Alaskan’s are known for some unusual contests including the annual reindeer race at the Rondy Festival in Anchorage and the ear pull competition (to test contestants ability to withstand pain) at the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, held in Fairbanks.
Another irregular competition is the Fat Bear Week run by Alaska’s Katmai National Park & Preserve to find the jiggliest brown bear to visit the park’s Brook’s River.
The park explains that’s not about fat shaming but rather a celebration, ‘in brown bears, large amounts of body fat are indicative of good health and strong chances of survival. The bears need stores of fat to help them survive hibernation, which can last for up to half of the year’
‘Over the course of winter hibernation in the den, a bear could lose up to one third of its body mass. In preparation, this time of year the bears are entering hyperphagia, a state in which they eat nearly non-stop.’
It’s a knock-out style competition that pits commonly seen bears on the Bear Cam against one another on the park’s Facebook page to decide which bear indeed, looks the fattest. Photos of four bears are posted each day and the bear whose photo receives the most likes advances to the next round, until one bear is crowned ‘Fattest Bear’ on Fat Bear Tuesday, 8 October.
If you’d like to have your say on who the heftiest contender is visit facebook.com/KatmaiNPP
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