Numbers in the News: Fat Bear Week

Illustration of a bear with text on it, "Fat Bear Week"

COURTESY OF KATMAI CONSERVANCY

Each fall, as bears fatten up for their winter hibernation, Alaska’s Katmai National Park hosts “Fat Bear Week,” where people vote for the park’s fattest bear.

2014

The year that Katmai National Park hosted its first Fat Bear Week

Illustration of a paper with three bear faces and a check mark next to one of them

COURTESY OF KATMAI CONSERVANCY

800,000

The approximate number of votes cast to choose a winner in 2021

600 TO 900 POUNDS

The weight of a large male Katmai brown bear in the middle of the summer

MORE THAN 1,000 POUNDS

The weight of the same bear by late fall

Photo of a large bear in a stream

NPS PHOTO/C. SPENCER

4

The number of times Otis, a 25-year-old male bear, has been voted “fattest bear”

THINK ABOUT IT: How might Fat Bear Week help encourage people to learn more about wildlife?

SOURCE: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

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