The livestreamed bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve — of Fat Bear Week internet fame — devour salmon over the summer to outlast the long, harsh winter famine. Last year’s Fat Bear Week champion, sizable bear 747, has already succeeded in growing impressively fat in 2021. In fact, he’s so big that recent footage shows him struggling to ascend a riverbank.
Katmai’s Brooks River, where the explore.org cameras broadcast live, has been flush with salmon this season. In July, bears crowded the river to feast on 4,500-calorie fish.
And bear 747 — the largest and currently most dominant bear of the river — has used his girth and influence to exploit the best fishing spots in a hyper-competitive bear world, which means lots of calories. The footage below shows 747 laboring up a commonly-used bear trail.
Bear 747 is in his salmon-eating prime. Rangers have spotted him catching and devouring 15 fish over the course of just a few hours. Last August, the live cams also captured him, flush with fish and fat stores, struggling up the riverbank.
The fat bears are a conservation success story. Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game ensures bounties of fish make it up into wild watersheds like Katmai’s. This keeps Katmai’s lakes and rivers, which are protected from harmful exploitation and development, flourishing with life. Alaska’s Bristol Bay saw its biggest run of sockeye salmon on record this year.
“This is a story about a very healthy ecosystem,” Naomi Boak, the media ranger at Katmai National Park and Preserve, told Mashable in 2020. “It’s about salmon that have cool enough and fresh enough water to thrive.”
