fields to scan the interior of buildings, roads and gravel stockpiles to get volume measurements. Wild bears have always been challenging to measure. This is where they select the most calorie-dense parts of the fish to eat, such as the brain, skin and roe, leaving the less fatty fillets behind. During this time the bears practice a technique called high grading. One bear was spotted eating 40 salmon in a single sitting. Leptin, the chemical that tells the body it’s full, is suppressed which allows for the bears to eat until it’s time to sleep. Most of the weight is put on in the late summer once bears enter hyperphagia. The fat of the salmon is what allows for such tremendous weight gain in a limited window. Some bears can eat dozens of sockeye salmon each day, with each salmon packing about 4,000 calories.Ī coastal brown bear’s diet during the summer consists primarily of salmon with the addition of sedge grasses and berries. The bears enter a medical state known as hyperphagia in which they eat non-stop and can gain up to four pounds in a single day. How can they eat so much? What’s on the menu? Boak, National Park Service.īeadnose 409 was the 2018 Fat Bear winner. And we think any fashion blog would agree that these bears look fabulous and are runway ready!īear 747 trudges through the water at Katmai National Park. The more bulk they put on, the more likely they are to survive the long, cold months. A fat bear is a healthy bear! Fattening up as winter approaches is a matter of life and death for the bears: relying on stored fat for energy, they can lose up to a third of their body fat as they slow down for the winter. How is bulking up beneficial to bear survival? ![]() Holly, a perennial Fat Bear Week favorite, was the 2019 Fat Bear winner. However, Fat Bear Week is a subjective competition, so be sure to vote and campaign for your favorite!īear 747’s weight gain between July and September is always impressive. You can base your vote on many factors, such as the bear’s growth, extenuating circumstances, or which bear you think is the largest. To make sure you’re making an informed choice, meet the bears, learn about previous champions or watch a livestream at the bears of Brooks River. Your vote decides which bear will be crowned the fattest of the year. For each pairing of bears, you will be given the opportunity to vote on the bear of your choosing. 5, 2021.īy the end of the week, only one well-fed ursine will receive the title of the fattest bear. Matchups will be open for voting between 12-10 p.m. Fat Bear Week is fun, but it also brings up really important questions about survival and how we’re studying and learning more about these amazing bears.Ĭelebrate the success of Brooks River’s world-famous bears during Fat Bear Week by placing your vote. In just a few months, the bears have gorged on enough salmon to pack on some serious pounds. 5, 2021, your vote will decide who is the fattest of the fat! What is Fat Bear Week?įat Bear Week is a single elimination tournament in which Katmai National Park and Preserve invites its online community to compare photos of bears from when they first visit Brooks Falls in the spring to photos of the same bears at the end of summer. Every fall, Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska hosts Fat Bear Week, an annual tournament celebrating the success of the bears at the park’s Brooks River. ![]()
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