Voting is now officially open in the 2023 Fat Bear Week competition, celebrating the ability of brown bears to pack on weight for their hibernation cycle in Alaska. To do that, they must gobble tons of fish — and luckily, they live near a thriving sockeye salmon run.
“Essentially those fat stores have to keep them healthy from late October till June,” when the salmon return to the Brooks River, media ranger Naomi Boak of Katmai National Park and Preserve, told NPR.
“We have some of the largest bears on the planet,” Boak said. “The big boars, the biggest guys, can get to be between 1,000 and 1,400 pounds.”
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