"Since 2014, Katmai National Park has hosted a March madness-style competition inviting the public to vote on their favorite bear from 12 of the park's most robust residents. This year, the Fat Bear Week tournament and voting will take place September 23-30, and the champion will be crowned on September 30. The competition's junior division just concluded, and its winner, 128 Jr, will join 11 other contenders in the main bracket."
"The answer is that, right now, Katmai National Park's brown bears are in a state of "hyperphagia," a period of time when their bodies' satiation cues are dimmed in order to encourage them to bulk up as much as possible before winter. Ever since the park turned this biological process into a livestreamed competition more than a decade ago, it's fostered a cult fanbase on Reddit, Twitter, and now TikTok. Last year, more than a million votes were cast in the bracket."
Fat Bear Week is an annual Katmai National Park competition to crown the rotundest brown bear. The tournament began in 2014 and uses a March-madness-style bracket with public voting among 12 bears. The 2025 tournament runs September 23–30, with the champion crowned on September 30. Junior division winner 128 Jr will join 11 other contenders in the main bracket. Bears are in hyperphagia, a seasonal drive to bulk up before winter that dims normal satiation cues. An extraordinary salmon run supplied abundant food, leaving brown bears well-nourished and visibly rotund, and livestreams across social media draw massive public voting.
Read at Fast Company
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