The time has come to show support for the Queen of the Falls, the HBIC of Brooks River; the one and only 128 GRAZER!! Whereas her opponent started out the season pear-shaped, Grazer returned a skinny sow with two hungry 2.5 year olds in tow.
She then rose to IMMENSE FATNESS while caring for, and even nursing, her giant daughters. I mean, look at this!
She doesn’t even need to sit to look fat AF, unlike some bears.
Look at her! A true, beautiful orb of a bear!! She is at least as fat as Holly, and she did it all while looking out for her girls, not just for herself. No bear works as hard as Grazer, and no bear can boast her gains!
Today, my friends, I implore you to go to https://explore.org/fat-bear-week and VOTE GRAZER!
Voting is open until 9pm EST!
Happy Fat Bear Week! A favorite event among the Special Collections team, Fat Bear Week celebrates the resilience and survival of Katmai National Park’s brown bear population. Running October 4 – 10, folks are invited to virtually visit Katmai and vote for their favorite fat bear. The park provides bear biographies, stats, and comparison photos between June/July and September so that viewers can make informed decisions before voting and learn more about the ecosystem of Katmai. The bear with the most votes at the end of the week will be crowned Fat Bear Champion!
In celebration of Fat Bear Week, we are showcasing Eddie’s Bear written by Miska Miles (1889-1986) with illustrations by John Schoenherr (1935-2010), and published in Boston by Little, Brown in 1970. Eddie’s Bear is a cautionary tale about the strength and aptitude of hungry bears waking up from hibernation. A young Eddie happens upon a bear in Spring hoping they will become friends, but as the story unfolds readers are reminded that “a bear thinks he owns the world” and are unpredictable in their interactions with humans. The drama is complimented by Schoenherr’s lively illustrations depicting truly fat bears acclimating to waking life.
Midjourney's take on Mexican legend Andres Moreno, a cop who ultimately weighed 980lbs. Strange how rain seems to have turned him into a new person. Also "heavy rain" was automodded now, which is fine because rain works perfectly well
Choose the fattest bear of the year! Some of the largest brown bears on Earth make their home at Brooks River in Katmai National Park, Alaska. Brown bears get fat to survive and Fat Bear Week is an annual tournament celebrating their success in preparation for winter hibernation.
Fat Bear Week 2023 is October 4 - October 10. Your vote decides who is the fattest of the fat. Matchups will be open for voting between 12 - 9 p.m. Eastern (9 a.m. - 6 p.m. Pacific). Download your bracket to predict your own fat bear winner.
This is a single elimination tournament. For each match-up, vote for the bear you believe best exemplifies fatness. The bear with the most votes advances to the next round. Only one will be crowned champion of Fat Bear Week. Learn more about the history of Fat Bear Week.
2023 Fat Bear Week
This year, Fat Bear Week starts on October 4 and concludes on Fat Bear Tuesday, October 10. In addition to voting during this week-long tournament, there will be a series of online chats on explore.org featuring Mike Fitz, explore.org's resident naturalist, and rangers from Katmai. These chats focus on both the individual bears and Katmai's healthy ecosystem. Throughout the season, you can also tune in to the explore.org bear cams, which offer unprecedented access to the lives of the bears of Brooks River. There are also special live events on a variety of topics hosted weekly throughout the season.
Who's who in the bracket? We will reveal the bracket live here at 3 PM AKDT/7 PM EDT on October 2.
More photos can be found on Katmai's Flickr site.
Schedule of events:
October 2: Fat Bear Week bracket reveal live at 3PM AKDT/7PM EDT
October 3: Premiere of Fat Bear Week in the Classroom video series on explore.org
October 4: Live Chat at 3PM AKDT/7PM EDT– Welcome to Fat Bear Week*
October 4 – 10: Fat Bear Week voting open**
October 10: Live Chat at 3pm AK – Fat Bear Tuesday (end of Fat Bear Week)*
*All live chat events are hosted on explore.org live chat channel.
**All voting takes place at www.fatbearweek.org
[graphic, photo, and all information in this post from the Katmai National Park & Fat Bear Week websites]
The only summer that can surpass white boy summer is this one right here, and I for one am looking forward to the Brooks Falls gang and explore.org bringing Fat Bear Summer to life
Today (05/10/23) is Grazer's first matchup in Fat Bear Week 2023! It's time to come out and support the HBIC of the falls, the only sow to crack the top 4 of the bear hierarchy even without cubs, the Queen of Katmai, 128 Grazer!!
This year, Grazer successfully emancipated her 3.5 year old twins, now numbered 428 and 429, who have gone on to become plump bears in their own right! Single once more, she dedicated herself to fishing and fatness. In a lean year, where the salmon run was late and not as abundant as it had been for the past few years, Grazer found-- no, earned success. While many other bears struggled to find fish, this peerless angler went to work to find the precious few productive spots. She was the first bear to catch a fish on cams this year, and she just never stopped. Day and night (more often night, later in the summer) she slammed those salmon, and went from a skinny sow to a behemoth bear. Her neck disappeared. She became a little tiny bear face on a big fat body. I have seen her fall look compared to that of a tardigrade, and honestly? Yes.
Perfection.
And that's not even touching on her other amazing qualities, such as how her fierce reputation as a mother bear not to be trifled with has carried over into her single life! She is able to displace other, much larger bears from her desired spots, often without doing anything other than sowing up. She commands respect.
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But she is also tolerant of other family groups, even allowing one of 910's cubs to 'share' fish with her. And of course, she is a heart stoppingly beautiful bear! Need I even add that she is endorsed by explore.org's own Mike Fitz??
Grazer has deserved the crown the past 3 years. Even while nursing and protecting cubs, she was immense. And in this lean year, her skills have allowed her to flourish into glorious fatness once again. It's time for a new head to wear the crown. It's time to go to fatbearweek.org and vote GRAZER! Voting is open from noon to 9 PM eastern time.
FBW day 2! Yesterday 806 jr and 901 came out on top! Today 128 Grazer is up against 151 Walker and 164 Bucky is against 284 Electra
Will we have an upset of the blanace of power this year? Walker has always been one of the biggest bears in the river, but I don't think there's any competition as to who packed on the pounds. Mama bear Grazer is practically having to roll herself into the stream at this point!