There are fat bears. And then there are bears that get so fat, they have trouble walking.
The apty-named 747 is one of these bears. He’s the biggest bear many wildlife-watchers at Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve have ever seen. And he is the fattest bear in the park’s 2022 Fat Bear Week contest, an annual celebration of these animals’ successes in the callous wilderness. (You can, and should, vote, by the way. Katmai crowns its official winner based on votes from the public.)
As a former park ranger at Katmai, I’ve seen 747. I’ve cowered behind a fence as he’s lumbered by. But don’t take it from me. Take it from a Katmai bear expert who diligently observes these bears each year, and recently wrote a book on these specific animals called The Bears of Brooks Falls.
« Friends, humans, and ursids, let us stand in awe of a true competitor, » writes Mike Fitz, a former Katmai park ranger and currently a resident naturalist for explore.org, the organization that livestreams the bears. « A candidate with conviction. A candidate with strength. A candidate that stands up for what he believes. A candidate the size of a double-wide refrigerator. This Fat Bear Week vote for the mighty 747. »
« 747 returns to Brooks River every summer as a giant and just keeps getting bigger, » added Fitz, who has watched 747 eat 15 large sockeye salmon (some 67,000 calories) over just a few hours.
In recent years, a ranger has described 747 as being « more hippopotamus than bear at times. »
The images below show 747’s transformation this summer. Keep in mind that the « fatter » image (on right), showing a beefed up 747, was snapped by a Katmai ranger on Sept. 6, a month ago. He’s even bigger now.
In a hypercompetitive bear world — where even the largest, most dominant bears must tussle for the best fishing spots — bear 747 has continually proven successful. He’s a veteran bear (he’s around 20, which is older for a brown bear). He’s skilled at catching sleek, fast-moving salmon. He’s not typically too aggressive, but apparently has just enough assertiveness to command the best spots. And most importantly, he’s huge. That makes him one of the river’s most dominant bears. Most bears yield prime fishing territory to him.
« Although dominant bears can maintain their rank in the hierarchy through aggression, 747 typically keeps his status by sheer size alone, » explains explore.org. « Most bears recognize they cannot compete with him physically and they yield space upon his approach. »
Bear 747 ate thousands of fish this summer, which translates to many millions of calories. A fresh sockeye salmon provides some 4,500 calories, and scientists estimate brown bears similar to 747 can eat over 6,000 fish in a season. 747 has been busy.
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And, of course, so have all the other bears of Katmai. Eating ensures winter survival. These animals lose up to one-third of their body weight during the winter famine. They subsist entirely on their fat stores. Many of these bears — the likes of Holly (bear 435), Otis (bear 480), and Grazer (bear 128) — return each summer because they know how to survive. They’re excellent at catching fish, avoiding conflict, and generally preparing for their long winter hibernation.
A fat bear is a healthy bear. All these bears are champions. Just one happens to be the fattest.
