By Ashton.w
Fat bear week is here at Katmai National Park. The bears keep getting fatter and the winners were announced.
What is Fat Bear Week? Fat Bear Week is competition where 12 bears are monitored to see how fat they give before hibernation and the fattest Bear wins!
“I think that Fat Bear Week is a fun way to give different kids and adults around the country a chance to voice their opinion on what bear is the fattest,” said PIA 7th grader Cayden Mazza.
Fat bear week was started and popularized in 2014 by some park rangers at Katmai National Park, Alaska. At first it wasn’t a week at all. It was called Fat bear Tuesday in 2014 mostly as a joke because he saw someone post some pictures online of the same bear just at different times of the year. The pictures highlighted how drastically his fat changed. so many people voted and participated in Fat Bear Tuesday that they expanded it, turned it into a week and got more bears. Then Fat Bear Week was born.
“I am glad so many people participated in it because I think Fat Bear Week is really funny and fun,” said PIA 5th grader Aleeya Williams
A small competition between the bears in PIA was held before they announced the real winners. It was down to the finial 4 bears; 128, 32, 435, and 901.
“I think bear 23 is going to win because his fat is throughout his body, not just his neck,” said Mazza. “He is also a younger bear and thus has more time to get fat.”
“Fat bear week is fun because I get to see the bears get fatter over time and vote on which bear is the fattest with my friends,” Williams said.
The winners of that competition were 128 in first, 32 in second, and 901 in third. The winners of the actual competition were 901 in third, 32 CHUNK in second, and the real winner of fat bear week 2023 is 128 Grazer!
This year’s Fat Bear Week was fun and if you didn’t get to vote this year you can next year on explore.org and congratulations 128 Grazer!