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.
Numbers in the News: Fat Bear Week
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COURTESY OF KATMAI CONSERVANCY
2014
The year that Katmai National Park hosted its first Fat Bear Week
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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
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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